OK, I so rarely get to do this anymore, I felt like posting about it here. I was late for the chat with Leigh McKinney as a result, but, he was cool.
I have two motivations for doing this. One is, I just felt like reminding folks of some nice music to play. Since I finished grad school, I don't get to do this very often in the commercial music biz around Chicago.
Also, I want to point out a resource that I found to be wonderful.
I played a recital at a retirement community up in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. I waived my fee, as there was NO budget, and I wanted to something nice for the folks there. Here is the program I played.
Concerto - Leopold Mozart
Processional - Nagel
3rd Mvmt - Concerto - Hummel
2nd Mvmvt - Sonata - Hindemith
2nd and 3rd Mvmts - Concerto - Haydn
Bandinage - Bozza
Concerte Etude - Goedicke
Lied - Bozza
Petite Piece Concertante - Balay
Adante and Allegro - Ropartz
Just Friends - jazz standard
Perdido - jazz standard
Since I was donating my time, I decided to just have some fun and I used a bunch of different horns - Stage 1, California, Bach 229 LB C, Schilke Picc, Tanabe E-flat, Flugel and and old 1929 Conn Victor cornet. I did a litle bit of a lecture on the horns and music as well. It was just sheer joy to share all of this with these nice folks in this little community.
Now to the resource. On the jazz tunes, I had my 15 year old son accompany me. He is getting to be a pretty good jazz pianist, and he did a spectactular job, but I am biased!!
What was really cool was the accompaniment for the legit stuff.
I couldn't ask my boy to work up such tough pieces as the Hindemith and the others! That would have required way too much from a kid already overcommitted at school. I could have hried an accompanist, but there is no way I could afford to pay a decent accompanist to work this stuff up (not out of pocket). As to the institution paying, well, let me say this. My mom is staying there, and she has been talking about my trumpet work up there. They very sweetly asked me if I could do this as a family member. For reasons that I won't go into here, they had NO budget to pay me. I agreed to do this and then tried to figure out how to do this with NO money.
I hit on MMO - Music Minus One. I went to their web site and ordered four CD's with those pieces on them. It worked just GREAT. I had a little PA at my disposal, so I just plegged in a CD player and did it this way.
Now, before you flame me, let me offer the following disclaimers. I am NOT suggesting that we don't hre real accomapnmists! I would have MUCH preferred that. It was tough learing how to play with the CD in rubato sections and, as good as it was, it was still not as good as the real thing.
Next, I would never advocate stealing from the MMO corporation or ther artists. I.e., while I am going to record a legit CD, I am hiring a real pianist to play my parts in my studio.
I am just suggesting that you consider buying the MMO stuff for practice and for family events such as this one. They have come a long way since they were first created. The CD's are spectacular! You can also hear the original recordings to see how the heavy hitters (like Nagel or Ghitalla) played the pieces.
In any case, it was a sweet afternoon wth my mom, her friends and my kids. The music was beautiful as was the chance to play it.
Peace!
Nick