Played with the orchestra tonight. The theme was the Ides of March, so we played a number of marches. Fifteen all told. Whew! It was a fun concert though. We had quite an eclectic mix of pieces featured in the concert. We played Holst's Mars from the Planets, Death of a Marionette (aka the theme song from the Alfred Hitchcock show), Pomp and Circumstance, Stars and Stripes, etc. We had composers from France, Scandinavia, the US, Germany, Italy, Russia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. A good and somewhat long concert.
It wasn't without mishap though. Our main percussionist was deported (oops!), a good chunk of viola section was MIA due to various mishaps, the oboist who never misses a rehearsal (and is brilliant on the oboe) was gone. To top it off the temperature in the hall was set to roughly 800 degrees F. So there were some last minute part changes and adaptations. We did find a professional percussionist, but he'd never played the music with us before so call time was used to cram cue notes and the basic gist of the pieces for the drummer. I can't figure out what is up with this orchestra and percussionists, we can never seem to retain one for long...
Tired and sweaty, we made it through! From where I sat it mostly sounded great, a few places were just good, and some were eh.
We finished up around 9:30 and I scraped the car windows free of snow (snow!) and drove home.
The kids were good for the babysitter. I bundled them up in the car and took her home. I'll be so glad when Jonathan gets back.
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