I met the Beethoven Dancer!!!

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you the story about the Beethoven Dancer? Well, I saw him waiting outside by the stage door entrance off of State Street last Saturday night, and having written so much about him and how I wanted to meet him, I introduced myself! He was so nice, just as I thought he'd be, and said he couldn't have missed the concerts (the ones with Bolero and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg) for the world. His name is Peter, and he was very nice! I told him that we loved having him here, that his presence was hugely appreciated and that he added a wonderful energy to our audiences, and that the orchestra can sense the audience's demeanor when we're playing and that that energizes us tremendously. Now that I know him by name, I'm going to talk to him every time I see him so I can thank him for coming. He is such a great supporter of the orchestra and his enthusiasm is just so refreshing.

Speaking of admirers, a woman in the orchestra who of course shall remain nameless has an admirer who has taken to sending long stemmed red roses to the Marcus Center backstage for her. He was sending so many that she gave some to me to take home since she was running out of vases. What a sweetheart she is to have been sho generous as to share her bounty with those of us who (thankfully) remain admirer-less. :)

Aren't they gorgeous? I love the one yellow rose in the middle of the 11 other red ones. At the time this picture was taken, the roses had just started to open; at the height of their glory, the yellow one got to be almost twice the size that it is here:

Today I stayed on after rehearsal to listen to Bill Barnewitz play the Hindemith Horn Concerto. Bill is an incredible player and though I don't know the Hindemith well, it was a pleasure to hear him play it as my lips recovered from the beating they took after rehearsing the Flying Dutchman for the first hour of rehearsal. I saw Ted Soluri, our Pr. Bassoonist backstage after the rehearsal and said, "I think I broke my face."

Seriously, this week has been brutal for us brass players. My lips are swollen and my jaw is very stiff and sore from all of the pressure. The triple horn is great for playing in the high range but the resistance on that instrument is just so high that I end up pushing so hard just to get the notes out. For those of you who don't know, most horn players play double horns, which have two layers of tubing. The triple has an extra layer of tubing built in to give high horn players more ease in the high range. It's a lot heavier than a regular double horn because of all the extra plumbing.

Here's a picture of what my triple horn looks like, only mine has even more tubing since I have an extra stopping valve (so when I have to play stopped horn I don't have to transpose). When I bought this horn from a Yamaha dealer in Chicago, he told me I probably have the fanciest horn in all of Wisconsin. Bill Barnewitz plays on a Yamaha Triple as well, although his does not have the extra stopping valve.

I worry that I might injure myself on this horn; the resistance keeps whacking me back in the face when I play the least bit loud, almost like feedback from a microphone. I might try to see if, now that I have learned how to play with a brighter sound, I can go back to the 11D for a while to see if that makes things better on my face. I really don't want to damage my face irreparably. Of course this week's program would be difficult no matter what I was playing on...

That's all for now. Hope you all are having a great start to your weekend!

XO Darcy