Rob's Blog
November 15, 2019
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I'm sorry I've missed a weeks of blogging but things have been really hectic.
Lest week we had a fantastic session recording audition pieces to try to get onto the Disney Live stage when we go to EuroDisney on the way back from our Germany Trip. As there was no guidance on what music we should play except it should be from our current repertoire we recorded How To Train Your Dragon and Avengers: Endgame.
I've been working fran...
September 7, 2019
Hello everyone and welcome back to a new term. We kicked off with music from the film Avengers Endgame much to the excitement of some of our older members. We continued relearsals of our Abba medley which is slowly coming together. We are delighted to welcome new members this term including flautists, a bassoonist, saxophonist, clarinettist, percussionist and a cornet player. Welcome to you all. Youth Orchestra had another go...
June 16, 2019
EYO performed today at Powderham Castle, taking "Dadications" and requests for pieces to play. We started in warm sunshine but soon the rain set in and we dashed for cover under the trees.
Several parents went home and brought back a variety of gazebos which we formed into a kind of super-complex with timpani under one, the drums under another, random percussion under a third and the rest of the orchestra under a big even...
March 31, 2019
Following last week's concert this week's rehearsal was a fairly relaxed affair.
We used the new drum tuner I purchased for the Orchestra to overhaul the timpani and bring them back into a nice sounding set. Thanks to Steve Douglas our percussion tutor for providing a master-class in timpani servicing.
I handed out several new pieces including The Great Escape - 2019 is the 75th Anniversary of the actual great escape. Guardian...
March 24, 2019
Last night we held our Spring Concert in St. Thomas Methodist Church, Exeter to a packed audience.
The young people worked very hard and we produces some spectacular music.
Thank you to our amazing committee and volunteer parents for organising the concert, tickets, programmes and refreshments.
March 16, 2019
A good, relaxed rehearsal today spending some time sorting out those tricky bars in Joseph and The Greatest Showman. The young people played beautifully and we are all looking forward to next week's concert in St Thomas Methodist Church. Towards the end we were joined by the ECO Junior Orchestra - all sixteen of them - and they performed Biscuit Club Boogie and then joined us in In The Hall of The Mountain King, allowing us to...
March 10, 2019
A lovely concert in our favourite church: St Michael, The Archangel, in Teignmouth.
EYO played once again this year as part of the Teignmouth Classical Musical Festival to an almost packed church of families and friends. For a few it was their first EYO concert and with the orchestra so much smaller than ECO there is nowhere to hide!
With two solos and a clarinet rag trio - accompanied by the whole orchestra we delivered a veri...
March 9, 2019
So my Grade 6 Baritone Horn player has kindly agreed two weeks before our spring concert to switch to Trumpet as we are in need of confident brass. Go Ned! What a star. CHANGE #1
We had a great rehearsal despite the best efforts of the roadworks and diversions on Exe Bridges meaning some players were still drifting in half an hour into rehearsal. CHANGE #2
We are felling confident and relaxed leading towards Easter and my fear...
March 2, 2019
Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. Even if it was me who volunteered them!
Although we are back in term time we were missing a few key players today through university interviews, sports competitions, Ten Tors, Duke of Edinburgh and, of course, the ubiquitous lurgy.
Molly, our orchestra leader was persuaded to volunteer to play timpani in Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001 : A Space Odyssey) - she seemed to quite enjoy it.
Samm...
February 16, 2019
Half term is always a funny time for rehearsals with many families going away and missing one or both Saturdays. Today was no exception and we were quite thin on the ground.
Section rehearsals were able to spend time working on any pieces with difficult passages and in the full rehearsal we spend a lot more time than usual on The Greatest Showman. This is because we are as significantly different orchestra to the one that perf...