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In a way I had resigned myself to orchestras not beginning again until January - that gave me more time to prepare myself.
But I did email the organiser of the South London String Orchestra a few weeks back to suggest that at least we could all wear facemasks, whereas wind and brass players can't. He got in touch with the church that owns the hall, to ask if we could reconvene in September, and they replied we could move in at the end of July if we wanted!
Which is nice. Otoh, I'm scared because I'll be less good than I wanted. And also I need to apply for an over 60s travel pass, so I'd better get my e-Skates on.
Andrew
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We're probably going to be much more cautious in the US, given the situation here.
My orchestra has not officially canceled anything yet; officially we are still resuming normal rehearsals in our usual venue in late August.
HOWEVER... it appears unlikely that will actually happen. Orchestra management is currently exploring alternate options, all of which involve rehearsing and performing outdoors. I don't think playing indoors is even being considered now. Depending on both the coronavirus situation and the availability of appropriate venues, we may decide to perform as a full orchestra outdoors (appears unlikely), split into a string orchestra and a wind band for the fall, or organize an outdoor chamber music series. Also depending on venue, we would either play in front of a socially distanced audience or produce livestream-only concerts. An email went out to orchestra members asking for venue suggestions for both outdoor rehearsals and outdoor concerts that would allow musicians to be safely distanced.
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I agree Andrew. Unlikely that it will happen.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Thought I would share this. Found this thing called JamKazam. It's an application you can install on your Mac or PC that allows people to play together in real-time.
You do need a digital interface though, and a decent internet connection, and not on wifi.
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@John Bracone - thanks for sharing that - it has a certain potential for those more fortunate than I ! ( although - I wouldn't exactly call it "real time" - but equally in a sense yes - or at least "close enough" on a good connection ! )
Must admit - been there with that on JamKazam - and - yes OK - "wifi" to my router (not cellular - which is even slower than my "broadband") - it's well capable of 75Mbps - but the underlying "super fast broadband" over copper to the exchange (yes, that's REALLY what they call it) - is this -
And no - it don't work here - such a shame !
Still, very well worth drawing it to folks attention - TY !
For live-streamed (solo - no "jamming with others" possible - well not "live" anyway - it can always be captured by others for a subsequent mix-down and edit...) - I fall back to StreetJelly - it "just-fits and-no-more" into my upload speed - the video and audio stream on SJ sits around 750kbps outbound - man it's close to all I got ! LOL
Thanks again for pointing that out - can be useful for many I'm sure !
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh - 
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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My orchestra is back, more or less. (I'm still not rehearsing due to injury.) Rehearsing outdoors, strings orchestra only, masked and distanced.
The first concert of the season was supposed to be last night; obviously it didn't happen. The new concert program is set, but the concert date is still up in the air because the start of rehearsals was delayed by wildfire smoke, and because we're still trying to find an appropriate outdoor performance venue. For selfish reasons I don't mind the delay at all, because it gives me a decent chance of returning in time to rehearse adequately and play the concert.
Just to assure people we're still around, the orchestra released short video clips from the first two rehearsals.
Again, I'm not involved so far, but still hoping to recover from my car accident in time to perform.
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@AndrewH - good to learn that in spite of everything, the orchestra is still active, and at least some progress is being made!
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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@Gordon Shumway, I was wondering, how is it going with the South London String Orchestra? Were you able to start up? Is it still able to continue, if it did start up in July?
Did you see the wind instrument masks for orchestras? I am thinking they might affevt sound? I can’t remember where I saw them last week. Maybe it was news section in the news.
The Bumblebee Flies!
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Camellia Symphony ended up never actually playing a concert. We didn't have an outdoor rehearsal venue with sufficient lighting to rehearse after dark (and couldn't rehearse earlier in the day because of people's day jobs), and didn't have enough time to prepare a full program because wildfire smoke caused the cancellation of multiple rehearsals, so the decision was made to stop at the end of October when Daylight Saving Time ended.
Instead of performing a full program, the orchestra recorded one piece from it, a new composition by Iranian-American composer Aida Shirazi.
I just got an email on Monday. We're going to try to reconvene to play one outdoor concert later in the spring, weather permitting. In light of more recent findings on droplets and aerosols from wind instruments, we will try to include everyone this time, provided that we can find rehearsal and performance venues with enough space for proper distancing. (If we can't include the wind players, we'll probably play the string orchestra program that was planned for the fall.)
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I can see it clearly, now.
Thirty years from now for my Daughter, fifty years from now for my Grandchildren - they will be telling each of their respective Grandchildren:
"You have life so easy and know nothing about hardship! When I was young we had Covid! Had to walk 10 miles to the Grocery because gas prices were too high! Couldn't see what we bought because we had 10 layers of masks on our face. All toilet paper had mysteriously vanished off the planet... Kids would've gladly walked even further, thru a blizzard, if there had just been a School open... and Violinists, Violists and Cellists would've hiked for days to meet up with an outdoor Orchestra!"
What will I tell my Great Grandkids about us Fiddlers?
"We sat around the Kitchen table, fiddling months on end - until we all ran out of tunes to play... then, played them all over again!"
- Emily
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ELCBK said
"and Violinists, Violists and Cellists would've hiked for days to meet up with an outdoor Orchestra!"
YES, absolutely yes!! 😂
I miss so much my cello group...😭
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Mouse said
@Gordon Shumway, I was wondering, how is it going with the South London String Orchestra? Were you able to start up? Is it still able to continue, if it did start up in July?Did you see the wind instrument masks for orchestras? I am thinking they might affevt sound? I can’t remember where I saw them last week. Maybe it was news section in the news.
Sorry, haven't been logged on for a week. The SLSO is due, like most of Britain, to meet up on or after May 17th, I think.
Andrew
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No apologies necessary. It will be great for you all to get together.
The Bumblebee Flies!
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Well, we're back, to some extent. Last night I went to my first orchestra rehearsal in 14 months. Still outdoors, and strings only -- because we still don't have a venue large enough to seat the full orchestra with proper distance, we're temporarily splitting into a string orchestra and a concert band.
No scheduled performance at this time, but that's still being worked on. The repertoire is changed from the fall. The Dvorak Serenade for Strings is still on (unlike almost everyone else I was sight-reading last night), with two other pieces that were not worked on in the fall: the Elgar Serenade for Strings, and the Mendelssohn D minor violin concerto (the lesser-known one which is scored for violin and string orchestra). I just had time to get a couple of pictures -- for most of the rehearsal I found that the paper clips I used to secure my music weren't quite enough and I had to use my phone as a paperweight.
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That's FANTASTIC news, Andrew! 🤗
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weve had an eventful week ending here..things seem almost normal. attended a graduation that seemed pre 2020 and completed our yearly irish concert. everyone played great! lots of fun. wish i had some video or photos..just wasnt able. plus im not sure others wouldve wanted that..especially with kids in it..anyway..about 25 or so of us. outside under a tent. one of the youngsters played bodrhan and provided some excellent rhythm along with a awesome guitar player. had some flutes/whiatles/and mando's involved as well..earlier in the week I asked a fellow student to come to my lesson and play through the set list with me and the instructor which was awesome..we had good practice run through.. something to keep in mind for anyone doing similar things down the road. mid tempo irish sessions starting back up in June..so looking forward to that and it gives a goal to work toward.
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Great News, Greg!
The concert had to be AWESOME!
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Congratulations Andrew. That is fantastic news. Glad to hear it!
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Glad to hear it Andrew! Nice getting together again with other players!
My summer has gotten busy with performances and gigs too, which is good and bad news. Good because lots of playing, good because in my area/county we have fairly high fully vaccinated rate (Hmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with living by Mayo Clinic). Bad because all my time has to go to guitar again and learning a ton of new material in a short time. I do not play out in a band any more which which be a somewhat stable set list, but I do play with an orchestra and in the pit for musicals.
Apparently being a guitarist who can read sheet music is somewhat a novelty, and gets me a lot of these types of performances. :O
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@Sasha -
WHAT GREAT NEWS!
Set the fiddle near your bed.
...pretty soon you'll be ready to go to sleep
...feel it staring at you
...you'll start to feel guilty
...then, 15 minutes for a little run through! (lol)
Real nice you stopped in for a bit, even though you're very busy.
- Emily
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