Concert Review

On Monday night, the Ohlone Wind Orchestra had it's first concert of the school year. This group is made up of assorted pro and semi-pro players, with a sprinkling of talented amateurs. I play what I call 'utility horn', meaning that I play whatever part needs to be covered. If someone doesn't show up, I play their part. My assigned parts switch off between first and fourth.

A note about horn playing. There are usually four parts in a horn section. First horn is the glory role - you get the solos and the best parts. Second is a lower part, harmony with first. Third is another high part, like first without solos. Fourth is the really low stuff.

So I go from playing really low to playing high. Fun stuff. Dangerous at times.

Anyway - we were talking about last night's performance.

Our conductor, Tony Clements, is also conducting the Wind Ensemble at Hayward State. When he found out that they had a concert on one of our normal rehearsal nights, he thought it would be cool to invite our group to share the concert with them.

It was a great idea, except for the traffic. Tuba player James Barany and I decided to carpool. We met at my house in San Jose, and started our journey. 90 minutes later, we pulled into Hayward State, searching for the perfect parking spot. That eluded us, so we parked a mile or two away and headed for the concert hall.

We performed first, and our set included:

Fanfare from La Peri by Dukas (Brass Only)
Original Suite for Band by Gordon Jacob
Awayday by Adam Gorb
Armenian Dances, Part II by Alfred Reed
Lord of the Rings Symphony, Movement 1, Gandalf the Wizard by Johann De Meij

The Dukas fanfare is a standard. Sounds great, not too hard and fun to play. I had never played it, but had conducted it on a number of occasions. It was our first tune, and the horns were a little rough.

Original Suite is another classic. I was a little embarrassed, as I had neglected to bring Original Suite on stage and had to leave the ensemble to get it out of my horn case. The band played quite well on it, even though we only practiced it a few times. That is one thing that I love about the group - things can come together quickly. First chair trumpet Ken Walter played extremely well on this (and everything else).

Awayday is the tune that brought me into the group. I first heard it played by the Blue Devils in 2001 and I really liked it. I bought it for the Leigh Wind Ensemble, and we played through it a few times, but never performed it, as it is a beast - very difficult rhythms. And the woodwind parts are nuts. We had never played it all the way through, and our performance suffered a bit. There was a point in which two sections of the band were in different places in the music. But we got back together in short order. Click to hear a recording.

Armenian Dances and Lord of the Rings went very well. I must admit that I prefer the Armenian Dances, Part I, but this was well done - and we played the heck out of it. Ohlone is a fairly loud ensemble, which I like. Gandalf went well - Tyler Morse did a heck of a job on her solos. She is a marvelous player. Next semester, I will be playing first (along with Ryan from Stanford), and she has set the bar nice and high for us.

It was great to get a chance to perform these tunes before our own concert on November 19th.