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 performed it at Christmas! After Showman we turned to Also Sprach Zarathustra and really worked hard on the dynamics.
Youth Orchestra played my arrangement of Michael Helman's Nocturne in C Minor. Helman lost. They've promised to work on it at home this week! We then worked on Peter Martin's Toccata - a fusion of the Jellicle ball from Cats and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. This was followed by a run though of Return of the King from Lord of The Rings and a romp through Jurassic Park - a simple yet powerful arrangement.
No Orchestra nest week then we have just two rehearsals to pull the programme together for the Teignmouth Classical Music Festival on Sunday 10th March. No pressure then!