Letter from Dan (11/2)

Dear Concertino West,

Thank you for an excellent rehearsal this week! After finding our new seats, we worked on polishing Genesis, focusing on maintaining a steady pulse and listening across the orchestra to improve our ensemble. We then worked on One Dog Sleigh, starting at Letter K. After the break, we rehearsed the middle section of Sarabande and finished with a run-through of Radetzky March.

Good news to those of you who are feeling a little stressed out about learning One Dog Sleigh in time for our December concert. We’re going to perform One Dog Sleigh at our February 27 concert instead. This will give us plenty of time to dig in, learn it well, and not feel so much pressure!

Vote on the Student Choice Piece

Thank you to everyone who suggested a piece for second semester! Here are the finalists and you can click on the links to listen to them:

• Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky
• The Never Ending Story (movie theme)

Click here to vote, and please only vote once!

GTCYS10 for this week

This week, please practice the following:

• Radetzky March
  • Practice using contrasting dynamics
• Genesis
  • Practice with your metronome on at quarter=84 for steady pulse, especially in the sections with eighth notes
  • Play through twice with the recording using the playlist on our member page
• Sarabande
  • Play through the middle section
  • Focus on the key signature, correct notes, and playing the eighth notes steady
• Holiday music!
  • Try each of the pieces as we’ll start looking at them next week
• One Dog Sleigh: Letter K-end
  • Identify the sections for your part that need to be practiced. Start slow and then work up to the marked tempo.
  • You don’t need to practice the whole piece

Happy November Birthdays!

• Hamilton, cello, 11/8
• Eunyu, violin, 11/18
• Trevor, violin, 11/18
• Cora, violin, 11/20
• Ben E, cello, 11/28
• David, violin, 11/29
• William, violin, 11/29

A Shout Out to our Encore Crew!

The following students signed up to help put away chairs after rehearsal and make the room look great! If you’d like to be added or removed from this list, please send me an email at dan@gtcys.org.

• Addison, violin
• Aria, violin
• Arya, violin
• Asha, cello
• Calvin, cello
• Eloise, flute
• Gloria, violin
• Grey, clarinet
• Henry, violin
• Jane, violin
• Mia, violin
• Natalia, violin
• Skylar, trumpet
• Yulia, violin

Have a great week!

Dan