December 2003

Hello friends,

This time I'll tell you about the music life on campus. You can imagine that out of 50,000 students there are many who play an instrument. In fact, the royal conservatory of music, the place when Glenn Gould studied piano, is located on the boundary of the campus. During the academic year the university runs lots of musical ensembles. On the one hand there is the faculty of music, which has a professional orchestra, opera singers and other ensembles. On the other hand there are ensembles for ordinary students. They have a semi-professional (auditioned) orchestra, strings orchestra, symphonic band, big-band jazz ensemble, world-music ensemble (all sorts of drums), choir, jazz choir, and a singers club (open to anyone). These groups usually give two concerts a year. The concerts are free, and the hall is usually full of family and friends of the players. I went to the singers concert last Sunday, and was amazed to hear them singing "Sim shalom toda uvraha, hen vahesed verahamim", in Hebrew (where the "h" sound like an "h").

Some of you know that I play flute and even studied music at high school. But since then, except three years ago when I played for a year with an amateurs' orchestra in Rehovot, I didn't have the time or the opportunity to play. Last summer I had free time, so I tried the summer orchestra of the university. This is a full orchestra, including brass and percussion sections. All rehearsals were prima vista (first sight), and all pieces played once. Just to give you the idea, on the first rehearsal we played Brahms' second symphony and Dvorak's ninth ("from the new world"). I must say that when I studied flute I never imagined I will ever be able to play such pieces with an orchestra. So, I went to http://www.bh2000.net/score/, downloaded orchestra scores and practiced the flute solos. When the time came and I actually played few solos, I got a reputation of an "excellent reader", and the conductor invited me to join his symphonic band.

The symphonic band consists of about 60 winds players. Winds are more popular here compared to Israel. In particular, there are many more saxophone and trumpet players. Some of them never studied music privately. They learned to play in school bands. About 25 flautists came to the first rehearsal. After a mini-audition, 15 remained. The band's repertoire is mainly songs, dances, marches, and excerpts from Broadway musicals. Rehearsals are a bit unusual since many students put reading material on their music stands. We were preparing for our concert in the great hall at the Hart House. The hall is inside a huge neo-gothic building that was donated to the university by a very rich family after the first word war. The hall looks like a church, with its tall ceiling, stained glass windows, and great echoing sound. I heard there is a downscaled replica of this hall at Cornell University.



As I mentioned earlier, there is another orchestra. This year they hired a new conductor, a Canadian who conducted a symphonic orchestra in Taipei. Our conductor, who conducts the band for 10 years, found that the orchestra's conductor is paid 2000$ more per year. He asked for a raise. On the day of the dressing rehearsal, four days before the concert, the management declined. The conductor didn't show up for the rehearsal. The day after we got an email saying he was emotionally devastated and couldn't come, but he wants to make the concert. Another day after we got an email from the management saying the conductor is fired and the concert is canceled. Stay tuned,


Ady.