Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: concert


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Saturday night music

Last Saturday evening I and some of my fellow Clarkston Community Band members, along with a few hundred other people, attended the Southeastern Michigan Wind Ensemble (SEMWE) spring concert. The talent in this group is stunning, it’s members are mostly current and retired music directors. People who have devoted their entire lives to making and teaching music.

I try not to miss any of their concerts, and I’m certainly glad I went to this one.

It turns out they were honoring two of their group who have passed away, Jennifer Ginther who suddenly died last December, and the other our own CCB music director who died in February of this year. Here we go, I thought, sitting out in the audience, time to focus on not crying.

But their choice of music didn’t make me to cry, not outright anyway. It was beautiful, just the kind of music Shelley would program herself. The first piece, Resplendent Glory by Rossano Galante was so very beautiful and, I think, my favorite of the evening. The link above wasn’t from Saturday’s performance, but it gives you an idea of the uplifting piece that made me smile even though I was sad.

I enjoyed all of the music at Saturday night’s concert, but especially a piece played by one of the middle school teachers, Ross Taylor, on the marimba. He was amazing. You’d have enjoyed it too, Concerto No.2 for Marimba and the Wind Orchestra, Movement 3, by David Gillingham. I could only find movement #1 on YouTube, but you’ll enjoy that movement too, and it’s similar to what we heard.

What a treat! We applauded and applauded…and then we applauded some more when he finished. The poor guy had a hard time getting off the stage, we just kept applauding.

In fact the whole concert was a treat. When I left the auditorium after the program I was still missing my friend, our music director, but I was oh so grateful to have spent time in the presence of other people who also loved her, people making music to honor her and Jennifer from a place deep inside each of their hearts.

Then, leaving the building close to 9:00 p.m., we all gasped in awe. The sky was a brilliant pink and gold. I immediately knew, at least for me, that sky was Shelley saying “Good job! I enjoyed it!” I can hear her voice and see her big, beautiful smile.

And so I smiled all the way home.


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Is Christmas early? Or maybe Thanksgiving is late.

Our community band holiday concert is this Thursday. Yes, the day after tomorrow, and before Thanksgiving. It’s never happened like this before.

We’ve only had 4 weeks of rehearsals to prepare, but it’s Christmas music, much of it we’ve played before. It will be fine. In fact, it might just be the perfect way to kick the holiday season off!

So…if you’re in the area, and would enjoy some uplifting music to kick start your holiday season…come on over to the Clarkston High School this Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m. It’s free.

You can have your picture taken with the authentic Santa, and we’ll have cookies afterward too! I personally don’t think you can have a legitimate holiday season until you’ve heard “Christmas Festival” by Leroy Anderson live and in person.

And Santa himself will be directing “Sleigh Ride.” That alone should make you want to be there.

Happy Holidays, everybody! Christmas music, then Thanksgiving. It’s always good to mix things up. Keeps us on our toes!


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Musical distraction

There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Unrest across the globe, a different sort of unrest here at home in the US. Every evening I turn the news on with trepidation, afraid of what I will likely see and hear.

But once a week, on Tuesday night, I get to play music with a bunch of other folks in our local community band. It’s not always stress free. There’s the normal pressure to put together a quality concert, and finding time to practice at home so as not to waste the precious time we have together. And because I’m one of two band librarians there’s additional responsibility too.

But all of that worry and stress slides away when you’re actually making music at your concert. All the musicians show up dressed in concert black, the big, round sound we make together is beautiful, the audience is appreciative. Suddenly all that work becomes worthwhile.

Last night we kicked off our season with a combined concert. The community band played the first half, and the Stardusters dance band followed up, completing the evening.

It was a lot of fun.

Our audience wasn’t big, and I feel sad for those people that didn’t come out. They missed a wonderful evening of fun music and smiles. And donut holes and cider afterward.

To be honest the world could use more fun music and smiles. And I bet, if you’re anything like me, stressing over the state of world and national affairs, you could use some too. My advice is to google ‘fun stuff to do in my town’ and see what you can find. I bet there’s a community group putting together a play or a concert near you.

The holidays are coming, there’s almost certainly going to be live music galore. Make sure you don’t miss it. It’s good for the soul, it supports your local artists and musicians, and it’s definitely worth missing one evening of nightly news.


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Holiday music is everywhere

My mom used to say she wished the radio stations continued to play Christmas music after Christmas day. Back then you had to be in the same room as the radio in order to hear and she didn’t have time to listen before Christmas morning. She had four kids to shop and wrap for and a big holiday dinner to prepare. 

She didn’t have time to enjoy the season until it was over.

The Clarkston Community Band, pictures from the audience perspective taken by my husband.

I wish she could have attended the concert our Clarkston Community Band played last Friday evening. Pretty lights and lush music shaped our theme of “Let there be Peace.” 

“Bugler’s’Holiday by Leroy Anderson

I don’t think there’s a better way to get in the spirit of the season than to go to a live concert, right in your own community, performed by your friends and neighbors. The musicians might not be professionals (though sometimes they are) and the performance might not be perfect (though sometimes it is) but the spirit is real and the motivation is pure.

Friday night songs like “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, “White Christmas” and “I’ll be Home for Christmas” got us all into the right mood. When the audience sang along on a medley of Christmas carols I had to stop playing for a moment and just listen to all those voices joined together. 

Pure magic.

Santa waits in the wings

Yep, Friday night we filled that auditorium with love. Toward the end of the show lots of children came up on stage to ring jingle bells as we played “Here Comes Santa Claus” in the hope they could convince Santa to stop in for a visit.  These kids were very convincing, and Santa showed up right on cue. Their faces, when they realized he was standing right behind them, were priceless. 

More magic.

Excitement builds as they hope for the big guy to arrive.

And then Santa conducted our last piece of music, “Sleigh Ride,” because it’ can’t be a holiday concert without a ride through the snow behind prancing horses, even if it’s all only in our imaginations. 

A perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Friday night we all came together for a moment of celebration and peace, even knowing the world is filled with unrest. We all left that night smiling and you can too. This season, check your local high school’s web page. There’s likely a holiday concert or two near you this very week. Please take time from your preparations to support those musicians. They’d love to see a full house and you’ll be glad you went.

I guarantee there will be magic bouncing off those walls.

Happy Holidays to you all.

Penny and I wish you all a peaceful holiday!


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Impersonating a violin

I’m playing with our local community band again this season and we’re coming up on our first concert. This is not the first time we’ve played Danzon #2, nor the first time we woodwinds have been told to pretend we’re plucking a stringed instrument.

You know, that gentle, short little ping sound the strings make when they put the bow aside and pluck the strings with a finger tip.

All that quiet plunking at the beginning.

As I practice, trying to make that light sound on my clarinet, the reed and my tongue feeling heavy, I wonder. When was the last time a string player was asked to pretend to be a clarinet?

Aha. Didn’t think so.

Less plunking, more crazy fast stuff on page 2. With key signature stuff too.

Walktober update: So far we have 11 posts collected, with a few more in the works, including mine. Let’s see if we can get them all in by Monday November 6th. Let me know if you need more time than that! 🙂

PS: Enjoy the Danzon Piece, played by an orchestra with strings as it was probably meant to be. At 3:21 you’ll see an example of string plucking. But watch it all, it’s guaranteed to make you smile.


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A tale of two concerts

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and along with holiday lights and temporary lots filled with fragrant greens, there are holiday concerts happening in towns everywhere.

Thursday afternoon, while scrolling through Facebook I noticed an announcement for a community orchestra concert in a town just twenty minutes from me. I didn’t know the city of Fenton even had a community orchestra.

The concert was free. What did I have to lose?

Excited to hear the program.

Turns out it was nothing but a win for everyone that attended, both the musicians and those of us in the audience. A multi generational musical organization, much like my own Clarkston Community Band, the group had a wonderful, full, sound, and played a variety of music, some of which most of us recognized.

I couldn’t help but smile through the whole thing.

Was the performance perfect? Of course not. There were times intonation was off, a few, rare, wrong notes. A squeak. But I learned something. I learned that, as an audience member, these small errors didn’t ruin the experience. Each little blip disappeared under layers of beautiful sounds, the overall enthusiasm of the musicians and music director, and the obvious love and support from the people around me in the audience.

A large crowd turned out to support their local community orchestra.

I left the auditorium with a big smile on my face, humming Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Festival, something I’ve played multiple times, but had never heard while seated in an audience.

Testing the sound system in advance of our concert.

And on the drive home I thought about all the concerts I’ve played where I’ve been focused on the parts that didn’t go perfectly, felt bad afterwards because something had gone wrong. The reality is, for most in our audience, the overall experience at our concerts is probably good, maybe even great.

And if members of our audience leave our venue with smiles on their faces, maybe even humming a bit…well…then the concert was a success.

Making our audience smile.

My own Clarkston Community Band played our holiday concert Friday night. We had less than an optimal number of rehearsals, and though I practiced, I was still nervous. The nerves were well founded, as I lost my way on one piece of music, missing almost an entire page of music before I could join back in.

Santa shows up with the world’s largest whip slap percussion instrument!

But the reality is, one 2nd clarinet’s loss of concentration did not ruin the concert. Most likely no one but the clarinet playing next to me even knew. And the overall feeling of the evening was happy, fun, perhaps even joyful.

Sleigh Ride is guaranteed to make an audience smile. Especially with a whip that can be heard into the next county.

Cookies and cider at a reception for Santa afterward didn’t hurt either.

Smiles all around.

Happy Holidays, everyone! May all your days be warm and inviting and fun. And look around your community, there’s likely a group out there that would love to have you in the audience!

I guarantee you’ll be humming on the ride home.


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One More Boo

2016-one-more-boo-flyerIt’s that time of year again. Time for musicians around here to get dressed up and play the first Community Band concert of the season. No we’re not dressing all in black, no tuxes for the guys, no black skirts or dresses for the women.

It’s time to get dressed up. Seriously dressed up.

We’ll be playing our season opener next Tuesday. We’re doing several scary pieces, but perhaps the scariest is Strange Humors by John Mackey. For some of us in the band it’s the stuff of nightmares. Those of us sitting in the back are counting over 100 measures of rest in assorted time signatures. 3/4, 5/4, 4/4. Pay attention or you’ll be lost. Don’t listen to the music, just watch the baton and count.

Count.

We there in the back have marked our music with which instruments are playing during which section of rests that we count. So that when we get out of sync, when we lose concentration for a moment, we might have a chance of getting right. Otherwise we miss our entrance and then all is lost.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

So if you come to our concert (7:00 p.m. at the Clarkston High School, Tuesday November 1) and wonder why we at the back are all focused and serious when we aren’t playing anything you’ll know it’s because we’re counting.

Don’t distract us.

The piece is just over five minutes long; we make our entrance at three and a half minutes. We don’t want to miss it. And yes we’re doing our Halloween concert the day after Halloween.

Because everyone needs One More Boo.

I’m going as a pirate. You’re invited to dress up too.

Middle aged pirates wear glasses.

Middle aged pirates wear glasses.


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Scary concert

Practice practice practice!

Practice practice practice!

Tuesday night was the last rehearsal before our Halloween concert.  I need to practice every night.  Every. Night.  Last night I spent 30 minutes on a few measures of Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz.  It’s all pretty good except for some transition triplets that, counting in two, I can’t seem to get.  And it’s pretty much just us clarinets doing it…so at rehearsal it was mush.  Really bad mush.  I’ve written in the beats of each measure.  I’ve slowed it down.  I’ve counted it in four.  I’ve tongued the triplets to keep track even though it’s not written that way.  Sigh.  I need to figure this out.

We’re also playing Vesuvius by Frank Ticheli.  It’s supposed to represent a volcano.  We aren’t quite there.  I’ve been playing along with a recording of it for a few weeks.  That helps a lot, but still this is one you have to keep counting and not get caught up in listening to anyone else.  Take a moment and listen to it.  It’s a pretty cool piece.  If we had about 3 more weeks of practice it would work out.  But the concert is next Tuesday.

And yes we’re playing some other music that we can get through with less angst.  But I have to say, our concert’s title is apt.  “Things that scare us.”

Cause I’m feeling plenty scared.

Fractured

Fractured