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justinkagan1
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Posts: 396
(6/23/01 7:25:51
am)
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Outdoor concert
pitfalls of Biblical proportions...
So in plagues on all your houses news....
Last night we played
concert #2 of the Met Opera NYC Parks concerts, this one on Staten
Island, better known as the major repository for city garbage...one
of the biggest landfills in history is there. Started out on a
typical NYC Friday rush hour bang note....almost an hour for the bus
to get from Lincoln Center to 42 St (which is a mile for you
out-of-towners), another hour to arrive at the park. For some odd
reason the Met management schedules this concert every year on this
day, which is noted for the congregation of June bugs. I'd heard
stories but this was incredible....they're attracted to the lights,
of which there are many on the stage, and all the while they're
mating and then die, plummeting to the earth. It was like a
hailstorm of these fat little suckers...they're benign, of course,
but profuse, and by the end of the first act of Tosca the stage was
literally covered. As much music from people swatting them out of
their hair, away from their instruments, stands getting whacked
inadvertantly, feet stomping to smash 'em, ughs everywhere when they
get in your hair, suit, down your shirt. Unbelievable. One landed in
my cello, a buzz bomb down the f-hole. By the third act cello
quartet things had quieted down considerably. and don't even get me
started on the humidity there...my case was wet by evening's end,
and by the end of the first act the bow hair was useless. there were
maybe 1,000 people there, which is a pittance compared to the
Central Park concert of last week, where there are closer to 75K
fans, as Dorie can attest...they were everywhere, like June bugs.
Next year we're planning on donning bee-keeper outfits.
Oh, BTW,
the concert went fine.
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DoDahlberg
Moderator
Posts: 96
(6/23/01 9:04:56 am)
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J, did u get
June outta there?...
or are you going to keep her as a pet?
Dorie |
TerryM
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Posts: 434
(6/23/01 9:50:52
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It adds a whole
new dimension...
to that complaint, "My cello seems to have developed a buzzing
sound..."
Terry
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drcello
Registered User
Posts: 445
(6/23/01 10:44:33 am)
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If you're gonna
play outside...
You have got to have a second, el cheapo instrument and bow. Simply
essential!!!! Even just the humidity can make your cello come
unglued.
Marshall C. St. John
drcello@vei.net
Wayside Presbyterian Church
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sarah
schenkman
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Posts: 407
(6/23/01 12:59:51
pm)
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outdoor
concerts
Outdoor cheapo cello really is essential. I hate outdoor concerts
yet for the second year in a row I"ve agreed to do the July 3rd
&4th concerts with Charleston Symphony in Cashiers, NC.
Redeeming features - it's in the mountains and cooler than here in
Sav., and their conductor is not too objectionable.
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Ryan
Selberg .gif)
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Posts: 237
(6/23/01 2:17:49
pm)
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Re: Outdoor
concert pitfalls of Biblical proportions...
Even as I write this, the management of the Utah Symphony is trying
to raise approximately $350,000 in order to have the USO play for
the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Games here in Salt Lake
City next February. They will be held in the football stadium of the
U of Utah. Why will it cost $350,000, you ask?
First of all,
February in Salt Lake City is COLD, and very possibly (hopefully for
the competitors in the ski events) SNOWY! It will be impossible for
the orchestra to actually PLAY live, so all music used will have to
be pre-recorded. There is no specific provision for this type of
recording in the AFM contracts, as I understand it, so negotiations
are happening to cover it. Then, there is the necessity of renting
junk instruments to hold while we mime the performance in our formal
black parkas and black gloves. All of this effort for the
possibility that we MIGHT appear on world-wide TV for maybe 15
seconds.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has already been
invited (and has accepted) to perform, and if the USO decides not
to, for whatever reason, the international youth orchestra that is
being assembled to perform during the Olympics is standing by
willingly, without AFM restrictions. Which would make us look bad,
as people would say "why isn't the USO doing it, the kids are
willing, why aren't they?" A no win situation. And SLOC (Salt Lake
Olympic Committee) wants us there, but is making NO funding
available for us. It is all on our heads to raise the $$.
So
when you turn in to the opening ceremonies next February, you will
have a better understanding of who is there and why. I don't think I
am all that interested in my 15 seconds of fame, let alone 15
minutes, sitting in the cold (and maybe snow, which would make us
very visible, right-can't you see the wonderful followup poster of
the USO playing with a light dusting of snow on our shoulders and
instruments, brass players' lips stuck to their mouthpieces!)
holding a cello and faking whatever music we are supposed to be
playing. (Ellen, do you have 8 carbon fiber cellos for rent, that
could be later sold for a premium as having been participants in the
Winter Olympics!)
Ryan, whose hands are turning blue just
thinking about it!
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 Steve
Drake
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Posts: 368
(6/23/01 10:45:13
pm)
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Re: Outdoor
concert pitfalls of Biblical proportions...
This sounds like a concert we did at a (then) new park in Bowling
Green, Ky. We found out during the concert that the park was
adjacent to the new sewage treatment facility. Both by the odor, and
the number of bugs. At the time, I was the on the last stand of
cellos, and I was right underneath the lights, and as it got dark,
the number of bugs and the stench increased exponentially. I ended
up leaving the stage early that night, as did most of the bass
section and half of the cellos. We haven't played there since.
My MP3's
My Cello
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MsCheryl
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Posts: 241
(6/24/01 8:57:44
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Hey
Justin
Are you playing the Cooper River outdoor Met concert? We live so
close that we can hear the sound from our backyard sometimes. Let me
know - maybe we could actually meet you!!!!
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justinkagan1
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Posts: 397
(6/25/01 8:06:20
am)
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Re: Hey
Cheryl
Hi...unfortunately not going to play that concert, but will be at
the New Haven, CT concert on Wednesday, a bit more of a schlep.
We'll meet one day!
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sarah
schenkman
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Posts: 409
(6/25/01 12:34:50
pm)
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playing out side
in feb?!!
Ryan - I wouldn't even want to do that here in a much warmer
climate.
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Ryan
Selberg
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Posts: 238
(6/25/01 5:01:32
pm)
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Re: playing out
side in feb?!!
There are definitely some issues to work out, but it is a no-win
situation as I understand it I will be getting more involved with
the contractual issues as we get closer, as I am on the Orchestra
Committee, and head the Artistic Advisory Committee, under which
this whole shebang falls. The Union will have its sayso regarding
the finances of the pre-recording.
At least we will be able
to thaw out the second week of the Olympics, as SLOC has booked our
hall and we are only playing concerts during week one. We will then
head to So. Calif. during the second week.
Ryan
"....going where no orchestra has gone
before..........."
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