It’s official.
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. David Wilken to the position of Music Director of the Land of the Sky Symphonic Band.
The band will continue its Spring concert schedule under the direction of Dr. David Kirby, with performances scheduled in Brevard, Asheville, and Mars Hill.
Dr. Wilken has conducted the band for its last three rehearsals. He will assume his full responsibilities as Music Director in August when the band begins its 2011-2012 season.
Walt JusticeChairmanBoard of DirectorsLand of the Sky Symphonic Band
It’s been a great time conducting the last three rehearsals. It’s a fine group, made up of serious amateur players and some professionals as well. During one of the rehearsals I had fun milking the rubato passages bit more than I would usually do. I wanted to see how far I could take it, but they all watched and followed. It’s always a pleasure to conduct an ensemble that follows that closely.
Hey Dave,
I wasn’t blowing in one direction throughout my range. As I got higher, my air direction went UP when my direction is usually down. And when I went from my upper register to my mid-register, I switched over to blowing down again, and the F# was the note of the switch-over (along with the G and sometimes the F). So now that I am aware of this, I have been working on keeping my air direction the same throughout my range. I have become a better player because of it. So thank you very much Dave!
–Andy
Hey, Andy. I’m happy you found something helpful in my video/article. Did you end up moving your mouthpiece placement to help with keeping the air stream in one direction for the entire range (i.e., closer to the nose to keep it downstream)?
For the curious, Andy is preparing for a euphonium audition and was struggling with a double buzz. Go here to the see his post.
I did. I shifted the mouthpiece just slightly up on my face (I had it pretty much 50/50).
Congratulations! Wishing you all success with such a gloriously named group. Hope you’ll post from time to time on how it’s going.