Blair Concert the First
The Vanderbilt Orchestra‘s call time was 8:45pm, but I showed up at 7:45pm, warmed up for 10 minutes, and then made my way to Ingram Hall to whistle and cheer for my colleagues in the Wind Ensemble.
I’m not good at estimating, so I’ll safely guess between 30 and 8,000 people showed up. But actually, Ingram was absolutely packed. Not even Audra McDonald or the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet could gather an audience as large. Apparently, people even had to listen to and watch the concert from the lobby telly, it was so full! Success! People finally realizing and taking advantage of the free Blair concerts!
The lights dimmed, the chatting ebbed to silence, and Erin Perez came out to conduct the first half of the concert, entitled, “Wind Band Classics… Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” Wind Ensemble set up rather unconventionally, in rows with risers rather than arcs. They performed three pieces: Jan Ver der Roost’s “Suite Provencale,” Carter Pann’s “Hold This Boy and Listen,” and Gustav Holst’s “First Suite in E-flat.” Though I couldn’t stay to listen to their final piece because I had to go warm up, they played fabulously with great energy, dynamics, and musicality.
After the intermission, Maestro Robin Fountain walked out on stage and we began our one-piece, four movement second half of the concert of “Scheherazade” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Matt Lammers performed all his solos with grace and fire, and the orchestra played with vivaciousness and clarity. The piece flew by, and it was so much fun! I loved the spontaneous eye contact between the players as we would wordlessly communicate the piece to each other and simply smile. The piece came to a close, the audience gave standing ovations, and it was wonderful. Excitement was practically radiating off both the audience and the players.
I’m not biased at all when I say that the cello section rocks. As the audience was leaving, I stuck out my hand to shake and congratulate the other cellists on a great first concert, but they just smacked my hand aside so we could all hug each other.
Also my friends are really wonderful people… they all came out to watch my Blair buds and me perform!
To celebrate after the concert, we herded everybody into one Lewis suite to hang out enjoy a delightful Peanut Butter Pie that my friend Clair and I made.
It was a rather phenomenal Friday evening.
