Well, it’s a new semester and a new set list in prep for our first concert: Festival Miami, Feb 6th at 8pm in Gusman Concert Hall.

We’ll be performing Jonathan Leshnoff’s Clarinet Concerto “Nekudim” with the inimitable Ricardo Morales. It promises to be an event not to be missed!

Due to such a short period of time for prep and conflicts with rehearsals (due to student participation in some of the other amazing Festival Miami events), we are here rehearsing on a Sunday night. It’s truly inspiring to see so many talented musicians (who also happen to be very busy students) here on a Sunday night playing their hearts out in anticipation of our performance.

It’s also a new experience to be working with such a recent piece of music. While the work has been around in orchestral form for a little while, the band transcription (done by the composer himself) is fresh off the press, just commissioned and completed last year. As a young studying conductor it’s impressive and edifying to watch Dr. Carnochan work through the score interpreting it for wind ensemble and looking out for things that might need to be clarified with the composer. How lucky are we to be working with a living composer who we can simply email with questions about the score. It’s not like you can call up Beethoven and ask him questions about his Ninth Symphony…