Rethinking the orchestra

Last weekend's performances were fun, though it may not have been wise to play in all four in the same weekend. The two "minor" concerts, one with piano students and the other as a soloist in church, went well, though I did not spend much time preparing the music.

I enjoyed the two orchestra concerts, but, in truth, I had not really mastered the music. I played most of it, but "self-edited" myself out in the places where I could not yet play up to speed. We had a very enthusiastic response to the performances, and I wish I could have take more credit for how well we sounded, but, in truth, we had six cellists when two or three would have been fine, given the total of only 31 players in the orchestra. As I am the fourth cellist, I am feeling a little unnecessary.

There are two other community orchestras in the area, one all strings, and one with a fairly similar make-up to ours. Both play "easier" music and have a more welcoming attitude toward "extra" cellists, so I think I will try one of these other groups in the fall.

For now, I am working on cello duets and small ensembles, and I have to say I am enjoying having the time to work on music other than orchestra music. I learned a lot during orchestra season about using various fingerings and improving my speed (not quite enough), and glad to have the time to slow down a bit and integrate it with the rest of my playing.

Orchestra!

We have spent all summer getting ready for orchestra season, after a series of three preliminary rehearsals this summer. There were endless e-mails over all sorts of things, publicity, music selection and distribution, negotiating with our conductor, fundraising events, etc. Finally, tonight, we had our first rehearsal. It was all worth it.

We have about 35 members--a great turnout; a few days ago we were expecting only 22. We have five cellists. I am sitting in the second chair, but only because the cellist who should be there preferred to sit farther back, and the other two cellists had already picked chairs in the back.

The first chair cellist is a friend, a professional flutist who also plays the cello. She was the one who got me interested in the cello in the first place, when she got some of her adult flute students together with adult student of a cello teacher and a violin teacher. I loved the sound of the flute and cello together and wanted to enhance our flute choir with a cello. (At the same time, my daughter independently decided she wanted to play the cello after we visited my sister and her family, and was intrigued with the cello one of her cousins was playing. So we, my daughter and I, started cello together.)

Our orchestra program for the fall is:

Handel, Overture to Agrappina
Vaughn Williams, Fantasia of Greensleeves
Tchaikovsky, Andante Cantabile
Telemann, Concerto in e minor
Bizet, Symphony in C

We worked on the Bizet tonight. This is a four-movement, 30-minute piece, and we only got through the first three movements in two hours. It sounded good to me though, and it not too difficult on the cello. The Greensleeves, which I haven't even tried yet, looks to be the most challenging, as most of it is in four flats, and there a lots of triple stops and some tenor clef. I will have to try it out this week, should I find the time to practice!

Orchestra news

Well, we seem to have our community orchestra up and running. Rehearsals will start September 18. In the meantime, some of us are playing at an art fair on Thursday, in part to promote the orchestra and in part to raise some funds for it. It's a five-hour arts fair, so we will be taking turns in small ensembles. I am boldly playing cello in a trio or quartet, mostly confident of my new-found grip on intonation (these are easy cello parts in which you can focus on intonation), as well as flute.

I am excited about the orchestra; we have a great group of people organizing it, and a very capable conductor. I am looking forward to playing with the other cellists, most of whom are better than I am. That should help with intonation too.

First Orchestra Rehearsal

Our new orchestra met for the first time last night. We had a good turnout of about 33 people, including 9 cellists, violins, violas, a bassoon, a bass clarinet, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, several trumpets, French horn, and possibly others. We should perhaps change our name to the mostly all cello orchestra.

We played "Sonate 2 da Chiesa" by Corelli and the Rosamunde Overture by Schubert. Both of these are free scores we found online. We were uncertain how many people would show up, and what instruments they would bring, but the random assemblage of players seems to be working out well.

I chanced to meet a young woman visiting from Scotland, a cellist, and invited her to join us (luckily, I have two cellos). She is a great musician, and it was a treat to sit next to her. On my other side was the bassoon player, also a strong player. I didn't get every note, but I played better with their help.

We were pleased with the turnout, with our conductor, and with the beautiful music we produced. It's a good thing, a community orchestra!

9 Cellos

We are starting a chamber orchestra/ensemble group here in town. The idea is that you can play in the larger, coached ensemble and/or break up into smaller groups, which may also be coached. So far we have 9 cellists among 34 people interested. There are about 10 violinists, a viola or two, 2 oboes, several flutes, a clarinet, a horn, a trumpet, and several keyboard players. Sounds like an excellent balance to me!

Just Past the Middle of Nowhere

Long ago, I worked for the state office of energy resources and was part of an official visit to see an ecological research center on the Cape. They worked on renewable energy, agriculture aquaculture, housing and landscapes from 1971 to 1991, after which the site became an ecologically based community.

At the time of our excursion, it seemed to take forever to travel to the center, however wonderful it was, and I remember thinking, when we finally arrived, that it was "in the middle of nowhere."

A few years later (about 12 years ago), we bought a house just down the road from ecology center, which I like to think of as "just past the middle of nowhere." The Cape is not as rural as it used to be, of course, so that description is meaningful only to me.

Here's the point of this reminiscing: our fledgling chamber orchestra will be rehearsing in the auditorium at the former research center. I could walk there, it's so close. Interesting how the site has somehow become so centrally located.

Perhaps, an orchestra

I met with a group of about ten musicians, and a potential coach/conductor/director, last night, all interested in starting a community chamber orchestra. The group seems pretty evenly balanced for a fairly randomly called together group: 3 cellists, 3 violinists, a violist, an oboe player, and a flute/clarinet player, and there are a few other interested people who couldn't make this meeting, as well as numerous people we can invite once we do a few basic things like find some appropriate sheet music and a place to rehearse.

We plan to meet to play in July, and, in the meantime, we'll look for music, etc. Please let me know if you have any ideas for Baroque/Classical/Folk music for strings and woodwinds!

A Far Cry

My friend Carol pointed out an interesting article in the Boston Globe today about a young, professional, unconducted string chamber orchestra called A Far Cry. Here's the link: "No Conductors Need Apply".

Also on that page is a link to a audiovisual slide show on the orchestra, and from there you can find two youtube links:

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings (4th movement)
and
Corelli, Concerto Grosso, Op. 6/9 in F

and another one, with a flute soloist: Quantz Flute Concerto in D

Of course, these are all professionally trained young musicians, but I do like this concept of all the players being collectively responsible for the repertoire and the performance, not primarily the conductor. The violinists and the violists stand during performances, and they move in an independent, yet coordinated, way to the music. And they sound wonderful. They are not actually making any money yet, but hopefully that will come.

They also have a web site and a blog.