Posts Tagged ‘Phillip Serna’

Audition Daily Blog, The Return – part 3

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016

A very quick post … tonight’s practice session went well. Perhaps because the last thing I did last night was practice? And I ran over everything. So my brain had a chance to work on things overnight?

I also have to say that I gave a fair amount of thought and practice over the last few days to this article on bow speed and distribution from The Strad. I took it to heart, ‘invented’ some exercises, and have been applying the concepts to the excerpts. Very helpful.


In other news, I have to get serious about organizing the group for “Bassapalooza” at Valparaiso University on October 28. Our friend Dr. Phillip Serna would like us to close out the evening with a performance. (last year’s Facebook post)

I hope to perform “Enambered” and a new arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter by Michael G. Miller, and probably something from Simon Garcia or Tony Osborne.

Reading Session 2016-01-15

Saturday, January 23rd, 2016

It was a cold night, but we had a rewarding reading session on Friday, January 15.

People:

  • Marc Temkin
  • Bjorn Villesvik
  • Phillip Serna
  • Jacque Harper

This was great for me. Phillip and I have crossed paths a number of times over the years. At separate times, we were both students of Stephen Tramontozzi at the San Francisco Conservatory. But to my recollection, we had not played together. So it was good to do that. Marc is someone I met briefly many years ago at one of our early performances, but hadn’t seen since. He encouraged Bjorn to join us, and I’m glad he did. I’m always happy to expand my circle of colleagues.

Repertoire

  • Tomas Luis de Victoria, arr. Cameron – Three Spanish Motets
  • Tony Osborne – Sonnet for a Summer’s Day
  • Ernst Mahle – Quartet
  • Marc Temkin – work in progress
  • Serge Prokofiev, arr Serna – March from The Love of Three Oranges
  • Joseph Lauber – Quartet
  • Hindemith, arr Harper – Six Chansons
  • Wasserman – Pieces for Basses

The ensemble has read or performed all of these–except for Marc’s sketch, Tony Osborne’s ‘sonnet’ and the Wasserman piece–in the past, so I don’t have a lot of new comments on them. As always, it was energizing to be able to make music together.

I look forward to the opportunity to perform Sonnet for a Summer’s Day, in the hopes that I can encourage my wife to sing the soprano part. Rob Wasserman’s piece I’ve attempted to get through several times, but it seems to require more preparation than a pick-up reading session. I’m also not fond of the gimmick of the first movement being for a solo player, the second a duet, the third a trio etc. If I’ve gone to the trouble of finding five players, I want to make use of them. Marc’s work, completely and somewhat abashedly incomplete, shows promise. Always happy to read through something to give a composer a chance to hear ideas.

My only regret for the evening was that I failed to print out the parts for David Heyes’ work The Last Poppy. I really meant to. My apologies, David! Next time for sure.