Orchestra Tonight!

My cello folder, in a Cape Cod setting (my back yard). 
Note provided pencil, a heartwarming touch.

I am just home from orchestra rehearsal, the first rehearsal of the fall season. I am playing with the Cape Community Orchestra, which meets in Harwich, about an hour's drive from where I live. There is another orchestra in town, but that orchestra, which I played with for a year, a couple of years ago, now has auditions and seems to need only three cellists. I am not one of them.

The Harwich orchestra had six cellists tonight, and one or two more may come later. There are no auditions, no fees, and  the music comes in a nice black orchestra folder, complete with pencil! I played with this orchestra last fall, but found it difficult to maintain the schedule.

Wednesday is a very busy work day for me, and I have to finish or I just can't leave (I work at a newspaper--you have to respect the deadlines). So, I am going to make a concerted effort to get everything done by 5 PM so I can arrive on time this year. I did tonight. Last fall, I regularly missed the first piece of each rehearsal. (When I am not rushing off to orchestra, I might linger til 7 or 8 PM).

The music is easier this fall than last. (Possibly I am better, too.) Just challenging enough to make me think that I can do a good job with it with the practice time I have available.

Here is what we are playing:

Die Fledermaus Overture, by Johann Strauss, Jr., edited by Tom A. Kennedy

Two Gymnopedies, by Erick Satie, orchestrated by Claude Debussy

March and Procession of Bacchus, by Leo Delibes, arranged by Merle J. Isaac

Two by Berlin, by Irving Berlin, arranged by Edmund J. Siennicki

Theme from Schindler's List, by John Williams, arranged by Robert Longfield

In a Monastery Garden, by A. W. Ketelbey, arranged by C. Paul Herfurth

Magic Melodies (Falling in Love with Love, Strange Music, I'll Follow My Secret Heart)

Hatikvah, by Nikola Ovanin

Tarentelle in E Minor, by Stephen Heller


The March and Procession of Bacchus, Die Fledermaus, and Two By Berlin have some passages that will need extra practice, but generally I think this is all doable. I will keep you posted. It felt great to be playing in the orchestra again, among friends.