So I had 2 Easter gigs this year - a Saturday evening service at an Episcopal church and then Sunday morning at a Methodist church. The guy for the Saturday gig told me 5 pm rehearsal and 7 pm service. I figured I would be out of there by 8 - 8:30. Wrong. This was the longest service since church was invented. They started out with an hour (yes an hour) of Old Testament readings. I thought Easter was all about the New Testament, but I guess I was wrong. Then they had baptism. Not one baptism - 6 baptisms, So after an hour and a half, we finally got to play something. Meanwhile, the lady with the incense was going nuts spreading that smoke around the whole church. I felt like I was sitting by a campfire the whole time. So after all this, the finally get to the regular service, which of course takes another hour. So it was 9:35 before the thing was over with. At least it payed well.
Then yesterday morning, I got up early and drove an hour and half to a Methodist church in NC. This looked to be an easy one - 1 service - 3 tunes. The big closing tune was a really complicated arrangement of Mighty Fortress, with choir, brass, and percussion. This arrangement has lots of time changes, 5/8, and other stuff with potential to cause confusion. We ran through it 3 times in rehearsal and it seemed like all was good. Then halfway through the tune in the service, the choir director decides to turn around and start conducting the congregation. And in the process, she starts conducting 4/4 in 2 and everyone in the band gets completely lost. And this piece was one where if you get lost, you stay lost. There were no easy places to find yourself. I think we all finally got back together about 10 bars from the end. It was a complete disaster. Hopefully there were no music critics in the congregation. On the bright side, it payed well and there are some good mountain bike trails near the church.
So how did your Easter gig go?
Easter Gig Adventures
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ttf_MikeBMiller
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ttf_Geezerhorn
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Easter Gig Adventures
I was part of a brass foursome at a church that was rumored to be starved for outside music, so they contacted our group which performs at another church. We said, "yes". We met at the church on Saturday for a "dress" rehearsal and it went very well.
Kudos to the organist who not only played extremely well, she was also marvelous at conducting us - and that was the very first time some of us had the pleasure of performing with her. The church was small with lively acoustics, so we didn't have to work hard at all to sound nice. Our fanfare prelude went fantastic and really woke everyone up! We totally nailed it. During the service, we played three hymns and they also went well. At the end of a very nicely-done postlude, the crowd went crazy.
I had done my homework diligently and was probably the most relaxed I have ever been playing in front of people. I had a lot of fun. I can't tell you how appreciative absolutely everyone in the congregation was. It really made me feel good to be a part of their service. We have a standing return invitation.
...Geezer
Kudos to the organist who not only played extremely well, she was also marvelous at conducting us - and that was the very first time some of us had the pleasure of performing with her. The church was small with lively acoustics, so we didn't have to work hard at all to sound nice. Our fanfare prelude went fantastic and really woke everyone up! We totally nailed it. During the service, we played three hymns and they also went well. At the end of a very nicely-done postlude, the crowd went crazy.
I had done my homework diligently and was probably the most relaxed I have ever been playing in front of people. I had a lot of fun. I can't tell you how appreciative absolutely everyone in the congregation was. It really made me feel good to be a part of their service. We have a standing return invitation.
...Geezer
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ttf_Gabe Langfur
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Easter Gig Adventures
This Easter was one for the memoir...
My regular gig at Trinity Church in Copley Square, one of the biggest, most prominent churches in Boston, cut back to two trumpets this year, so I was scrambling until three weeks before Easter, when I was referred to the organist of a church in Natick, MA, about a half hour outside the city, who thought she needed two or three trombones.
Interesting! I thought. The other trombone player on my Trinity gig had made other plans, so I called my grad school teacher, Norman Bolter, who had not played Easter since the BSO players stopped doing Trinity 20-25 years before. He was game.
Then it turned out she had one trumpet player (more on that later) and really needed the rest of a quintet. So I called the horn player from the Trinity gig and thought hard about how to find a trumpet player in Boston three weeks before Easter. I tried a couple of jazz player friends, but everybody was booked. Then a name popped in my head: Lou, who I knew from his repair work at Osmun and work at the Shires factory. Lou came to Boston initially to join the Paramount Brass, a busy professional quintet, and had put his trumpets in the case when they disbanded years before. Every once in a while he would play to test trumpets in the development process, and I knew he was a talented guy with great musical skills. So I called him. Turned out he had just been playing for somebody else and he was happy to keep practicing to play this gig. Literally an Easter miracle.
Then I found out the other trumpet player was a part of BYSO, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras system. OK, I thought, a talented high school student. It will be an adventure, but we'll make it through. When we got to the rehearsal on Saturday, it turned out she was in 6th grade. Uh oh, I thought...but then she started playing. Big sound, excellent intonation. She didn't read as well as the rest of us, obviously, but as soon as she had it, she had it.
The only problem was, she got tired after the first service and went home, so for the second service we covered her part on the quartets by having the horn player read Bb (and fortunately Norman could read F horn parts from having grown up playing duets with his horn player brother) and left it out of the true quintets.
All's well that ends well...Lou didn't run out of chops, Norman had fun, and the organist was thrilled.
My regular gig at Trinity Church in Copley Square, one of the biggest, most prominent churches in Boston, cut back to two trumpets this year, so I was scrambling until three weeks before Easter, when I was referred to the organist of a church in Natick, MA, about a half hour outside the city, who thought she needed two or three trombones.
Interesting! I thought. The other trombone player on my Trinity gig had made other plans, so I called my grad school teacher, Norman Bolter, who had not played Easter since the BSO players stopped doing Trinity 20-25 years before. He was game.
Then it turned out she had one trumpet player (more on that later) and really needed the rest of a quintet. So I called the horn player from the Trinity gig and thought hard about how to find a trumpet player in Boston three weeks before Easter. I tried a couple of jazz player friends, but everybody was booked. Then a name popped in my head: Lou, who I knew from his repair work at Osmun and work at the Shires factory. Lou came to Boston initially to join the Paramount Brass, a busy professional quintet, and had put his trumpets in the case when they disbanded years before. Every once in a while he would play to test trumpets in the development process, and I knew he was a talented guy with great musical skills. So I called him. Turned out he had just been playing for somebody else and he was happy to keep practicing to play this gig. Literally an Easter miracle.
Then I found out the other trumpet player was a part of BYSO, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras system. OK, I thought, a talented high school student. It will be an adventure, but we'll make it through. When we got to the rehearsal on Saturday, it turned out she was in 6th grade. Uh oh, I thought...but then she started playing. Big sound, excellent intonation. She didn't read as well as the rest of us, obviously, but as soon as she had it, she had it.
The only problem was, she got tired after the first service and went home, so for the second service we covered her part on the quartets by having the horn player read Bb (and fortunately Norman could read F horn parts from having grown up playing duets with his horn player brother) and left it out of the true quintets.
All's well that ends well...Lou didn't run out of chops, Norman had fun, and the organist was thrilled.
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ttf_djdekok
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Easter Gig Adventures
Nothing to report. Didn't have a gig this year. 
I actually attended my home church and for the first time ever I didn't get to sing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" (tune: EASTER HYMN) on Easter Sunday.
I'll make up for it on Saturday when the Southeastern Pennsylvania SO performs Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration" and excerpts from all nine Star Wars movies.
I actually attended my home church and for the first time ever I didn't get to sing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" (tune: EASTER HYMN) on Easter Sunday.
I'll make up for it on Saturday when the Southeastern Pennsylvania SO performs Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration" and excerpts from all nine Star Wars movies.
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ttf_MikeBMiller
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Easter Gig Adventures
Quote from: Gabe Langfur on Apr 17, 2017, 07:29AMThis Easter was one for the memoir...
My regular gig at Trinity Church in Copley Square, one of the biggest, most prominent churches in Boston, cut back to two trumpets this year, so I was scrambling until three weeks before Easter, when I was referred to the organist of a church in Natick, MA, about a half hour outside the city, who thought she needed two or three trombones.
Interesting! I thought. The other trombone player on my Trinity gig had made other plans, so I called my grad school teacher, Norman Bolter, who had not played Easter since the BSO players stopped doing Trinity 20-25 years before. He was game.
Then it turned out she had one trumpet player (more on that later) and really needed the rest of a quintet. So I called the horn player from the Trinity gig and thought hard about how to find a trumpet player in Boston three weeks before Easter. I tried a couple of jazz player friends, but everybody was booked. Then a name popped in my head: Lou, who I knew from his repair work at Osmun and work at the Shires factory. Lou came to Boston initially to join the Paramount Brass, a busy professional quintet, and had put his trumpets in the case when they disbanded years before. Every once in a while he would play to test trumpets in the development process, and I knew he was a talented guy with great musical skills. So I called him. Turned out he had just been playing for somebody else and he was happy to keep practicing to play this gig. Literally an Easter miracle.
Then I found out the other trumpet player was a part of BYSO, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras system. OK, I thought, a talented high school student. It will be an adventure, but we'll make it through. When we got to the rehearsal on Saturday, it turned out she was in 6th grade. Uh oh, I thought...but then she started playing. Big sound, excellent intonation. She didn't read as well as the rest of us, obviously, but as soon as she had it, she had it.
The only problem was, she got tired after the first service and went home, so for the second service we covered her part on the quartets by having the horn player read Bb (and fortunately Norman could read F horn parts from having grown up playing duets with his horn player brother) and left it out of the true quintets.
All's well that ends well...Lou didn't run out of chops, Norman had fun, and the organist was thrilled.
You know there is a lot of talent in town when Norman Bolter does't have an Easter gig 3 weeks out.
My regular gig at Trinity Church in Copley Square, one of the biggest, most prominent churches in Boston, cut back to two trumpets this year, so I was scrambling until three weeks before Easter, when I was referred to the organist of a church in Natick, MA, about a half hour outside the city, who thought she needed two or three trombones.
Interesting! I thought. The other trombone player on my Trinity gig had made other plans, so I called my grad school teacher, Norman Bolter, who had not played Easter since the BSO players stopped doing Trinity 20-25 years before. He was game.
Then it turned out she had one trumpet player (more on that later) and really needed the rest of a quintet. So I called the horn player from the Trinity gig and thought hard about how to find a trumpet player in Boston three weeks before Easter. I tried a couple of jazz player friends, but everybody was booked. Then a name popped in my head: Lou, who I knew from his repair work at Osmun and work at the Shires factory. Lou came to Boston initially to join the Paramount Brass, a busy professional quintet, and had put his trumpets in the case when they disbanded years before. Every once in a while he would play to test trumpets in the development process, and I knew he was a talented guy with great musical skills. So I called him. Turned out he had just been playing for somebody else and he was happy to keep practicing to play this gig. Literally an Easter miracle.
Then I found out the other trumpet player was a part of BYSO, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras system. OK, I thought, a talented high school student. It will be an adventure, but we'll make it through. When we got to the rehearsal on Saturday, it turned out she was in 6th grade. Uh oh, I thought...but then she started playing. Big sound, excellent intonation. She didn't read as well as the rest of us, obviously, but as soon as she had it, she had it.
The only problem was, she got tired after the first service and went home, so for the second service we covered her part on the quartets by having the horn player read Bb (and fortunately Norman could read F horn parts from having grown up playing duets with his horn player brother) and left it out of the true quintets.
All's well that ends well...Lou didn't run out of chops, Norman had fun, and the organist was thrilled.
You know there is a lot of talent in town when Norman Bolter does't have an Easter gig 3 weeks out.
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ttf_slide advantage
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Easter Gig Adventures
I usually play 3 services on Easter (and Christmas) at a Methodist church. This year they went a different direction. But I got a call to do a private family event. The woman who called me for the gig told me I would be playing in a jazz quartet with her 90 year old father who played clarinet. Okay.
It was a 2 hour gig straight through but they let us knock off early. The old fellow was real nice. He definitely was suffering some memory issues. And his count offs never matched the tempo of the tune that he started. But like I said, he was 90. It is what it is.
I did what I could to prop him up so to speak. And I did enjoy the experience.
If I can remember how to put my horn together at 90 I'll be happy....assuming I make it that far!
It was a 2 hour gig straight through but they let us knock off early. The old fellow was real nice. He definitely was suffering some memory issues. And his count offs never matched the tempo of the tune that he started. But like I said, he was 90. It is what it is.
I did what I could to prop him up so to speak. And I did enjoy the experience.
If I can remember how to put my horn together at 90 I'll be happy....assuming I make it that far!
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ttf_Gabe Langfur
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Easter Gig Adventures
Quote from: MikeBMiller on Apr 17, 2017, 02:11PMYou know there is a lot of talent in town when Norman Bolter does't have an Easter gig 3 weeks out.
Unlike many other cities, the Boston Symphony players don't really do any freelancing in town. They are so busy all year, with the Pops and Tanglewood schedules, that they generally take the time off they can get.
That said, yes, with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools, there is no shortage of excellent musicians in Boston.
Unlike many other cities, the Boston Symphony players don't really do any freelancing in town. They are so busy all year, with the Pops and Tanglewood schedules, that they generally take the time off they can get.
That said, yes, with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools, there is no shortage of excellent musicians in Boston.
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ttf_Posaunus
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Easter Gig Adventures
Quote from: Gabe Langfur on Apr 17, 2017, 04:00PM... with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools ...
And poor little Longy School of Music (now apparently part of Bard College) gets left in the dust again.
And poor little Longy School of Music (now apparently part of Bard College) gets left in the dust again.
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ttf_Gabe Langfur
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Easter Gig Adventures
Quote from: Posaunus on Apr 17, 2017, 04:11PMAnd poor little Longy School of Music (now apparently part of Bard College) gets left in the dust again.
Oops...sorry! I know some very fine musicians who went to Longy. It's so small though...
Oops...sorry! I know some very fine musicians who went to Longy. It's so small though...
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ttf_anonymous
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- Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2018 10:09 pm
Easter Gig Adventures
Our Quintet played at two churches for almost identical gigs. We played for ten minutes before the service, one hymn with the organ and congregation, the offertory, then a couple numbers for the postlude.
The last piece of the postlude was the Canadian Brass Gillis arrangement of Just a Closer Walk with Thee. Keep in mind that the people are leaving the church at this point, but when we hit the Dixieland section, people came back in! This happened at both churches.
The last piece of the postlude was the Canadian Brass Gillis arrangement of Just a Closer Walk with Thee. Keep in mind that the people are leaving the church at this point, but when we hit the Dixieland section, people came back in! This happened at both churches.
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ttf_bigbassbone1
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Easter Gig Adventures
I didn't play an easter service this year. What happened instead I find quite amazing.
In Melbourne for the last couple of yeas there has been a program called "symphony in a day". To my understanding, a flute player from the University started having the idea of just calling people around town to make up an entire orchestra to meet on a particular date. There is a reasonably big name conductor who agrees to be involved as well. What happens is that most section principles are professional players from the full time orchestras in town and the other parts are filled by freelance players or high end students. The day starts with rehearsal from 10am until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon then the orchestra does an informal concert and it usually sounds quite good. The rep chosen is usually smaller things like brahms mostly because it is difficult to to get a large orchestra of players to give up their day for free.
Recently the conductor told this flute player student who puts it together that he wanted to do mahler 6. It seemed like a massive venture.
What ended up happening was that the orchestra was made up of almost exclusively professional players and rehearsals went all day friday, all day Saturday with a general on sunday morning with concert in the afternoon. The concert was packed, the hall almost filled. It sounded fantastic!
It was amazing to see so many professional players essentially give up their entire easter to play for free. The concert went very well. It was definitely a pleasure to play with so many fantastic players. Definitely a memorable easter!
In Melbourne for the last couple of yeas there has been a program called "symphony in a day". To my understanding, a flute player from the University started having the idea of just calling people around town to make up an entire orchestra to meet on a particular date. There is a reasonably big name conductor who agrees to be involved as well. What happens is that most section principles are professional players from the full time orchestras in town and the other parts are filled by freelance players or high end students. The day starts with rehearsal from 10am until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon then the orchestra does an informal concert and it usually sounds quite good. The rep chosen is usually smaller things like brahms mostly because it is difficult to to get a large orchestra of players to give up their day for free.
Recently the conductor told this flute player student who puts it together that he wanted to do mahler 6. It seemed like a massive venture.
What ended up happening was that the orchestra was made up of almost exclusively professional players and rehearsals went all day friday, all day Saturday with a general on sunday morning with concert in the afternoon. The concert was packed, the hall almost filled. It sounded fantastic!
It was amazing to see so many professional players essentially give up their entire easter to play for free. The concert went very well. It was definitely a pleasure to play with so many fantastic players. Definitely a memorable easter!
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ttf_Alex McMahon
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Easter Gig Adventures
I was hired at a local megachurch to play in an offstage antiphonal group in the balcony (two trumpets, two trombones) to compliment their normal full orchestra (full trumpet, trombone and horn on one side, strings and organ in the middle, Woodwinds and Drummer in a sound dampening booth on the other side, and choir behind them). Many of the regulars are local symphony players, and some university and K-12 teachers scattered in.The whole stage was devoted to music, and a small 10x10ft platform in front at the foot of the stage was for the pastor. I've never played a church gig like it. We did a Saturday rehearsal, then a performance right after and two services Sunday morning. Plenty of half-step up modulations on the verses, but not a problem for our group. Antiphonal parts were done in about 15 minutes and I had time to get breakfast between the Sunday services. Definitely will play there as often as I can!
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ttf_MikeBMiller
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Easter Gig Adventures
Quote from: Gabe Langfur on Apr 17, 2017, 04:00PMUnlike many other cities, the Boston Symphony players don't really do any freelancing in town. They are so busy all year, with the Pops and Tanglewood schedules, that they generally take the time off they can get.
That said, yes, with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools, there is no shortage of excellent musicians in Boston.
I guess that's the one advantage of where I live. There are no actual full time trombone players in town, so a decent amateur who is willing to hustle can get a fair number of gigs. If I lived in Boston, I would probably be lucky to find a community band that would let me in.
That said, yes, with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools, there is no shortage of excellent musicians in Boston.
I guess that's the one advantage of where I live. There are no actual full time trombone players in town, so a decent amateur who is willing to hustle can get a fair number of gigs. If I lived in Boston, I would probably be lucky to find a community band that would let me in.
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ttf_MikeBMiller
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- Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2018 12:01 pm
Easter Gig Adventures
Quote from: Gabe Langfur on Apr 17, 2017, 04:00PMUnlike many other cities, the Boston Symphony players don't really do any freelancing in town. They are so busy all year, with the Pops and Tanglewood schedules, that they generally take the time off they can get.
That said, yes, with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools, there is no shortage of excellent musicians in Boston.
I guess that's the one advantage of where I live. There are no actual full time trombone players in town, so a decent amateur who is willing to hustle can get a fair number of gigs. If I lived in Boston, I would probably be lucky to find a community band that would let me in.
That said, yes, with four (now 3 with the merging of Boston Conservatory and Berklee) major music schools, there is no shortage of excellent musicians in Boston.
I guess that's the one advantage of where I live. There are no actual full time trombone players in town, so a decent amateur who is willing to hustle can get a fair number of gigs. If I lived in Boston, I would probably be lucky to find a community band that would let me in.