January 23, 2004
The Weekend
Another work week draws to a close. Unfortunately I don't really have a weekend. I work most Saturdays at Air Force band rehearsals, quite often have something Saturday night and Sundays I usually have a meeting, rehearsal or concert. No rest for the wicked.
I'm sitting at work right now just wasting (if you want to call writing in my blog wasting) time as I am going to a concert tonight here on the West Island so it makes no sense to go all the way downtown just to turn around and come back out here. Should be a good concert. Carol Welsman, in a small concert hall , Salle Pauline-Julien.
Tomorrow night I promised Stephanie, the 10th grader who plays bassoon in the FACE Orchestra with me, that I would go to her play. I really would like to do nothing but she'll be really happy if I go. Besides, it's in the 'hood!
Sunday I actually have off this week! Yeah! There are a ton of things I should be doing, cleaning house, organizing bills, straighteng up personal websites, but I will probably end up doing nothing. Seems to happen all the time, no in-between. It's either running around like an idiot or doing absolutely nothing.
We'll see how it goes...
January 18, 2004
Selfish Giant
Just got back from the end of a recording project. Spent the last few evenings recording music written for the Oscar Wilde story, The Selfish Giant. The music was written as a children's opera by Greek composer Nikos Xanthoulis and the project was brought together by Montreal tenor and vocal entrepreneur Dimitris Ilias.
Nikos had originally scored it for full orchestra and it was performed on Greek radio. He rescored it for chamber orchestra and this project is for a children's book in Greek. Also being used were narrators, vocal soloists and a children's choir. The book/cd will be published by a major Greek publishing house.
We had one orchestra only rehearsal last Sunday, a rehearsal with vocalists and the choir on Thursday then three straight evenings of recording, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We did the recordings at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall at Concordia University which is wired to act as a recording studio. This makes about the forth or fifth cd I've made there working with Mark Corwin, the sound techie/prof there.
The session went well, one can always do better, it will be interesting to hear how it all turns out. Mark is really good at hiding our mistakes ;-) It was great working with Nikos, everything was really relaxed and he said what a differnce it is working with musicians here than in Greece. He was surprised that we were so disciplined, he says the musicians in Greece are disrespectful toward conductors. I think he enjoyed working with us. He also told us that the children's choir (who sang in Greek) has an accent which people in Greece will find cute and know they are from North America.
The book/cd set is supposed to set for the launch sometime in March/April. There will be an official launch sometime during that time. So, on to some action shots of the recording session:
This is the orchestra in the hall.
This is the kids choir.
Me and my bassoon...
Nikos pointing something out to the percussionists.
The woodwind section of the orchestra with the composer/conductor: Kelly (flute), Anke (oboe), Nikos, Emmanuel (clarinet) and me (bassoon).
The organizers of the project, Dimitris and Maria
January 15, 2004
COLD!
Oh my god, it's so cold. It's friggin freezing here these days, I'm busy as anything and my car is giving problems. Anytime it goes below about -15 it starts bucking as I try to drive it. I'm swamped at work and I have a recording session this weekend.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that my beastie keeps up.