Concerts are back at Van Tech! Below are the concert dates and what ensembles are performing, each concert will be livestreamed on youtube, a link will be shared through teams on the VanTech Music Program. 

Tuesday, January 18, 2022 - Beginner Band and Intermediate Band
https://youtu.be/ePQI7DoQzXs

Thursday, January 20, 2022 - Senior Band, VTOne and VTAfterDark
https://youtu.be/Y4koSkp4GSk

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 - Intermediate Strings, Junior Strings A, Chamber Strings, Concert Choir and Senior Strings A
https://youtu.be/JIa9pCZ6_QU

Thursday, January 27, 2022 - Beginner Strings, Junior Strings B, Chamber Strings, Chamber Choir and Senior Strings B
​https://youtu.be/zZJpyo3ob3s

Alt. opening m. 7, French horn and saxes need to enter on whole note with great confidence, air support, and pitch.
@B, clarinets need to continue full steam ahead. Be careful not to drop notes in this section, as it is overall very sparse rhythmically.
@ transition back to m. 1- percussion need to count better on first 3 bars for timing entrances together. Who is covering the Tom part at m. 11? It wasn't present today, and it's super important. Nice confidence at rehearsal square 2 today!
At m. 20, triplets on beat 3 and 4 (lower voices) need to respond with same energy as triplets on beat 1 and 2. Percussion- bar before rehearsal 3 needs to be more together.
Entrance at rehearsal 3 needs more air support and commitment to beat 1. At rehearsal 4-5, pitch/intonation check is needed, especially in upper winds.
Oboes at m. 47-49, make sure you're in tune with each other. At rehearsal 6, snare drum came in 5 bars too early Wait for sus cymbal, saxophone intro and clarinet/flute response before you come in m. 61. Between reh. 6-7, improvement is noted. Remember to play only the first of each of the 3 notes grouped together if you can't play all of them. Make sure that the triplets which are together as a band (e.g. m. 66) are really together.
At reh. 8, really bring out the bass line (st. b., tuba, b.cl, bsn) as it was sadly inaudible. Just blast that part out. Trombones play out at m. 80. One of the most noticeable problems in the piece were the entrances around m. 91. That measure with 2 beats is throwing a lot of people off. We need high winds to make it more clear for trumpets and saxes where they should come in.
At 4 bars before reh. 13, voices were totally inaudible. Really sing out if you can.
At 13, it was rushed (as Ms. Riegert mentioned). At reh. 14, Ryan play out. In the section at reh. 16, practice the triplet run m. 184 a.sax, flute, and picc. This whole section was a bit out of tune.
Horns at reh. 17 and 19 too loud. At least one person was just overplaying. Try not to overblast within your section. At m. 231 to end, retenuto, you better look up! Especially for thoose last few measures, 253 to end....entrances were weak and it's the last thing you do before the piece is over, so it will remain in the audiences' mind.
Overall, this was very well prepared for today. I'm excited to hear it on Wednesday night!

Congrats on working hard on a tough piece of music. I think we'll pull it off!

For Symphony Rehearsal on Tuesday, let's aim to take tuning A/Bb at 3:15. Symphony may need to go a little past 4:00. If you play in Symphony and Strings, please set up both instruments right away so we can have a quick transition between ensembles so as not to lose too much Strings rehearsal time.

Focus will be on Mountain King first, 48-end. Bassoons still need to work on tempo and pitch in intro, and playing confidently but a bit softer, but that won't be worked on in today's session...you can work on that at home, and maybe Ms. Riegert could lead a sectional later in the week? 🙂

Cellos, we worked on that in your DOS...take the feedback you received to clean it up. Please work on tempo and tuning 76-83 upper winds, and upper strings m. 80-82. Have all bars numbered for both movements. Tempo from D to end should be within 176-184 for Tuesday's rehearsal. Violin 1's especially - B-D needs work to get in tune/lots of volume. I think you should consider playing it with eighth notes instead of 16ths, if you can't get the 16th's up to tempo for Tuesday. Tempo at B is a minimum of 144, and C more like 168. The two bars leading into B are really important for establishing excitement. If you can't play all of the pitches upper strings, just play the beginning of each 32nd note grouping, with really strong accents. After Mountain King, students not playing on Morning will be dismissed.

For Morning, focus attention in home practice with correct tempo: dotted quarter equals 54 (slowest)-60 (max). Be really attentive to E major key signature (4 #'s!), and all accidentals written in. Violas need to be super confident with entrance at pickup to m. 5, etc. Upper winds need to play with exceptional tone, lots of phrasing. Cellos really need to know how their part goes from B-D. Entrances from everyone, and counting, needs to be extremely secure from 62-end. Definitely everyone needs to come to this rehearsal with bars numbered. Upper strings who can't play the 16th notes, need to practice landing on beat 1 and 2 of the 6/8 pattern (or rather, 1 and 4) at B onward.

-Ms Kilburn

Sleigh Ride
 
m. 1: Trumpet and cornet 1--know your first note before you play it! "know before you blow!"
          This same ‘G’ comes up several times in the piece, and is often out of tune by one or more 
           players
m. 12-19: clarinets need to play runs in time, with good articulation. Don’t speed up OR slow   
         down. Also, clarinet staccatos should be light throughout entire piece. Don’t bite down too        
         hard to avoid squeaks.
m. 29-39: flute, oboe, clarinet, a.sax—please work on intonation/fingerings. It sounds pretty
        scary!
m. 61-63: picc, flute, oboe, cl.—don’t rush rests. Generally, in the section that precedes this, 
        trills were rushed, but especially right there.
m. 71-77: melody line in sax and clarinet is pretty good, but would be excellent if phrasing was
        exaggerated
m. 90: cl. and a.sax need to practice the run!
m. 92-98: pitch and fingerings need work in picc., flute, ob., cl., and tpt. 1
m. 118-126, practice upper winds! Confusion on pitch/fingerings
m. 133-135: tuba and other bass parts drive us forward—don’t’ slow down. Upper winds, don’t
        speed up out of nowhere on the melody. We will follow the lead of our low voices.
m. 148-153: no guessing, please! Know your fingerings.
m. 157-end: work on counting and making sure you know where your part enters/exits
 
 
Alegre
 
m. 10: pitch in high voicing—are you playing the right note on beat 2?
m. 14-17: need to hear a.sax, t.sax, trumpet—please be confident with rhythm.
m. 20-22: need more from tpt 2, tsax, euph, and tuba here
m. 23: bring out a.sax, t.sax, tpt
m. 26-31: there should be more dynamic range/contrast and trumpets—there are some really
            out of tune notes. Are you playing the right notes in m. 27?
m. 29-31: flute, oboe, clarinet: need to count and enter on beat 4, then release by beat 4 of the
           next bar.
m. 32&34: articulation not crisp enough. We’ll try to get this crisp and in time without slurring, 
          and then we’ll also try it with a slur so we can decide what sounds better. Practice both  
          ways.
m. 45-49: rhythm trouble for all
m. 49-50: work on transitioning into m. 50 with confidence!
m. 50: need more t.sax, flute, oboe, clarinet 1.
m. 50-end: Percussion—it’s around here where you got lost on the recording. Practice
            transition into 50 all the way to the end in a sectional/at home.
m. 53-56: need more flute, clarinet, sax here. There is too much trumpet in the mix.
m. 56-end: count carefully to end. Mostly, you should come in together on the & of 1.
m. 62: percussion we’ll consider cutting your last note, on the & of 4. I think it is unnecessary?

Sectional suggestion for Thursday: Run through Spirited Away together to make sure that you know how your part goes: the right notes, rhythms, and tempo changes. If done Spirited Away, work through other sections of concert music as per rehearsal notes above!

-Ms Kilburn

The music program has a new website and app! The main features include being able to access class recordings and information about the tour. Also, be sure to check the news and the calendar regularly to know about important upcoming events!

-Patrick H.