Met Mr. McCann at rehearsal tonight. He has a reputation of being very demanding and tough. I found the rehearsal very productive and enjoyable. He is clearly a very fine musician, with excellent ears, and of course you know he is a great cornetist. In the very near future I’ll be taking my first ever cornet lesson and it will be with Mr. McCann.

He also said a couple interesting things to the band. One of them occurred when we had a very slight precision problem on an entrance in a fairly easy piece. He observed (and I paraphrase): ‘If you take care of all the little details now (and in all future rehearsals) in this somewhat easy music, you will find it easier to do so when you are preparing for contest.’

I think it all goes back to establishing a baseline standard of great sound, pitch, rhythm, ensemble, and dynamic contrast as a starting point for making great music.  Of course it takes much more focus, effort, and dedication to do it this way.

On Oct. 10 B&R willl perform at the York Minster and also on the concert will be The King’s Singers and euphonium soloist David Childs. So cool.

Cheers,
B-