Another First!

When you start something from nothing, as we have with Chamber Project, you have a lot of "firsts" along the way. Our first concert, our first write up in the paper, our first dollar, our first fundraiser. The mix of scary and exciting and rewarding is difficult to explain, but it's quite an experience! Last Thursday, on a bitterly cold and windy night, we had our first ever Very Open Rehearsal. We were more than a little worried that the weather would scare people off, but it didn't! We had a great crowd!  We set up the room to get as many people as we could as close as possible to us.  Another first this night was that we had never, ever, played the music together that we were about to play in front of a crowd of people. This felt a little like showing up to play a formal concert in a swim suit. Just wrong. We got our first question before we even started to play, which loosened us up a bit.  We played through the first movement, had to stop once and restart. It was a little ragged. We had tons of great questions from the audience, and the improvement made in the music was  fantastic.

We put together a little montage of the event and put it up on youtube (another first!). Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqAJ6_-8k84]

Rehearsing with an audience was an amazing experience. It forced us to focus more, we took bigger risks musically during the rehearsal than we usually do. It was really fun to laugh and play with the audience. The positive response from the audience was overwhelming. We will be doing this again! Thanks to The Tavern of Fine Arts for having us!

This Saturday we perform the music we rehearsed at our VOR in our concert called "Combinatorics".  The program is full of energetic, spirited music, including one of the great chamber works of all time by Poulenc for oboe (we're using soprano sax), bassoon and piano.  All of the music has a connection to France.  It will be about an hour long.

DETAILS

Saturday January 21, 3:00 Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts St. Louis Community College @ Forest Park 5600 Oakland Ave. http://www.stlcc.edu/Maps/Forest_Park.html free, free parking, kids 8 and up welcome

MUSICIANS: 

Jennifer Gartley, flute Dana Hotle, clarinet Adrianne Honnold, saxophone Melissa Mackey, bassoon Nina Ferrigno, piano

COMBINATORICS PROGRAM

5 pieces for trio (1935) Jacques Ibert

Trio for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon (1924)
Charles Koechlin

Sonate for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (1907)
Maurice Emmanuel

Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon (1925) Walter Piston

Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano (1926)
Francis Poulenc