The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #89556   Message #1697493
Posted By: Pauline L
19-Mar-06 - 02:57 AM
Thread Name: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
Subject: RE: St. Patricks' Day Gigs?
This was unusual and lots of fun. I play with a community orchestra, and we did an outreach concert at an elementary school in a community that's not wealthy. Included in the audience were students, their families, the school principal, and one or two janitors. Our conductor is also a very good teacher and he spoke briefly to the audience about the music. Most of the music was classical, but six of us also played some Celtic music. We did very well, especially in view of the fact that we had done very little rehearsing. The audience clapped and stomped in time to our closing number, John Ryan's Polka. Our conductor said that he couldn't explain an Irish polka, although we also played some Spanish music written by a Frenchman (Bizet's Carmen). The predominant languages among the audience were English and Spanish. After the Celtic music, our conductor said, "I don't conduct the National Symphony, but I bet I play rhythm guitar better than Leonard Sladkin." It was so much fun.