And then there were 4

Four regular rehearsals, plus a dress rehearsal before the concert. No time to get sick or mess around!

We're diving into our new friends, Arpad and Istvan. It's going to take a few more read throughs to really understand the scope of this work. It's also all totally going to change when we get to the dress rehearsal - because there's quite a bit of piano, string bass, percussion and harp we're not hearing right now. However, what we do have, I must say I mostly like. The melodies are beautiful, and there are interesting sectional juxtapositions. I think the audience is going to love it.

We're also working on polishing the other pieces. We all had a good laugh this week while running through John William's Olympic Fanfare. It started with such vigor - valiant engergy. After the fanfare, it started to drag. John cut us off and I was like, "Why are we slowing down?!" Regardless of whether John heard me, that was the reason we stopped and everyone was thinking it. He said "We're slower, because the band is getting older..." We had a nice chuckle and tried it again. It was better. But I'm still not positive it remained at the tempo it should have. I also might have had one too many cups of coffee that day.