I’m up with the sun and the birds to get the day’s best worms. Out the door by 8:15 am., I’m heading for Shaw’s Restaurant and breakfast with Ma and Pa Kohn, who wore themselves out the day before while doing the Friday evening Lanfest ArtWalk around the Downtown. As I was being seated for breakfast, Maestro Sheldon emerged from the elevator to join me at my table for his breakfast cereal. The kitchen and waitressing staff have served both of us for so many years that they know that Gary’s favorite is Cherrios, Arnett is a big fan of creamed chip beef on white toast.
Ma and Pa were stiff, but on time for their breakfast, promising Maestro to help get me to rehearsal on time that morning. I was at rehearsal punctually, we rehearsed our selections and I intentionally kept the cadenza short. But my unannounced plans were to serve up my surprise solo, quickly wading into the Lancaster Fight Song and if I got the crowd’s reaction in the first few seconds, ...
My performance that day honored the twentieth anniversary of the Lanfest Orchestra, the fortieth anniversary of my professional music debut in 1967 and the ninetieth birthday of Ray Starrett, my first band director and friend for forty-seven of my fifty-seven years. Unfortunately, when I drove home to Plain City after rehearsal, the surprise party had been canceled when he was hospitalized with blood complications.
Mr. Starrett and Dr. Joe Whitlatch, who instead of spending his eighty-seventh with friends and family at Lanfest, underwent gall bladder surgery at Mt. Carmel East Hospital, were in my prayers. Jeanette Scholl and I entered the gates, as the opening cannon sounded at 5:30 pm. and the OU-L lawns were the perfect color, thanks to the recent rains, skies were blue and without a hint of storms. We were in for a perfect night.
I had two tables of guests; Millie and Byron Kohn, the Whitlatch Family drove from the hospital to Lanfest, Sherry and Bob Bowers left the fruit farm in nearby Laurelville for the anniversary concert, Fred (Dad) Holdridge led the German Village party of Kevin Miles, Jim Arter, Mary Kay and John Carter, Stephanie (sister) and Fred Harris rolled in from East Columbus/Reynoldsburg. After a thirty minute search for lost tickets, Kevin and Kristen Kern, of Marysville, found them between the car seats and arrived right before the downbeat of the concert.
Promptly at 8:15 pm., Maestro Sheldon’s hit began the National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, and followed it with the Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla, a selection performed at the premier of the Lanfest Orchestra in 1988. I was then welcomed on stage to play the Haydn.
I played farely well; I only noticed two tiny tonal blips, when I ever-so-slight overblew higher notes, which is easy to do when your pounding heart is pressuring your embochure to perfection. The hundreds of times I rehearsed payed off and when I arrived at the part of the cadenza that I had lifted from Wynton, it flowed out perfectly and led me to the moment to toy with the local audience.
I looked at the score and rushed into Stand Up and Cheer, the fight song of the Lancaster High School Golden Gales. Within the first four notes I heard the laughter and cheer rise suddenly and wrecklessly I sped through the first section, on towards the finish. The cheering grew and when I reached the last three measures, I slowed the tempo and marched the last four notes into a trill and gave Maestro Sheldon the downbeat to bring the Orchestra to the finale.
I milked the audience, they milked me and I was done with the Haydn. Two songs later, six of us trumpeters walked onstage to play Leroy Anderson’s Bugler’s Holiday, which the Columbus Dispatch reviewer said was "the highlight of the show."
The Lanfest stage was full of bright musical moments; cello solist Sara Sant’Ambrogio was featured in a duet with her father and cello teacher, John. The Chicago Brass Quintet was featured on the Austurian Fandago, performance artist Robert Post presented his unique humor in a lampoon of televison chefs.
Pianist Jon Kamura (Jackie) Parker’s gentle performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto # 2 was my highlight of the evening. When he and the Orchestra finished, Jackie and Maestro Sheldon leaped into each other’s arms to symbolize the joy and love we all were immersed in on this homecoming day.
Livingston Taylor’s ten song set was part of the second half of the show and the fireworks finale brought the Lancaster Chorale on to sing America the Beautiful. After Strike Up the Band, I was miked and paraded from the rear of the audience to The Saints and was greeted by another wonderful audience response.
The Stars and Stripes Forever March by John Phillip Sousa ended the Twentieth Anniversary Concert and Diane Schick was in her piccolo glory, rising to the solo of America’s Official March. She plays with such a spirit.
When the fireworks ended and Maestro Sheldon returned to the stage with me in tow, I milked more from the audience and the parade to the parking lot began for thousands of Lanfest fans. We were just beginning our festival.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
I pulled into Lancaster at 4:30 pm., parked a couple blocks away and walked to the Elks Lodge where the Chicago Brass Quintet was finishing their last four selections. Even though we have known each other for ten years or more, this was my first time to see them and I just barely made it.
I dashed back to the Zane Bandstand to prepare to be entertainment on WBNS-10TV’s 5:15 m. weather segment with Chris Bradley. Gary chatted and I played When the Saints Go Marching In. Millie and Byron Kohn, my McArthur, Ohio adopted parents, were having their happy hour at the Shaw Hotel’s Bar and I stopped in for a bowl of soup, before a 6:30 pm. rehearsal for the Lanfest Orchestra’s Twentieth Annversary Concert, the following evening.
I should have planned for a 6 pm. rehearsal; I was a half hour late. Maestro Sheldon was understanding of my error and we backed the show up to my part. I played the Allegro Movement of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in Eb, which includes a solo cadenza that I patterned after a Wynton Marsalis recording.
My twist on the cadenza was to work the solo into the Lancaster High School Fight song, that Mike Smith had sent me days earlier on an e:mailed mp3 file. I played it in rehearsal and it fell like a lead balloon. Maestro pulled me aside and nicely said, “ I understand how it could be humorous, but maybe see how you can shorten it.” I said that I would and proceeded to get on with the rehearsal like a professional among professionals. I didn’t forget that I was a guest soloist.
Bugler’s Holiday got its rehearsal with six trumpeters; Ross Beaucraft, Richard Burkart, David Hunsicker, Mathew Lee, Loren Topliz and Arnett Howard. After rehearsing the third trumpet part for less than a week, I was pleasantly confident when Maestro tweaked for mistakes, he didn’t include me.
We rehearsed the fireworks Americana finale, which featured the Lancaster Chorale. I marched from the back of the audience playing The Saints and it took four choruses to get on stage; I needed to walk faster as showtime. Rehearsal finally finished at 8:30 pm. and instead of following the orchestra gang to a favorite watering hole, I went to the home of my host, Jeanette Scholl, like I had good sense. It has taken me decades to finally make some clear progress in the good sense department.
Jeanette is a retired Lancaster middle school teacher, sports fan and her biggest pride is her students/kids who have gone on to sporting pursuits in colleges. We met in the 1980s, long before I had good sense; some how we have remained friends and this is the second consecutive year that she has hosted me during Lanfest.
I dashed back to the Zane Bandstand to prepare to be entertainment on WBNS-10TV’s 5:15 m. weather segment with Chris Bradley. Gary chatted and I played When the Saints Go Marching In. Millie and Byron Kohn, my McArthur, Ohio adopted parents, were having their happy hour at the Shaw Hotel’s Bar and I stopped in for a bowl of soup, before a 6:30 pm. rehearsal for the Lanfest Orchestra’s Twentieth Annversary Concert, the following evening.
I should have planned for a 6 pm. rehearsal; I was a half hour late. Maestro Sheldon was understanding of my error and we backed the show up to my part. I played the Allegro Movement of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in Eb, which includes a solo cadenza that I patterned after a Wynton Marsalis recording.
My twist on the cadenza was to work the solo into the Lancaster High School Fight song, that Mike Smith had sent me days earlier on an e:mailed mp3 file. I played it in rehearsal and it fell like a lead balloon. Maestro pulled me aside and nicely said, “ I understand how it could be humorous, but maybe see how you can shorten it.” I said that I would and proceeded to get on with the rehearsal like a professional among professionals. I didn’t forget that I was a guest soloist.
Bugler’s Holiday got its rehearsal with six trumpeters; Ross Beaucraft, Richard Burkart, David Hunsicker, Mathew Lee, Loren Topliz and Arnett Howard. After rehearsing the third trumpet part for less than a week, I was pleasantly confident when Maestro tweaked for mistakes, he didn’t include me.
We rehearsed the fireworks Americana finale, which featured the Lancaster Chorale. I marched from the back of the audience playing The Saints and it took four choruses to get on stage; I needed to walk faster as showtime. Rehearsal finally finished at 8:30 pm. and instead of following the orchestra gang to a favorite watering hole, I went to the home of my host, Jeanette Scholl, like I had good sense. It has taken me decades to finally make some clear progress in the good sense department.
Jeanette is a retired Lancaster middle school teacher, sports fan and her biggest pride is her students/kids who have gone on to sporting pursuits in colleges. We met in the 1980s, long before I had good sense; some how we have remained friends and this is the second consecutive year that she has hosted me during Lanfest.
2007 Lancaster Festival Diary
Note: I’ve played the Lancaster Festival (Lanfest) since July, 1989 and I’ve been a Festival Board member since 2003. My opinions make be slightly effected by the love forces that I have been surrounded by for eighteen wonderful years.
Tuesday, July 17th, after my afternoon kids concert at Easton Town Center’s Splash Fountain, I cleaned up and headed for Lancaster and the Ohio University Lancaster Campus for a welcome picnic for the participants of the 2007 Lanfest, including performers, volunteers, professional service suppliers, executive staff , friends of the Lanfest and board members.
The rain clouds and I parked at the same instant and in no time Maestro Gary Sheldon and his bride, Janet, were rushing their new twins, Jacob and Ruby under cover in a nearby campus hallway. Despite the drizzle, my attraction was to the picnic buffet, which was under cover and needing to be guarded by me and a few other brave souls. I personally protected a large, well-done frank by dressing it onion, relish, a gourmet mustard and no bun, but the pasta salad was less safe. I allowed it to be attacked by a dinner fork and it was surrendered.
When the drizzle disappeared and peace returned to our little lawn party, Lanfest executive director Lou Ross welcome old and new friends to the opening of the event and board president Nils Gustuvson introduced volunteers honored by inclusion in the Lanfest Walk of Fame. Lou distributed the new staff garb, copies of the 2007 Lanfest program booklet, then we all returned to kissing, hugging, taking pictures and visiting the beverage bar.
In addition to Gary Sheldon, Eleanor Hood, Barbara Hunzicker, Dr. Jonathan Nusbaum, Steve Rosenberg, Ann Chess and Carol Abbott, longtime brain trusts of Lanfest, Diane Schick, piccolo and flutist and violinist Darryl Murray are among the most enduring friends of Lanfest. Diane, an A plus party animal, exudes so much joy for life that she is a love magnet. Darryl is a fiddler of many styles and he loves to jam, as does Dr. Steve Cox, an active board member who has “tramboned” with me on my tribute concerts for three years.
Lanfest director Lou Ross and I share the secret world of New Orleans music together, since he was a student at Tulane and learned his craft as an arts presenter during those Big Easy years. We both “know what it means to miss New Orleans.”
The Chicago Brass Quintet joined the picnic and we renewed our friendship with hugs and conversations about their travel. Ross Beaucraft and James Mattern have been blowing beautiful and challenging brass notes at world audiences forty-five years or more. Recent travel has taken then from Chicago to South America, Brazil and after Lanfest they were heading back to Columbia.
I shared hugs with David Meade, Live Tech president and owner and his wife. I had sent them some love two weeks before, in honor of their daughter, photographer Rebecca Meade, who died in an Athens skateboard accident in November, 2005.
The lawn party eventual ended, only to continue at the Fairview Lounge where Lanfest board member Bob Wolfinger bought the first round and told the legend of the Fairview, a tavern that has lived on since the American Alcohol Prohibition Era in the 1920s. I had a good beer or two and met Dmitri Pogorelov, violin and Ian Maksin, cello, two hugely talented players, born in Russia. Ian was also a licensed airplane pilot and flying enthusiast, as am I. We made plans to go to Dayton and visit the birthplace of aviation.
I left the Fairview Tavern in a dark rainstorm, hoping for green grasses and clear skies for the rest of the 2007 Lanfest.
Tuesday, July 17th, after my afternoon kids concert at Easton Town Center’s Splash Fountain, I cleaned up and headed for Lancaster and the Ohio University Lancaster Campus for a welcome picnic for the participants of the 2007 Lanfest, including performers, volunteers, professional service suppliers, executive staff , friends of the Lanfest and board members.
The rain clouds and I parked at the same instant and in no time Maestro Gary Sheldon and his bride, Janet, were rushing their new twins, Jacob and Ruby under cover in a nearby campus hallway. Despite the drizzle, my attraction was to the picnic buffet, which was under cover and needing to be guarded by me and a few other brave souls. I personally protected a large, well-done frank by dressing it onion, relish, a gourmet mustard and no bun, but the pasta salad was less safe. I allowed it to be attacked by a dinner fork and it was surrendered.
When the drizzle disappeared and peace returned to our little lawn party, Lanfest executive director Lou Ross welcome old and new friends to the opening of the event and board president Nils Gustuvson introduced volunteers honored by inclusion in the Lanfest Walk of Fame. Lou distributed the new staff garb, copies of the 2007 Lanfest program booklet, then we all returned to kissing, hugging, taking pictures and visiting the beverage bar.
In addition to Gary Sheldon, Eleanor Hood, Barbara Hunzicker, Dr. Jonathan Nusbaum, Steve Rosenberg, Ann Chess and Carol Abbott, longtime brain trusts of Lanfest, Diane Schick, piccolo and flutist and violinist Darryl Murray are among the most enduring friends of Lanfest. Diane, an A plus party animal, exudes so much joy for life that she is a love magnet. Darryl is a fiddler of many styles and he loves to jam, as does Dr. Steve Cox, an active board member who has “tramboned” with me on my tribute concerts for three years.
Lanfest director Lou Ross and I share the secret world of New Orleans music together, since he was a student at Tulane and learned his craft as an arts presenter during those Big Easy years. We both “know what it means to miss New Orleans.”
The Chicago Brass Quintet joined the picnic and we renewed our friendship with hugs and conversations about their travel. Ross Beaucraft and James Mattern have been blowing beautiful and challenging brass notes at world audiences forty-five years or more. Recent travel has taken then from Chicago to South America, Brazil and after Lanfest they were heading back to Columbia.
I shared hugs with David Meade, Live Tech president and owner and his wife. I had sent them some love two weeks before, in honor of their daughter, photographer Rebecca Meade, who died in an Athens skateboard accident in November, 2005.
The lawn party eventual ended, only to continue at the Fairview Lounge where Lanfest board member Bob Wolfinger bought the first round and told the legend of the Fairview, a tavern that has lived on since the American Alcohol Prohibition Era in the 1920s. I had a good beer or two and met Dmitri Pogorelov, violin and Ian Maksin, cello, two hugely talented players, born in Russia. Ian was also a licensed airplane pilot and flying enthusiast, as am I. We made plans to go to Dayton and visit the birthplace of aviation.
I left the Fairview Tavern in a dark rainstorm, hoping for green grasses and clear skies for the rest of the 2007 Lanfest.
Monday, July 2, 2007
2007 Lancaster Festival Preview
Greetings and welcome to the 2007 Lancaster Festival, July 19-28, 2007. The 2007 Lancaster Festival marks the eighteenth year that I have been associated with the ambitious people of Fairfield County. After an audition with Maestro Gary Sheldon, Eleanor Hood and Barbara Hunzicker at a club appearance in March, 1989, Arnett Howard's Creole Funk Band was presented at that summer's festival on the Zane Bandstand. I have been performing at each Lancaster Festival in some kind of role ever since.
This year's Lancaster Festival begins Thursday, July 19th, 8 pm., with Splendor in the Brass, unfortunately, it's always the concert that I have to miss because of another concert commitment at Hilliard's Homestead Park. The Chicago Brass Quintet are wonderful players and nice people that I have known since 1996 when they helped me with excerpts from the Hummell and Hadyn Trumpet Concertos. This year six trumpeters get to play Bugler's Holiday, as well as the first movement of the Hadyn.
On Friday, July 20th, the Lancaster Festival starts the day at noon with the Ark Band, long time friends from the island of St. Lucia, who are seasoned reggae and calypso players. The Chicago Brass have an encore of their performance at the Elk's Lodge at 3:30 pm. that I just might be able to make. My friend Ursula Lanning (Lanning Gallery) coordinates this evening's 6 pm. ArtWalk and the theme is fiber art, featuring quilts and other material based works.
I have yet to meet pianist Jon Kimura Parker, but his face appears in promotions that I have seen for decades with Lancaster Festival and the Columbus Symphony. He is one of the special guests invited for the twentieth anniversary of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and he has a late Friday evening concert at the First United Methodist Church.
Eleanor Hood's first Saturday specialty is called Festival Fair Day, held at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds, and the day packs children and family oriented activities into six busy hours. Included in that six hours are horses, mules, country musicians, Celtic consorters, racing pigeons, a petting zoo, home-cooked foods and my favorite entertainer and mime, Mark Abbati.
But the big to-do happens Saturday evenings when the good people of Lancaster (called by the envious, nickel millionaires), put on their summer evening clothes and drive out to the Ohio University-Lancaster Wendal Concert Stage, a massive tent covering that highlights a natural amphitheater. For twentieth consecutive summers, Maestro Sheldon has been directing an orchestra of sixty-five of the world's distinguished symphonic players to perform and premier high brow musics.
The dinner tables, for those of the means, are heaped with flowers, expensive cloths and settings, creatively eccentric centerpieces. Selected volunteers act as judges to ascertain which are prize winning tables in a number of categories and only after the prizes are awarded, do the meals and musical festivities begin.
The guest artists invited to join the 2007 Lancaster Festival Orchestra to perform their Twentieth Anniversary Concert are the before mentioned Chicago Brass Quintet and Jon Kimura Parker, as well as the Lancaster Chorale, Robert Post, Livingston Taylor (James' baby brother), Sara Sant' Ambrogio and...Arnett Howard. What an honor for me and the concert occurs on the fortieth anniversary of my beginnings as a professional musician in 1967. I think my mom and dad would be very proud.
This year's Lancaster Festival begins Thursday, July 19th, 8 pm., with Splendor in the Brass, unfortunately, it's always the concert that I have to miss because of another concert commitment at Hilliard's Homestead Park. The Chicago Brass Quintet are wonderful players and nice people that I have known since 1996 when they helped me with excerpts from the Hummell and Hadyn Trumpet Concertos. This year six trumpeters get to play Bugler's Holiday, as well as the first movement of the Hadyn.
On Friday, July 20th, the Lancaster Festival starts the day at noon with the Ark Band, long time friends from the island of St. Lucia, who are seasoned reggae and calypso players. The Chicago Brass have an encore of their performance at the Elk's Lodge at 3:30 pm. that I just might be able to make. My friend Ursula Lanning (Lanning Gallery) coordinates this evening's 6 pm. ArtWalk and the theme is fiber art, featuring quilts and other material based works.
I have yet to meet pianist Jon Kimura Parker, but his face appears in promotions that I have seen for decades with Lancaster Festival and the Columbus Symphony. He is one of the special guests invited for the twentieth anniversary of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and he has a late Friday evening concert at the First United Methodist Church.
Eleanor Hood's first Saturday specialty is called Festival Fair Day, held at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds, and the day packs children and family oriented activities into six busy hours. Included in that six hours are horses, mules, country musicians, Celtic consorters, racing pigeons, a petting zoo, home-cooked foods and my favorite entertainer and mime, Mark Abbati.
But the big to-do happens Saturday evenings when the good people of Lancaster (called by the envious, nickel millionaires), put on their summer evening clothes and drive out to the Ohio University-Lancaster Wendal Concert Stage, a massive tent covering that highlights a natural amphitheater. For twentieth consecutive summers, Maestro Sheldon has been directing an orchestra of sixty-five of the world's distinguished symphonic players to perform and premier high brow musics.
The dinner tables, for those of the means, are heaped with flowers, expensive cloths and settings, creatively eccentric centerpieces. Selected volunteers act as judges to ascertain which are prize winning tables in a number of categories and only after the prizes are awarded, do the meals and musical festivities begin.
The guest artists invited to join the 2007 Lancaster Festival Orchestra to perform their Twentieth Anniversary Concert are the before mentioned Chicago Brass Quintet and Jon Kimura Parker, as well as the Lancaster Chorale, Robert Post, Livingston Taylor (James' baby brother), Sara Sant' Ambrogio and...Arnett Howard. What an honor for me and the concert occurs on the fortieth anniversary of my beginnings as a professional musician in 1967. I think my mom and dad would be very proud.
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