Hey everyone, well another Opononi Summer School has finished (… for those who don’t know it’s for wind orchestra, and I conduct). 32 hours of rehearsals, 32 kilometers walked to and from rehearsals, and a final two-hour concert to conclude the week. Mostly due to the early mornings, you wonder what on earth you are getting yourself into in the weeks beforehand. Of course, once you’re there it’s just what you do and it’s good “fun”?
Due to a few clashes with other events, the numbers were a little down than usual. But this was music to my ears as we had everything covered (french horns, tubas, bassoons, bass clarinet, oboe, piccolo, euphonium, etc) and the right forces, AND they were all good strong players. Often with more players you just have excess flutes, clarinets, trumpets and alto saxophones … which often leads to a complete disaster. Anyway so this meant that we could take the pieces further than usual, and the sound they created this year was fantastic.
A few have asked me what sort of music we do, so here was this year’s concert programme:
Theme from Lost in Space – John Williams
Procession of the Nobles – Rimsky-Korsakov
Sleeping Beauty Waltz – Tchaikovsky
Birdland – Joe Zawinul
Blaze Away – Abe Holzmann
There’s No Business Like Show Business – Irving Berlin
Tribute to Louis Armstrong
A Touch of Tuba (tuba solo) – Art Dedrick
The London Suite – Eric Coates
Nearer by God To Thee – adpt. Custer
Mamma Mia – ABBA
In The Hall of the Mountain King – Grieg
Firebird Suite – Stravinsky
Phantom of the Opera – Lloyd-Webber
Georgia on My Mind – arr. Higgins
Sinatra in Concert – arr. Nowak
The Stripper – Davod Rose
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
So really, a complete range. The aim of the week is to leave playing better than you did at the beginning of the week, and as well as that I always make sure they play several pieces that they wouldn’t have a chance to otherwise. Of course, 32 hours of rehearsals in a week mean you have to have your share of fun and “classics” also. We also looked at other pieces during the week including:
Chit Chat Polka – Strauss
South Pacific – arr. Bennett
James Bond 007 arr. Mey
John Williams Trilogy – arr. Moss
Thanks heaps once again for all the hard work everyone put in, it was certainly a very successful year and a very high standard reached. Soon I shall put some photos up on flickr – I didn’t quite have a chance to before this email. Anyway bye for now, Ryan