Air Alight – First convention rehearsal

Day 124/126

Super stoked, first rehearsal with Robert Dick today!

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Rehearsal schedule for Lincoln 4!

So the convention is in full swing now.  I arrived Tuesday night; Pam, Dianne, and Elyse arrived yesterday, and Alice and Cecilia got here early this afternoon, just in time.  We rehearsed with Robert for 60 minutes in Lincoln 4, a large room in the lower level of the hotel.  It felt like we were in the basement, but this was just the lowest level open to the public.  There were large, movable partitions for walls, and somebody else was practicing in the space right next to us.  Between the other rehearsal and the rumblings of the bowels of the building (A/C), it was very hard to hear.

We all introduced ourselves to Robert again, and we commented that he was playing this piece on his glissando headjoint.  He gave us a super close look at how it is constructed and said this is his primary flute, he uses it most of the time.

Robert felt that our residuals were not loud enough, and recommended actually saying the word “shhhhh” with the forced air to make it more effective.  But then he stopped playing and stood in the center to listen.  He reported that everything was actually OK, we just couldn’t hear each other!

We ran the sections of the piece, then worked on connecting them.  We had previously thought that Robert would cue us individually moving to each new section, but there is actually a hard stop moving between sections I and II.

Robert fixed a couple of fingerings, and also asked that Cecilia’s piccolo solo be louder and longer.

We also worked out our stage positions.  We like to put the bass on the right of our semi-circle as you face the audience, so the sound projects out.  Robert chose to stand next to Pam, and she reported that she was having problems seeing his cues because of her proximity to him.  I want to try being in more of an arc tomorrow and see if we can fix this.

At the end of the rehearsal we pow-wowed the plan for tomorrow.  We originally scheduled an hour long rehearsal with Robert in his room, but I was able to secure a NFA rehearsal space, but just for 30 minutes.  We agreed to try the 30-minute space and see if we need extra time.

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