Musical Preparations for the 2011-2012 season are already in full swing! About two weeks ago, the orchestra string parts for Turandot arrived. Elena Talley, our Music Librarian is already busy at work marking the bowings into the string parts.
Elena Talley with some of the orchestra string parts
Have you ever noticed when watching the string sections at a Symphony concert that all the bows of the violins are moving in the same direction at the same time? Well, that’s no accident. The process starts with the Concert Master and the Music Librarian. The Concert Master will mark “bowings” into the entire first violin part. The bowings tell a string player what direction to move the bow in and in what style to move the bow. After the Concert Master is done with the part, it will move on to the 2nd violin, violas, cellos and finally to the Principal Bass player. The music librarian will then take the bowings and make sure it is marked in each and every string part. This is why Elena is already working on the parts, 128 days before the opening performance of Turandot. It is a very time consuming process
Sarah Zsohar with some of the Chorus Music
The Chorus for all of our productions has been cast and is ready to roll. Chorus Music Rehearsals will start in mid-August. The past few weeks, our Production Associate, Sarah Zsohar, has been busy preparing copies of music for the Chorus. Chorus members are already coming into the office to pick up their music and start learning the many notes that they will sing inTurandot.
Our principal Rehearsal Pianist and Chorus Master, Mark Ferrell, would probably not like the site of a piano on its side. Generous donations have led us to own not one, but two grand pianos. We have a baby grand piano (donated by R. Keith Brumley) and a concert grand piano (donated by Dorothy Warenskjold) over at our Production Center. These are used for Mainstage rehearsals, Education rehearsals, and Coaching’s with singers. Since our Production Center is under construction this summer and there is certain to be a fair amount of dust flying about, we have put our pianos in Storage with Gerber Moving & Storage. Dear Gerber, please take good care of them!!!
Next week, I will be busy monitoring renovations on our Production Center. I will return on June 9th with a story about the Kansas City Symphony’s first rehearsal with Maestro Ward Holmquist in the Orchestra Pit of the Muriel Kauffman Theatre!!!
