Miscellaneous Musical Musings

Sorry this blog has been quiet lately, but things have been absolutely crazy here. Here's a rundown of what's been going on since I last posted in the middle of May:

May 15: Brian & I went to see the SD Symphony play Richard Strauss' "Alpine Symphony" and Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." Both works were absolutely fabulous! It makes sense to program both works on one program because they both use an extended orchestra. By that I mean that they use more than the "standard" number of instruments. For example, the "Alpine Symphony" uses EIGHT horns instead of the standard four, plus Wagner tubas, multiple harps, and all manner of other things. Here's a review of the concert.

***

May 16: I attended an afternoon concert by the San Diego Harmony Ringers at Blessed Sacrament Church in San Diego. The stone-floored sanctuary had really nice acoustics which worked well with the bells. There were some space issues, so the Ringers had to set up in a straight line rather than their usual L-shaped configuration, but I think they worked really hard to watch their director more and overcome it because they sounded great!

That afternoon, I attended the joint concert of the Pacific Beach Crusader Bells and the Mira Costa College Chorale in Oceanside. The host church's bell choir opened the concert by playing a few numbers, then the Chorale sang -- and what beautiful voices they have, a very nice blend -- and then the Crusader Bells joined the Chorale for a couple of joint pieces, then the Bells finished out the program on their own. The program was a good mix of styles and tempos and the audience thoroughly enjoyed it all.

***

I spent the following week working on re-designing my websites. Go take a look at HandbellMusic.com, and TheGoldenDance.com, both of which have been completely re-designed.

Doing this meant that I had to move The Clearinghouse of Choreography from its former home at HandbellMusic.com over to TheGoldenDance.com, but I think that URL is more suitable for a store than for the Clearinghouse anyway, so it's all good. :-)

I finally uploaded those new designs the first week of June.

***

May 21: I flew up to San Jose for a Bronzewood Paedeia rehearsal, which went very well.

***

May 22: Sonos rehearsal 11-5, then I flew home that night & got to spend a rare Sunday at home with my husband. We went to Ikea. :-)

***

May 25: Brian's birthday! We went out to dinner at the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens, along with handbell friend Laurie Sanders and her son Robbie. We took a tour of the brewery (which included sample beers, yay!), then had dinner. It was a great evening & we all had fun.

***

May 27: I got my official grades for the Spring Semester at CSUSM. Straight A's again. YAY!

***

May 28-June 1: Brian & I flew to Bellingham, WA, where we met with his sister & her husband who live in Abbotsford, BC. We spent the weekend with them in Abbotsford and in Vancouver, BC, and had a wonderful time. It was a very relaxing weekend even though I spent some time working on my websites -- Brian's sister is a professional web designer & was gracious enough to help me out with a few things.

***

June 5: Brian & I went to Ikea again (hey, we just bought a house and we've got to decorate it, y'know!). The San Diego Ikea is in a big shopping plaza and shares a parking lot with a CostCo and a Lowe's. I complained on Twitter & Facebook about the parking & found out that Laurie & Rusty Sanders (handbell friends) were at Lowe's shopping for a new barbecue grill, so we decided to have lunch together. I was supposed to attend a handbell concert in Solana Beach that night, but I was just too exhausted, so I stayed home.

***

June 8: I subbed at the San Diego Harmony Ringers rehearsal at Faith Pres in San Diego. They recently were able to purchase 5 octaves of brand new bells thanks to a donation by one of their ardent fans. They wanted to pay her back someway, so on the 8th, they played a private mini-concert for her. I could tell that she really enjoyed the concert and I was honored to be asked to play a part in the event.

***

June 11-13: Friday night was another Bronzewood Paedeia rehearsal in Palo Alto. We're hard at work on a new CD! Saturday was Sonos rehearsal in Oakland and Sunday was Sonos' 20th Anniversary Gala. We had food and wine, a mini-concert by Sonos, and a special showing of our new documentary DVD "Ringing Down: Bells and their Stories" on the big screen at the "Auctions By the Bay" Theater in Alameda. The Board members really did a great job making sure that all the attendees were well taken care of. Jim (along with Ellen & Ron) worked very hard to create several large displays of pictures from Sonos' 20 year history. I had to leave for the airport right after the movie showing, which was a bit of a bummer, but the 7:30pm flight was the last one out of Oakland for San Diego.

***

June 14-16: I was hard at work putting the final touches on my class notes for the Area XII Festival Conference at UC Davis. I was one of four clinicians teaching day-long educational tracks -- Michael Glasgow, Dr. Bill Payn, Debbie Rice, and me! I'll talk more about this in a moment.

***

June 16: Our 9th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by having dinner at Stone, which is rapidly turning into our favorite restaurant! :-)

***

June 17-21: On Thursday morning, I flew to Sacramento, picked up my rental car, then met my friend (and fellow Sonosian) Sunghee and her friend Grace at the airport. We waited a little while longer for Michael & Debbie to show up, then Tami Sigl showed up to take Debbie to the UC Davis campus (she also had to pick up Bill Payn & National Board Member Phil Roberts from their hotel, which is why she just took Debbie), while I took Michael.

We had to stop at Office Max on the way because I forgot my USB-to-Car charger for my TomTom (as well as my USB-to-Wall charger for my phone!), then go to Kinko's to pick up my class notes -- I had sent the order in Wednesday night from their website, which is a wonderful time-saver. Fortunately, SMF has free wi-fi, so Sunghee & I were able to google for directions and write them down so we didn't get lost.

After stopping at Kinko's, we had lunch at Bistro 33, which is in the old Davis City Hall building. Yummy food & a great atmosphere.

When we finally arrived at campus, it was time for Sunghee & I and 10 other ringers to start 6 hours of rehearsal as part of the Odyssey Ensemble, led by Dr. Payn. Even though I've known him for so many years, it was my first time playing under his baton, so it was a special experience for me.

Before I go on, let me take a moment to explain the new "Track System" we used for this Festival Conference. Instead of the usual format of having massed ringing all day every day with breaks for a few classes, the conference was set up so that Friday & Saturday were days for participants to take a whole-day "track" on a particular subject. (There was also an "All Ring" track so that people who really wanted massed ringing could choose that track.) Each track was led by one of the four main clinicians, who developed the curriculum and planned the classes. The registrants started out in a large Group Session led by the main clinician, then divided into 3 groups for Breakout Sessions, one led by the main clinician and two led by the assistant instructors. Each track had 3 Group Sessions and 3 Breakout Sessions and all the participants got all 6 classes.

On Friday, Michael Glasgow led the "All Ring" massed ringing track of Level 1-2+ music, Bill Payn led the "Performance" track, and Debbie Rice led the "Church Music" track. I was one of Debbie's assistant instructors for the day & led the class on "Using Bells in Contemporary Worship," as well as helped her with logistics for her group sessions (passing out notes & music, making sure all the registrants knew where to go when, etc.).

Friday evening was the Odyssey Ensemble concert where we played our 6 pieces for the assembled attendees. It was a lot of fun & I think the audience had a good time, too. It's always fun to play for fellow handbell ringers because there's just so much energy in the room!

On Saturday, Debbie led the "All Ring" massed ringing track of Level 3-4 music, Bill Payn led the "Directors" track, and I led the "Basics" track, along with my two lovely assistants Jason Tiller (of Sonos) and Tom Parsons (formerly of Sonos). Jason's wife Diane helped him out with his breakout session ("Dream Weaving"), which was great - that's a tough class to teach alone because it's so hands-on and I'm glad he had her help.

Saturday night, the Showcase concert was by the Opus Handbell Ensemble from Modesto. Diane Tiller & I played flute for them on one piece. We had had rehearsal about an hour before the concert, but in between rehearsal & the concert the building's air conditioning shut off and so when we got up to tune, it was so warm that our flutes had gotten really really flat -- so flat that we couldn't push our headjoints in far enough to be in tune with the bells! We both just had to lip the pitch up. Fortunately, both Diane & I have lots of experience playing with handbells (under the super-picky ears of Sonos director Jim Meredith) and so it all turned out ok. In fact, we got compliments from a couple of people who I know have really good ears! Yay!

Sunday was the final day of the conference and it was time for the "Mass Attack!" a full day of nothing but massed ringing under the wonderful batons of Michael Glasgow, Bill Payn, and Debbie Rice. I played with my good friend Ruben Mendoza's group. We played a final concert at 3:30pm, during which the Area had their "passing the bell" ceremony from current Area Chair PL Grove to the new Area Chair Rima Greer.

After the concert and loading out all the equipment from the massed ringing room, the clinicians and Area XII Board went out to dinner at Bistro 33. It's a good thing we sat outside on the patio because there were lots of smiles and laughter and we were a little loud. What a fun party, though!

I stayed overnight on Sunday night, too, so I wouldn't have to deal with packing for the airport that night. I got up in the morning, had a leisurely breakfast, then went to the airport for my flight home. Brian picked me up at the San Diego airport & we came home.

Wil Mandac, member of Bay Bells & Low Ding Zone, was the event's Official Photographer and took lots and lots of pictures. He's posted a few of them to Facebook and will post more to Flickr later. I'll post a link here once he's done that.

***

Today, I'm trying to catch up on everything and am feeling a bit stressed because I leave on Thursday night to fly up to the Bay Area again. On Friday, I will be walking in the Commencement ceremony for Foothills Community College and receiving my Associate of Arts in Music. I have to fly Thurs night because there's a rehearsal for the ceremony at 10am on Friday. After the rehearsal, I'll go pick up Brian at the airport, then the ceremony begins at 6pm. Friends will be joining us for dinner after the ceremony.

Saturday is Sonos rehearsal again -- and our last one before our July 10th concert at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church. After that, we head to Nashville for the AGEHR National event Pinnacle. Sonos will be playing the opening night concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium, one of the former homes of the Grand Ole Opry. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that after the show!

***

So that's what I've been up to lately. There's no time to slack off now, though! I've got a busy summer coming up & I need to practice. Did I mention that the entire 2nd half of the Sonos concert is done with no tables and completely memorized?

.