Everyone (audience, too) had to have temps checked and then sign a COVID-19 Declaration form. The string players had to be masked 100% of the time while onstage, even at intermission. The brass players (outside) had to be masked any time we were not actively playing our horns (meaning unmasked during music even if we were resting because masking during a multi-measure rest would be pretty *stoopid*) and the patrons had to be masked to enter and had to keep the mask on CORRECTLY, OVER THE MOUTH AND NOSE BOTH, for the entirety of the program. Noncompliance meant a swift ushering out of the hall with a police escort. AND EVERYONE WAS PERFECTLY HAPPY TO UNDERGO ALL OF THIS SO THEY COULD PLAY OR HEAR SOME LIVE MUSIC!
It was truly heartwarming to see this collective love for live music in action. I can't really describe to you how it feels to see people enduring all this nonsense, then standing out in the rain, and also taking a health risk just to hear you play your horn. It was actually pretty powerful for me.
Anyway, the brass and winds are exempt from the indoor stuff, so we are earning our salaries doing lots of short, outdoor performances. (The MSO Brass Quintet has five this next week, for example.) Tonight the quintet played for a half an hour as patrons arrived. It was windy as heck from Delta, and a steady drizzle (occasionally a weak rainfall) came down the entire time. Despite this w had about 75 to 100 people standing out there with umbrellas to cheer us on.
We five had four other players come out to bolster our ranks (by doubling our parts) to make it loud enough to be worth the effort in the huge space we had to fill with sound.
The rehearsal last night was rather creepy, as this was the first thing we did where we had to enter a building that had been disinfected, requiring the temp check and the legal declaration form. The four "guest quintet-ers" had not seen any of us (or really anyone else, either) since March 7th or even earlier. Everyone was stressed as hell and no one wanted to work under such dangerous conditions, but we all were so happy to be together again, playing music. The rehearsal (Friday evening while the strings were inside sawing away) was pretty shaky as most of us have not played much since March. Tonight went very well, though, and our wet, wind-blown patrons really made the danger of it all worthwhile. It was great to get to play in an orchestral brass section again; nothing really sounds or feels quite like that experience. It is a weighty, dark sound you don't hear from most brass choirs, with a serious amount of "ring" to the sound. Using Pythagorean tuning makes chords ring like crazy.
So I had some fun. Now if I just can avoid dying from this craptastic virus I will be happy. One of our hornists is a nurse and has been working around (but not in) a local COVID Ward. She thinks this will be a very bad winter and says the physicians are all betting that this will be around until next Spring, perhaps disappearing in April. I wish it would go away now, but we are starting to peak again.
Oh, and the restored 1971 186 was a big hit with the trombones and trumpets. Our horns never care about stuff like that, though. They are too busy chatting about "horn stuff" to bother. Heh, heh, heh…
Here is where we played, on the balcony. This was taken a few years ago when the fountains were off so you could better see the facade. The fountains were roaring away tonight, though, despite the rain and wind.
I don't have any photos of the actual setup or players, as my current phone is an iPhone 4S with a pretty mediocre camera that no longer focuses properly. All my repair thread pics are taken using an *actual camera* (shocking, I know…) or an old iPhone 6+ that works really well.
And — of course — both of those were at home because dumb-dumb here forgot them.
