Spring Concert

musicteach

musicteach

New member
So our final concert of the year (as well as mine at my school!) is fast approaching! (Actually, it is Friday night, seven sharp!) Anyways, I thought you might would like to see our concert lineup (in performance order).

Concert Band

Concert Choir

Strings Orch. (which I will be playing cello for)

Combined Concert Band/Strings

In all honesty, planning this final concert, it has truly--finally--sunk in that I'm leaving. It's been a great 12 years (the class of 2013 will be my 12th class of seniors I've taught here), we've had a lot of memories. My sincerest hope is that my students give their new band director a decent chance. She's a decent lady, I had the pleasure of having lunch with here this past week. She's a little bit quirky--she's a french horn player, what do you expect!--but ultimately I think she'll do my students justice. I think I'm leaving them in good hands, and I have no regrets about the past twelve years.
 
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teddy

teddy

Duckmeister
Quite a lineup. Looks like you are going out with a bang (so to speak). It must be a sad time for you in some ways. What is your next project?

teddy
 
musicteach

musicteach

New member
teddy said:
Quite a lineup. Looks like you are going out with a bang (so to speak). It must be a sad time for you in some ways. What is your next project?

teddy
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That is the plan good sir! Gotta whip my new program into shape, of course!
 
wljmrbill

wljmrbill

Member
...Great selection and some of my favorites. I hope it goes well for you with your new career move:but don't forget the music too.
 
JHC

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Get some one to make and upload a video of at least part of the concert then post us a link
 
musicteach

musicteach

New member
wljmrbill said:
...Great selection and some of my favorites. I hope it goes well for you with your new career move:but don't forget the music too.
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It's always about the music! Always! Which ones are your favourites?

JHC said:
Get some one to make and upload a video of at least part of the concert then post us a link
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Unfortunately due to school policy, if I commissioned this, I would need the consent of all of the parents involved (which I can already tell you won't happen for the sake that there's still several parents that don't like me). However, on the flip side of the coin, if one of the parents/students records a section of the concert, and uploads it, then I have permission to distribute it as I see fit.
 
wljmrbill

wljmrbill

Member
"It's always about the music! Always! Which ones are your favourites?" REPLY: the circle of life,carnival of the animals, danse macabre, and all of the combined concert band/strings section.
 
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musicteach

musicteach

New member
wljmrbill said:
"It's always about the music! Always! Which ones are your favourites?" REPLY: the circle of life,carnival of the animals, danse macabre, and all of the combined concert band/strings section.
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I have a LOT of favourite music. Music I love hearing and I love performing and conducting. Carnival of the Animals is absolutely one of my favourite pieces of all time, top five definitely. I really wanted to play the entire ~25 minute suite--and I actually suggested to my strings kids "Hey! Let's just play the entire Carnival of the Animals Suite" and I was told they wanted to play some other music as well. It came down to since we aren't going to do all of it, let's at least play two of the movements. So what I did was I said to the strings orchestra, "Okay, here's the deal, I pick one and you pick one." They picked the Lion, and I picked the Elephant. There's so few double bass features out there, that my vote was definitely for the Elephant movement!

Danse Macabre is a very good piece of music. In all honesty, I went into the music cabinet under strings and saw it and it hit me that we've never actually played it while I was here. It's one of my favourites (again) but maybe top 15 or so. We had a little bit of difficulty with it, so I decided that I would let my assistant band director conduct for the strings and I would play cello. One of the trouble spots was probably the violin parts. So I would actually play the violin part on cello. While we were learning the music (and for me it was sort of relearning for the sake it's been so long since I've played it!) I would switch back and forth between parts.

The last one I'm going to comment is Pines of Rome. I was looking in our cabinet of music (there's like 6 filing cabinets of music) trying in all honesty to find material that the 7th and 8th graders could handle but still be a bit of a challenge for them. The reason we do this program--of which I mean merging the different grade levels--is so that the younger kids can see and feel what it's like to play with musicians that are a few years older than they are and that have a little bit more experience playing. Anytime you sit down with musicians that have been playing longer than you, it's a great learning experience. It really is. I love it when I go to MY orchestra, and my stand partner (cello), he's been playing his instrument for sixty years or so I believe. I've been playing cello since I was little, and I've been playing it for forty years, yet I learn something just about every time the man sits beside me. I'm so excited that my orchestra has agreed to join us for Concerto D'amore. For my guys, it's going to be an amazing learning opportunity (they actually joined us for rehearsal today!). But can you imagine the pure awesomeness that the 7th and 8th graders are going to experience? They think it's awesome when they get to play with my students who are only a handful of years older than them at best. But anyways, back to Pines of Rome. Before this, I had never actually played it before. I really hate it when music teachers hands their students music and says to them here learn this without playing it themselves. I prefer to teach by example. So that when one of my students can't figure out how something goes, I can grab my instrument and play it. Anyways, I was playing the music in my living room and my wife slips in and announces that it's her favourite piece. So now I'm like, oh great! We HAVE to play it great otherwise my wife will hold it against me for...well...ever!
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
musicteach! Don't get me wrong, I'm only of Scottish descent, but, but,
why is the Concert Choir beginning with "Loch Lomond"?
Seeing "Abide With Me" next followed by "Sleep" makes the choir boy in me wonder about the overall theme,
if there is one.

Please, don't put French Horn players down, especially females.
My one orchestra leader wouldn't let me play one of their French Horns,
even after I volunteered to buy my own.
He said my lips were too puffy and soft, making it hard to find the tuning,
so I went and bought a pawn shop trumpet that didn't last long.
I liked to sit behind the little waterfall and let the bell stick outside,
trying to sound like Miles Davis playing "Moon, turn the tides, gently, gently, away", by Jimi Hendrix.
I never should have tried sliding down the hydro diversion ramp with it in my hands,
skinny-dipping with some other, uh, free jazz jammers.

And teacher, good luck with your next musical adventure.
 
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JHC

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
The French Horn is a wonderful instrument! I went to a concert by the NZSQ and they had a Guest Horn player (female) join in with them on some works and she blended in perfectly with them to form an interest comb. I was very impressed.
 
musicteach

musicteach

New member
Oh I'm not putting down the horn...actually I'm not entirely sure how you go that impression? As for the choir, well, I don't do themes. But considering of the 80 member choir, 65 of them are also in concert band, and the last piece that the concert band performed was Ghost Train, I wanted to give those students a chance to relax a little without massively stressful singing right after playing.

As for tonight, all went splendidly. Of course, there were a few minor issues, which is to be expected. As they say, things that have never happened before will always appear at the performance. But overall, I'm more than happy with the performance. My students--while they may of stumbled a little--did wonderfully, and performed the very best that they possibly could. I think everybody was a little emotional, including myself. I was quite confused when a couple of my seniors at the very end--before we played Concerto D'amore--came to where I was standing, stole my microphone, and handed me a silver trumpet mouthpiece. I was told that the explanation would come afterwards. So I sat the mouthpiece on my stand and so conducted Concerto D'amore, without a second thought to the silver mouthpiece. Once the music had been done, I went to say my closing statements and our drill writer runs--yes I mean the woman who I haven't seen run in 12 years--onto stage and once again steals my microphone. After a few words about how the money was raised, a student walks out and hands me a beautiful silver Bb trumpet. I was told that it was a joke in sorts because I always pitch a fit--all be it always to the staff--about having a line of gold instruments and then one silver!
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
What can I say, only being the pick tosser that I am?
Your whole scene sounds wonderful, cinematic even.

About putting down the French horn:
"She's a little bit quirky, she's a French horn player, what else can I say?"
Being a little bit quirky doesn't go far in the rock world, so I might seem more dramatic.

Thanks for explaining your song selections, I can understand that.

That must be a beautiful trumpet.
Even as this avatar, the lines of the highlights and shadows look perfect.
You might even be able to set a record for spit distance.
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
music teach! You are far too respectful and restrained.
You didn't get the tuba players to take out the mouthpiece
and stuff a firecracker into the tube for an explosive finale,
or get the colour guard to toss around flaming wooden Strats?
You're not gonna get Katy Perry in the audience if you don't do that.
I won't even get into what she'd do with the cheerleaders.

I heard Ibilta Saxxa was a virtuoso violinist into Nicolo Paganini,
before he was hit by lightning while sitting on a French Louis XII brass bench.
Yeah, even Katy Perry is going off like a skyrocket now.
 
musicteach

musicteach

New member
John Watt said:
music teach! You are far too respectful and restrained.
You didn't get the tuba players to take out the mouthpiece
and stuff a firecracker into the tube for an explosive finale,
or get the colour guard to toss around flaming wooden Strats?
You're not gonna get Katy Perry in the audience if you don't do that.
I won't even get into what she'd do with the cheerleaders.

I heard Ibilta Saxxa was a virtuoso violinist into Nicolo Paganini,
before he was hit by lightning while sitting on a French Louis XII brass bench.
Yeah, even Katy Perry is going off like a skyrocket now.
Click to expand...

I ain't got time to fight no fires! It would be MY luck that the tubas would do this and the curtains would catch fire!
 
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