Well, I have a wonderful opportunity as a substitute for a community orchestra in the area. I jumped at the chance, of course, and have been excited about it. And the solitary rehearsal that I've been to has been decent, too. We are playing Hanson and Debussy, and I'm playing about 6 crescendo'ed rolls on one and a decent tambourine part in the other. It was fun to work with an unfamiliar conductor, play new and challenging pieces, and also meet some warm-hearted musicians. I have one more rehearsal and then the performance next weekend.
The day of the rehearsal though, me and my friend AJ drove down to St. Olaf to attend a free concert. The band just spent a week in Japan, and they had a hefty repertoire consisting of half American-influenced and half Japanese pieces. They were phenomenal--I haven't seen a live band in a long time, and I was very pleased. I knew a percussionist in the group, they had been working on the pieces for awhile, and had performed at 5 or so concerts half way around the world. Each half of the performance was about 50 minutes, but I was definitely engaged for the whole time. The first included John Williams and Maslanka, and I adored the latter. The second half was basically all Japanese composers that I haven't been exposed to, but they had a great mix of traditional and extremely modern Japanese musical ideas and themes. Of course, they ended with the university staple "Amazing Grace" and an audience-applauding "Stars and Stripes forever." It was a great night.
I miss playing in the back of a large ensemble like that. It's been well over half a year. Sure, I'll cherish the community orchestra! That's been great so far. But I want to have to nail a crash at the end of a rallentando. I want to play the pianissimo bass drum notes that you can only feel, not even hear.
The high school winter drumline that I'm instructing is really going well so far. They had their first competitive show that I've seen, at the home school, and they went out strong. This was tough, considering that they just put the end of one section with the drill this morning. I really enjoy the size of the ensemble, and the kids are expectant and enthusiastic. Pretty soon they're going to be freakishly consistent, too. It's going to be a really exciting second half of the season. I would have killed to have performed a show today, though. I have done many competitions at this same school, and it was pretty nostalgic to be back there for a competition.
I dunno, I guess I just have to be a little bit more patient! I definitely have a lot on my plate in other areas of my life.
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