Good evening, Friends and Fellow Musicians! The Covid Monster returned and invaded or family. My dear wife Lynne began feeling symptoms and tested positive Friday. I have tested negatively three times but have decided not to attend tomorrow evenings rehearsal. I will continue to test through Thursday morning. I believes that it is possible that I am not a carrier and that wearing a mask Thursday may be sufficient. That being said I will post my decision after testing on Thursday morning. Your Health is most important to me, and I will not chance passing this on without continued negative testing results. I have contacted Cathy Fogle, and she has no issue with me attending Thursday if there are no negative changes in my health. That being said tomorrow’s schedule will be changed because of my absence. I will post again on THURSDAY MORNING with respect to that evening’s rehearsal schedule. Please pass this information on to your friends. Here is tomorrow evening’s schedule revision: Monday March 11th – 5:00 Orientation Lessons (Strings Only). 6:00 Sectional Rehearsals Woodwind, Brass, Strings (Percussion rehears “24 Percussion Ensemble” on Landing with drums). 7:00 Full Ensemble upstairs; Flute Choir Pull Out downstairs.
Now on a more positive note I would like to share with you two experiences provided me by our Founder, Jim Stahl. Jim and Pat as you know are Snowbirds. Immediately on our arrival in Naples Florida Jim made arrangements for me not only to attend rehearsal of the famed Naples Concert Band but also personally introduced me to J. Steven Moore, the Music Director and Conductor and John Salminen the Associate Conductor. I was seated within the Band (which by the way Jim is now a member) and enjoyed the amazing opportunity to learn and absorb the techniques and secrets of the fame of their conducting success’s. I was restored, renewed, and reinspired. They share many of the same concepts and strange techniques that I understand and present to you continually. Sitting surrounded and completely inspired I felt recharged and rededicated to teaching more than just the noted in this wonderfully language we call MUSIC.
Then came the PIECE DE RESISTANCE! Every New Years Day I seat myself in front of the TV. But it is not to watch Football! I watch the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing live from the famed “Golden Music Hall”. Just like a dream come true I was treated with tickets to the “Artis-Naples” home of the famous Naples Philharmonic. The Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Franz Welser-Most (present Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra) was performing Mahler Symphony No. 5 that evening. Jim and I studied the Symphony all morning with nonother than Leonard Berstein on television. I thought I was prepared! Ready to understand what I was about to hear and feel. From the moment the orchestra walk onto the stage, I was completely mesmerized by the Eruopean Instruments and their expertly controlled sound. The percussion instruments that I had admired on television in that moment, as all of the others did become alive. In an hour and a half, I was experiencing the understandable feelings of life. From Beginning to End. Without words. Without acting. Without explanation. Solely through the language of FEELING in music. Surrounded by hundreds, who all sat motionless while the diminuendo of the last note, controlled by the continuous downward motion of Most’s right hand, finally ended in silence. It truly was the end, and we all experienced it.