Monday, January 16, 2012

My Sunday presentation to the JCV Men's Club...

Last weekend I was invited by Marty Himmelfarb - Violin, who is also President of the Jewish Congregation of Venice Men's Club to make a presentation on the Venice Community Orchestra. Here is the essence of my presentation.

HOW THE VENICE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA CAME ABOUT

Thank you Marty for your invitation to talk to the JCV Men’s Club, I am humbled but thrilled to be here to talk about the VCO.

When Marty’s asked me if I could talk about the VCO, my immediate reaction was  “What am I going to share with an audience who I know has a very rich and interesting work & life experience?” Seriously…. What does someone who’s picked up the cello some 3 1/2 years ago and assembled  20 musicians to play together can share with you? 

It didn’t take me long though to decide that it is something I must do if I am serious about this project; and I am very serious about it while I also have fun developing it. I will first describe our orchestra then gladly take your questions and conclude with a few lessons learned. Before we get into it, any amateur musician in the audience? Let’s chat at the end of my presentation…

The VCO’s goal is to provide a forum where musicians of all levels can play together while building bridges with the Venice Community, and that is precisely the reason I’m thrilled to share this story with you today.

We started the VCO in May 2011 with a harpist, a flutist and myself. By the end of October 2011 we had 25 musicians on board! Quite a few had joined us from The Venice Symphony orchestra & the Sarasota Pops just for the summer while their orchestras are inactive. We look forward to having them rejoin sometime in May since we are the only orchestra in the area practicing 12 months a year.

Today we have 22 members composed of young adults to senior amateurs, retired or active professional. We play and rehearse once a week at the Jacaranda library under the direction of a qualified coach/conductor. We play classical and traditional music; so far we’ve performed three times at the Good Shepherd Church who was hosting us during 2011. We are looking forward to our fourth public performance at the Jacaranda library on February 25 at 2 pm. Sometime this year we will start exploring the possibility of playing Mendelson 9th String Concerto in C Minor.

You’re probably wondering how did this come about?

I started to learn how to play the cello in 2008 and for a long time travelled back an forth once or twice a week from home in Venice to Sarasota for cello lessons or to play with a Sarasota based amateur orchestra. In September 2010 I attended a 4-day music camp in Atlanta and as I was wining about my travel issue with a fellow camper, she suddenly said to me: “Why don’t you start an orchestra in Venice near your home!” Yeah right… in Venice …

At the end of the camp my cello and I had a 9 hrs drive from Atlanta to Venice. I loaded my CD player with music and suddenly my wheels started to turn. How do I start this? Is it realistic? What do I need to launch this project? 

Intuitively I postulated that one needs to be an accomplished musician with a recognizable name to build an orchestra. That was my first mistake….

I knew that there was no amateur string orchestra within a 25-mile radius and decided to investigate. I called about 8 music teachers in the area, some of them symphony orchestra musicians as well as a couple of Florida based orchestra conductors to discuss my project. The more I talked the more I became convinced that the project would be viable for Venice.

Now I needed a place to practice, a conductor and like any other small business start-up, I need to move fast in recruiting musicians to start create momentum and keep building from there.

Here again I approached a couple of schools and various churches until I met a younger priest from the Good Shepherd church on Center Rd in Venice who was interested to help in exchange for the occasional play at the church. GS also had a Choir Master/Organist who graciously volunteered to help us out. I had a home to practice and a coach/conductor who has now become a friend! All I needed to do was to cycle back with the contacts I had developed along the way and run a few ads in our local papers. The rest is history…. 


In January this year we moved to the Jacaranda library where you can join us or hear us rehearse every Saturday from 10 am to Noon.


In retrospect, the rewards are by far more than expected. I don’t know who gets more out this project, me or the musicians, but I strongly suspect it's me.

Thank you for your time and attention; I’ll be happy to take any question you might have.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The music we will play in 2012 ...

      Every now and then a new musician will join us, so posting the music we play makes it real easy for anyone to check if their inventory of music is complete. Please note that 5 of the pieces we will play during 2012 are carried forward from 2011.

A.  MOSTLY TRADITIONAL 
  1.  Danny Boy – Londonderry Air
  2.   Dona Nobi Pacem – W. A. Mozart (2011)
  3.   Lara’s Theme From Doctor Zhivago – Maurice Jarre
  4.   Lean on Me – Bill Withers (2011)
  5.   Simple Gifts - Shaker Hymn (2011)
  6.   Star Spangled Banner – Francis Scott Key
  7.   Symphonic Miniature (2011)
  8.   William Tell Overture – G. Rossini (2011)
  9.   Your Raise Me Up – Brendan Graham (2011)
     B.  SYMPHONIC & CONCERTOS
  1.   Brook Green Suite – Gustav Holt
  2.   Concerto In D Minor – J.S. Bach
  3.   Mendelson Simfonia No. 9
     C.  COMPILATIONS
  1.   Brentwood String Orchestra Folio – 16 Pieces
  2.   Rodgers & Hammerstein String Colors – 14 Pieces
  3.   String Colors – 14 Pieces

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Most current activities ...

Last Saturday we started rehearsing at the Jacaranda library. By all accounts it was well received by our membership, the library staff and a few library users who happen to be there on that day. Most importantly while we continue to have fun, we started to create awareness with library users and I have already received a couple of inquiries regarding the possibility of library guests joining us.

We decided to postpone our Feb 5 performance at the Old Venice Train Station Depot and focus our rehearsals on our planned Feb 25 first performance at the Jacaranda library. The library administration will take it upon themselves to promote the event. I understand that Angela will soon suggest our Feb 25 tentative program. 

Most recently, a member of the Venice Concert Band who played with us during the Christmas concert decided to join us for weekly play. She understands that we are not rich with wind instrument music but that didn’t deter Lauren Allegri from joining us next Saturday. Being techno savvy, she will take it upon herself to transpose string music for her bass clarinet and possibly for other wind instruments she will invite to join us. Something tells me that this might be the starting point in adding a few wind instruments to the VCO. 

There are loads of articles on seating arrangements for small orchestra’s on the internet. I reviewed some of them and circulated a schematic with a proposed new seating arrangement; as usual better ideas are always welcome.