Day one over

Hello all-
I had a decent night sleep last night, except when I got here, my brand new digital alarm clock I bought to bring along would not work, so I went to bed with an alarm set. Kinda scary after not sleeping last night very much. Afraid I would not get up on time this morning. Woke up around 8 on my own and then laid around and dozed until 10am. Got ready, went down and had a light breakfast, and then Gustavo came by at 11 to head out. Breakfast was great-omelet, bacon, fruit, muffin, and REAL orange juice. Tasted like I was squeezing a fresh orange right into my glass. The juices here are wonderful.

Gustavo and I walked to the Pantheon de Heroes just a few blocks away. This is their memorial to soldiers of past wars. Small, but very nice. I will go back and take some pics to post in the morning. Then we went to some shops to get me a new alarm clock and a mike for my headset. Should be good to go for skyping tonight-I hope.

Then went and had a cup of coffee before rehearsal. Ok, so rehearsal....

Many new faces in the group this year. they just came off of a big concert last Thursday night with Luca Testa, an Italian conductor. Then, yesterday, they had a 3 1/2 recording session to record the Pines of Rome which they played on the concert last week. Then today, they pass out all new music and here we go again. I think the orchestra was very tired from yesterday and of course we were just sight reading the music so we had to stop alot and just regroup at times.

I opened with Candide and it is pretty hard for them. they got much better as we went and I think they like it. Can you believe that no one in the group had played the piece before.

Then we read the Buckaroo Holiday movement from the Rodeo Suite. Wow, they didn't read that very well. Lots of work to do on that one. Then we went on with the second movement and it was fine. Not very hard at all. then I went onto the Hoedown movement and things were going along ok. Then we started running into problems where things just weren't lining up. After much discussion, we determined that the version they were playing from is different than the score I am conducting from. ARGH!!! We stopped that movement and they are going to have the right score from their library of the version we are doing for tomorrow so we can finish it out. It will be fine and playable, just wrong rehearsal marks, etc.

then we took our break. We then read the 3rd mvt. of the Hanson Symphony and it went OK. It is the easy movement and I think they will do well with it. then we read Jim Clanton's vibraphone concerto and it actually went pretty well. I was worried about this one as it is a bit contemporary and has lots of coming and going by the players. I think it will be fine. Then I let the winds and brass go and we read Eric Whitacre's October. They will do great with that.

So, believe it or not, we did NOT get through the entire program today. I still have three pieces, plus the other two movements of the symphony to get through. that will be tomorrow's rehearsal. Lots to do.

After rehearsal, I met Gustavo and two of his sisters for a glass of juice at a snack shop, then came back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow's rehearsal. Jim is resting for awhile and I am doing this, then we are going to meet at 7pm to go to dinner together. Should be an early night.

No early plans for me tomorrow. Just rehearsal again from 1215-315. so far, my schedule is much less hectic than last year, but I bet it will pick up next week.

I have tried to post a picture, but will see if it works. You may remember from last year I took some photos from my breakfast table of some construction work going on across the street from my hotel. Very slow progress and antiquated equipment. Well if the pic works, here is what the construction job created. Pretty amazing.

I think that is all for now. Hope all is well with you and I will write again tomorrow.

Ciao, Ciao