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Two Concerts and a Quiche
May. 6th, 2024 06:22 amThursday was data entry, although I felt very tired and wanted to sleep...could have slept for the whole day.
But instead plugged away to the best of my ability while Jameson went to the gym and worked too.
I practiced disco music for The Florida Orchestra, but not much, and I feel unprepared for them. For this concert I'm relying heavily on my ability to stay calm and sightread, haha. Also their casual-ness about missing pages from my parts, in turn, makes me feel more casual about the whole thing. I learned Elephants on Parade for MSP, it's just a short little snippet of the full song and was easy to learn.
A bit more work but I was psychologically done and needed a break.
Went back to the grocery to get salad ingredients for tonight's quiche, and ran the dishwasher, and assembled the salad. The quiche was easy to put together, but it took an hour to bake.
Cream, local farm eggs, Gruyere cheese, shallots, spinach, cayenne, nutmeg, and a wheat crust.
I was pleased with myself for reducing the shallots in the recipe by half. Many years ago I made this same recipe for us, and some brain cell in the back of my head conveniently recalled that we'd complained of "too many onions." Halving them was absolutely perfect. And it didn't overbake either, it was creamy and the Gruyere was such a beautiful luscious flavor. One of the nicer dinners I've made in a while.
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Friday, I was nervous about the orchestra gig but went about my day as usual.
Checked on the vanilla, and there are definitely THREE beans growing! Success!!
The green things hanging down, with a dead flower on the tips, are the beans.
The yellow things sticking straight up are dead/dying stems from flowers that bloomed but weren't pollinated.
Now they must survive on the vine for eight months. There is no rain forecast for the next 10 days at least and temps in the mid-90s, so I'll have to remember to water them every few days (orchids don't require much water but they need SOME ffs.) And hopefully slugs don't eat the beans, or they don't get chewed off by ants, etc etc.
Did my data entry, practiced MSP music and the orchestra stuff one last time, then after lunch packed up and drove the 1.5 hours to Tampa. I've played at the Straz before so it was easy to find, and the bass trombonist kindly shared the orchestra's free parking code with me! So I got there in plenty of time to set up and meet everyone.
Here's Joel Vaisse, the principal trombonist (and the guy who didn't want to play his disco improv solo, which is why I get to do it haha.) He's a rather renowned French trombonist...according to the site he's been principal trombone of EVERY major orchestra in France!! Good golly. But the first thing I noticed about him was that his trombone case had a huge decal of an alligator + a giant mosquito on it. Inclusion of the mosquito (Florida realism!) convinced me he'd be down-to-earth. And he was! Very welcoming and kind, eager to talk about the orchestra and recent gigs and his experience in Florida so far, and chill about the show and just having a good time with it. His resume may be intimidating, but we're all still just people out here.
And I of course said hello to Harold, the bass trombonist that I performed with on Candlelight and who pretty much single-handedly got me this gig. I thanked him for that, we chatted etc etc, and then it was time for rehearsal.
It went pretty well? I was cautiously pleased with myself, first for getting several difficult rhythms right...I heard Joel botch them a bit and that is NOT to disparage him at all, I had plenty of mistakes all night. What I'm saying is that hearing that I wasn't alone in making some mistakes--realizing the shared difficulty of the music--made me feel more at ease and confident that I was doing an acceptable job among professional orchestra musicians. And I was pleased secondly when it came time for the disco solo and it actually came out pretty well! I got applause from the orchestra and the vocalists up front yelled, "YAAAAAS GIRL TROMBONE!" and the conductor acknowledged me with, "Nice solo!" That felt good :)
After rehearsal Harold and I and some trumpets followed Joel to a Greek place, where we got lovely pitas/gyros and chatted about this and that. There was a lot of time to kill before the show so after dinner we went to a coffee shop and hung out there for at least an hour. I ended up talking about the circus and touring a lot...always happens, the circus is interesting and so is touring. But I also got to hear Joel and Harold swap stories about several TFO concerts that had interesting music or weird stuff that happened, and to hear about the musical experiences of some of the other folks who were with us. Everyone talked a little about their musical and personal backgrounds.
Back at the theatre we got cleaned up and ready for the show.
My spot. Trombones are always in the back. I'm glad, it allows for more goofing off :p
That's Harold on the left.
I was the only woman in the brass section except for a woman on French horn waaaaay down on the opposite side of the theatre.
There's nothing inherently WRONG with the brass section being 98% male. Everyone was kind and professional. But statistically, it does make me a little sad. Did you know that there are NO female trombones in the top 20 American orchestras right now?
(this survey is six years old and is STILL true.)
Anyway, I didn't dwell on it any more than that. There was a lot of audience participation, and everyone seemed to be having a great time! We danced a bit back in the trombone section; I'm glad that Joel and Harold are FUN and not too stuffy. It's important to be professional and perform to the best standard possible, but also this was a disco pops concert with the audience coming up on stage to drink and dance, and it seemed right to relax and enjoy entertaining others!
Most things went well for me, I made more mistakes than I would like none of them were horrible/distracting. My solo came out "just ok" during the show, not as good as the one in rehearsal...but isn't that always the way. I'll have another chance at Sunday's concert.
Afterward we shook hands all around and said "See you on Sunday" and hoofed it to our cars. It was a long drive back and I was tired, but very grateful for this experience. I haven't played an orchestra gig since COLLEGE, and certainly not a UNION orchestra gig. I still don't think I'm "good enough" to be there.
---------------------------------------------------------
Saturday didn't feel like the weekend at all. I still had to get up at 7 to work, I once again didn't meet my hours :(
After lunch Jameson went to get his car worked on at the dealership, and I misted the vanilla plant and did a load of laundry and memorized the last piece of "Parade" music for MSP. Next up is one of the "Castle" sets, those will be longer and more difficult pieces, but I have until June to get them in my head.
Jameson had a headache at night so we took it easy.
--------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I didn't set an alarm and woke at the late, late hour of 8:30am. Lol.
Breakfast and after Jameson went to his massage appointment, I cleaned our bathrooms, dusted, practiced MSP music, and washed my small trombone because I'm bringing it to the concert tonight for show-and-tell. My small trombone is a rare Earl Williams model so I always offer it to other trombonists to try or just admire.
Worked for about two hours then chilled and watched the Cubs game with Jameson until it was time for me to start driving. This concert was in a different venue a little PAST Tampa, so the drive is longer but on the other hand I won't have to fight to get out of a parking garage.
Got there just fine, and set up all of my stuff an hour before the concert. Chatted with the other trombonists and people I’ve met here. Joel did play the Williams for a little bit, but he said it's been ages since he played a small bore trombone so he didn't want to mess up his chops right before a concert (completely legitimate and can actually happen!) I should have known, since he's been orchestral all his life, but it was cool of him to check it out; it's a piece of American history! And Harold of course recognized a rare horn when he saw one, but he's a bass trombonist so this was for him to admire and not to play.
And before I knew it it was time to start. Harold again on the left, warming up.
The concert went just fine, just as well as last time. I think my solo was a little better this time as well. Afterward while we were packing up, Harold and Joel suggested a section picture. Red disco lighting :p From left to right Joel, me, Harold, and Joseph on tuba.
I exchanged numbers with the guys at their request, and they expressed interest in having me back for the 24/25 season, which was great! Just grateful that I got to do this at all. It’s been ages since I’ve done an orchestra gig and it was a lot of fun. Biggest thanks to the Candlelight performances and to Harold, who was true to his word.
Driving home was actually lousy, there was construction AND an accident and it took me almost until midnight to get home. Sometimes life is like that.
---------------------------------------------------------
By the time you are reading this it’s Monday. Jameson has a meeting in the afternoon, and I’ve promised to make sous vide salmon for dinner, so I’m probably driving to Whole Paycheck first thing in the morning for ingredients and fresh fish.
Other than that it should be a pretty boring day of data entry work and memorization. I have a full day of Disney on Tuesday, but the rest of the week should be quiet.
But instead plugged away to the best of my ability while Jameson went to the gym and worked too.
I practiced disco music for The Florida Orchestra, but not much, and I feel unprepared for them. For this concert I'm relying heavily on my ability to stay calm and sightread, haha. Also their casual-ness about missing pages from my parts, in turn, makes me feel more casual about the whole thing. I learned Elephants on Parade for MSP, it's just a short little snippet of the full song and was easy to learn.
A bit more work but I was psychologically done and needed a break.
Went back to the grocery to get salad ingredients for tonight's quiche, and ran the dishwasher, and assembled the salad. The quiche was easy to put together, but it took an hour to bake.
Cream, local farm eggs, Gruyere cheese, shallots, spinach, cayenne, nutmeg, and a wheat crust.
I was pleased with myself for reducing the shallots in the recipe by half. Many years ago I made this same recipe for us, and some brain cell in the back of my head conveniently recalled that we'd complained of "too many onions." Halving them was absolutely perfect. And it didn't overbake either, it was creamy and the Gruyere was such a beautiful luscious flavor. One of the nicer dinners I've made in a while.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, I was nervous about the orchestra gig but went about my day as usual.
Checked on the vanilla, and there are definitely THREE beans growing! Success!!
The green things hanging down, with a dead flower on the tips, are the beans.
The yellow things sticking straight up are dead/dying stems from flowers that bloomed but weren't pollinated.
Now they must survive on the vine for eight months. There is no rain forecast for the next 10 days at least and temps in the mid-90s, so I'll have to remember to water them every few days (orchids don't require much water but they need SOME ffs.) And hopefully slugs don't eat the beans, or they don't get chewed off by ants, etc etc.
Did my data entry, practiced MSP music and the orchestra stuff one last time, then after lunch packed up and drove the 1.5 hours to Tampa. I've played at the Straz before so it was easy to find, and the bass trombonist kindly shared the orchestra's free parking code with me! So I got there in plenty of time to set up and meet everyone.
Here's Joel Vaisse, the principal trombonist (and the guy who didn't want to play his disco improv solo, which is why I get to do it haha.) He's a rather renowned French trombonist...according to the site he's been principal trombone of EVERY major orchestra in France!! Good golly. But the first thing I noticed about him was that his trombone case had a huge decal of an alligator + a giant mosquito on it. Inclusion of the mosquito (Florida realism!) convinced me he'd be down-to-earth. And he was! Very welcoming and kind, eager to talk about the orchestra and recent gigs and his experience in Florida so far, and chill about the show and just having a good time with it. His resume may be intimidating, but we're all still just people out here.
And I of course said hello to Harold, the bass trombonist that I performed with on Candlelight and who pretty much single-handedly got me this gig. I thanked him for that, we chatted etc etc, and then it was time for rehearsal.
It went pretty well? I was cautiously pleased with myself, first for getting several difficult rhythms right...I heard Joel botch them a bit and that is NOT to disparage him at all, I had plenty of mistakes all night. What I'm saying is that hearing that I wasn't alone in making some mistakes--realizing the shared difficulty of the music--made me feel more at ease and confident that I was doing an acceptable job among professional orchestra musicians. And I was pleased secondly when it came time for the disco solo and it actually came out pretty well! I got applause from the orchestra and the vocalists up front yelled, "YAAAAAS GIRL TROMBONE!" and the conductor acknowledged me with, "Nice solo!" That felt good :)
After rehearsal Harold and I and some trumpets followed Joel to a Greek place, where we got lovely pitas/gyros and chatted about this and that. There was a lot of time to kill before the show so after dinner we went to a coffee shop and hung out there for at least an hour. I ended up talking about the circus and touring a lot...always happens, the circus is interesting and so is touring. But I also got to hear Joel and Harold swap stories about several TFO concerts that had interesting music or weird stuff that happened, and to hear about the musical experiences of some of the other folks who were with us. Everyone talked a little about their musical and personal backgrounds.
Back at the theatre we got cleaned up and ready for the show.
My spot. Trombones are always in the back. I'm glad, it allows for more goofing off :p
That's Harold on the left.
I was the only woman in the brass section except for a woman on French horn waaaaay down on the opposite side of the theatre.
There's nothing inherently WRONG with the brass section being 98% male. Everyone was kind and professional. But statistically, it does make me a little sad. Did you know that there are NO female trombones in the top 20 American orchestras right now?
(this survey is six years old and is STILL true.)
Anyway, I didn't dwell on it any more than that. There was a lot of audience participation, and everyone seemed to be having a great time! We danced a bit back in the trombone section; I'm glad that Joel and Harold are FUN and not too stuffy. It's important to be professional and perform to the best standard possible, but also this was a disco pops concert with the audience coming up on stage to drink and dance, and it seemed right to relax and enjoy entertaining others!
Most things went well for me, I made more mistakes than I would like none of them were horrible/distracting. My solo came out "just ok" during the show, not as good as the one in rehearsal...but isn't that always the way. I'll have another chance at Sunday's concert.
Afterward we shook hands all around and said "See you on Sunday" and hoofed it to our cars. It was a long drive back and I was tired, but very grateful for this experience. I haven't played an orchestra gig since COLLEGE, and certainly not a UNION orchestra gig. I still don't think I'm "good enough" to be there.
---------------------------------------------------------
Saturday didn't feel like the weekend at all. I still had to get up at 7 to work, I once again didn't meet my hours :(
After lunch Jameson went to get his car worked on at the dealership, and I misted the vanilla plant and did a load of laundry and memorized the last piece of "Parade" music for MSP. Next up is one of the "Castle" sets, those will be longer and more difficult pieces, but I have until June to get them in my head.
Jameson had a headache at night so we took it easy.
--------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I didn't set an alarm and woke at the late, late hour of 8:30am. Lol.
Breakfast and after Jameson went to his massage appointment, I cleaned our bathrooms, dusted, practiced MSP music, and washed my small trombone because I'm bringing it to the concert tonight for show-and-tell. My small trombone is a rare Earl Williams model so I always offer it to other trombonists to try or just admire.
Worked for about two hours then chilled and watched the Cubs game with Jameson until it was time for me to start driving. This concert was in a different venue a little PAST Tampa, so the drive is longer but on the other hand I won't have to fight to get out of a parking garage.
Got there just fine, and set up all of my stuff an hour before the concert. Chatted with the other trombonists and people I’ve met here. Joel did play the Williams for a little bit, but he said it's been ages since he played a small bore trombone so he didn't want to mess up his chops right before a concert (completely legitimate and can actually happen!) I should have known, since he's been orchestral all his life, but it was cool of him to check it out; it's a piece of American history! And Harold of course recognized a rare horn when he saw one, but he's a bass trombonist so this was for him to admire and not to play.
And before I knew it it was time to start. Harold again on the left, warming up.
The concert went just fine, just as well as last time. I think my solo was a little better this time as well. Afterward while we were packing up, Harold and Joel suggested a section picture. Red disco lighting :p From left to right Joel, me, Harold, and Joseph on tuba.
I exchanged numbers with the guys at their request, and they expressed interest in having me back for the 24/25 season, which was great! Just grateful that I got to do this at all. It’s been ages since I’ve done an orchestra gig and it was a lot of fun. Biggest thanks to the Candlelight performances and to Harold, who was true to his word.
Driving home was actually lousy, there was construction AND an accident and it took me almost until midnight to get home. Sometimes life is like that.
---------------------------------------------------------
By the time you are reading this it’s Monday. Jameson has a meeting in the afternoon, and I’ve promised to make sous vide salmon for dinner, so I’m probably driving to Whole Paycheck first thing in the morning for ingredients and fresh fish.
Other than that it should be a pretty boring day of data entry work and memorization. I have a full day of Disney on Tuesday, but the rest of the week should be quiet.
