Man, Im pretty bad at this. Kingston, and CBC

Sorry its been so long, I've been busy and lazy. equal amounts of both probably. Dangerous combo..this will be a sloppy post as a result

I was playing with the Kingston Symphony this past weekend, music included Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliette, Bolero and the rite of spring. A beautiful program if you're a percussionist. I had the pleasure of hanging out with the guys in the section for 3 days, very fun crew, ll very laid back and having a good time with some challenging rep
. The orchestra itself reminded me a lot of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Overall I was pretty pleased with my playing, I was playing the tam tam in the rite and really got to wail on the Dance of the earth, I really do not think I could of played too loud for this conductor, which is a lot easier than being told to play less. He also gave me a thumbs up for my triangle beater on tam tam gliss, which is always nice. In Bolero I played second snare, which comes in about 3/4 of the way through the work..before my entry the main snare drum was to back off a little bit and i was to come in full throttle (dynamically) which was again, the first time i had seen or heard the piece done like this. I think it surprised the audience a little as Snare drum one was placed in the center of the band while i hid back in the percussion section. My only gripe with bolero is that the poor first snare, who had slaved away for 15 straight minutes with the same pattern, not to mention setting up the whole dynamic for the piece did not get a bow, I mean, its Bolero!! throw the guy a bone!!


so, How about the axing of the CBC radio orchestra in Vancouver. When 40 musicians find themselves out of their main source of income in the blink of an eye you really realize you cannot take anything for granted in this career. What will happen to the players?? Potentially moving across the country to freelance, only adding to an overflown pool of qualified players... Its a scary thought.
Right now there are a boat load of email campaigns going on to try to some how save the orchestra, and to fight the changes the CBC is making to radio 2 as well, but will probably be for naught. Which is really said, because I really loved the radio 2, It was my station of choice for the past 6 years or so, In Newfoundland there really was NO other outlet to get classical music on the radio. Granted I have a great recording collection so im not exactly without access to the music, but there are certianly a tonne of young people who do not have the means to this music like i do, and thats really sad as well.

Lately I'm listening to...

Rite of Spring (fun homework for the show) Boulez with Cleveland (1969), MTT with San Fran, and Bernstein with the NYP

Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer
Joe Jackson - Rain

Since I'm seeing him live on April 1, I'll put up a video