On the last day of May: many members of the senior staff are away in LA for the annual American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL) convention; a few of the less-than-senior staff have vacated to Busch Stadium for the Cardinals-Astros get-away game; and a few others are heading to the Jane Eyre dress rehearsal this afternoon at Opera Theatre, where the SLSO musicians will be toiling in the pit.
On my first day back from a week of vacation, I have spent the morning going through the backlog of e-mail messages while listening to the morning rehearsal of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (opening at Opera Theatre June 15). Bassist Chris Carson stuck his head in my office and told me the music was wonderfully urban and gritty.
I will be on vacation until after Memorial Day, so I will try and leave some worthwhile information.
St. Louis, firmly planted in the (former?) fly-over zone of the United States, has been attracting a fair amount of positive national press of late. USA Today featured an article about the reinvention of downtown St. Louis a week or so ago – a piece that concluded with David Robertson talking about his reasons for living in a downtown loft. Last night on NPR’s All Things Considered there was a feature story on St. Louis growing pains – growing pains being understandable for a city that’s been losing population since the 20th century began.
The house lights dimmed. Stage lights began to rise. The first dress rehearsal for the Opera Theatre’s opening-weekend production, The Barber of Seville, was about to begin, but then came a call from the orchestra pit. It was suddenly dark down there. The voice of a technician was heard “I’m working on it.” Those words are never a good sign, especially when followed by “No power.”
With Hansel and Gretel rehearsal going on this morning in the hall, I’ve been granted leave to go observe the first dress rehearsal of Barber of Seville at the Loretto-Hilton this afternoon, which makes me much happier than the weather. I am especially pleased to see anything that has not a trace of da Vinci encoded material.
Brad Buckley, who doubles as bassoonist and contrabassoonist in the orchestra, caught me lurking near the hall while he was taking a break from observing bassoon auditions. A much-needed break it seemed.
FYI: Quincy is the instrumentalist (see yesterday’s post).
For those of you with children, you probably know who the Little Einsteins are. For the rest of us, this morning was an education in many ways. No, they are not small mathematicians with rather radical notions of space and time. Rather, they are four Disney characters: Leo, who loves to conduct; June, who loves to dance; Annie, who loves to sing; and Quincy, who – OK, I’m still learning. I don’t know what Quincy does.
Tonight the SLSO Fusion Series concludes its inaugural 2005-06 season with a Percussion Festival at the Touhill. Performers include David Robertson, Scott Parkman, Colin Currie, SLSO percussionists John Kasica, Richard Holmes and Tom Stubbs, and students from the Juilliard School. There’s a pre-show at 6:30 with local percussionists and a post-show with lots more cool stuff.
Be vewy, vewy quiet. We’re auditioning twombones is how Elmer Fudd would say it.
Guest artist Marc Damoulakis, a percussionist who recently joined the Cleveland Orchestra, made a return visit to Dunbar Elementary as part of the SLSO’s Education and Community Partnerhip Program (CP). Dunbar is just up the road from Powell and is one of the SLSO’s adopted schools. Marc spent the week with Dunbar students creating a percussion performance of Maurice Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are. Tom Stubbs took part in the work with the schoolchildren as well.
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.
-- T.S. Eliot, from “East Coker”
The man who uses the windows of the Beaux Arts building as a mirror for his sparring sessions is back, working out in the late mornings.
The IN UNISON Chorus received the Audience Award for Best Traditional Gospel in the Saint Louis Music Awards, sponsored by KDHX and Playback:STL. You can find all the winners at www.kdhx.org/awards.
From today’s New York Times:
A few days ago I posted excerpts from my interview with SLSO Assistant Principal Timpani Tom Stubbs. With the Percussion Festival at Touhill coming up on May 10, here are just a few more:
