Just in case...

...you think I have been lollygagging around playing with my wheel (which regrettably I have not!!) here is the Fiber Trends "Streaming Leaves" in that delicious BamBoo.

All was fine until I started the pattern repeat. The directions read begin at row 9. Did I see that? NOOOOOOOOO! I went back to row 1 and knit a nice chevron in the middle. So a-frogging I went. As you can see, we are back on track now.

It seems that I always have to go back near the beginning of any project I knit! Anyone else have that issue of not getting in the groove until some rows get ripped out or am I the only one?

I have not had a single moment to play with my beeee-you-ti-ful wheel yet. Since returning from symphony Saturday pm, playing a church service Sunday and a rehearsal Sunday afternoon, I have also taught too many students, waxed and assembled said wheel, played 4 children's concerts plus a rehearsal and am trying to practice the music for this weekend!

We are headed to Cleveland for John Mack's Memorial Concert (the article about the concert is at the bottom of this page if you want to read it. I could not get a link to work!!) and I had to buy something to wear. The performers' dress is supposed to be "church best." My wardrobe consists of formal black for performances and jeans or slacks for everyday and church best does not reside not in my closet... I thought this would special enough for the occasion (picture it over *nice* black pants).

And I just got an email from Danna asking if I would turn pages for the Liz, the pianist. I said yes since Liz asked for me and I have turned for her before, but am wondering why I always put myself in such stressful situations. Turning pages sounds like a piece of cake, but believe me, it is a demanding task! Especially in an event as important as this.

Maybe after returning Monday, I will have some wheel time - no wait! Friday is out of town again.... and I will be playing principal oboe with that orchestra - more stress!!! (sigh) Will I ever get to spin?

Here is the article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Musical salute to beloved oboe teacher

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Here's an experience that would have been music to John Mack's ultradiscerning ears: the sound of more than four dozen oboists and English hornists in a work by one of his students.

Somewhere, from his prime seat in double-reed heaven, the Cleveland Orchestra's former principal oboe soon will be listening to Margaret Griebling-Haigh's Sinfonia for Choirs of Oboes and English Horns. The piece is the grand finale Mack students from near and far will perform at a memorial tribute concert for their beloved teacher at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, at Severance Hall.

Mack, who died July 23 at the age of 78, influenced generations of oboists for 36 years as a principal player in the Cleveland Orchestra and as a teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York's Juilliard School and the eponymous oboe camp he held annually in Little Switzerland, N.C.

Many of his students hold posts in orchestras around the world, and Mack's vividly expressive artistry is preserved on Cleveland Orchestra recordings led by George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Pierre Boulez and others.

The idea to salute Mack began with Danna Sundet, who studied with him at CIM in the 1980s. Sundet originally set out to plan a surprise 80th birthday bash for Mack for next summer. When the master oboist died of complications from brain cancer in July, the Mack family asked Sundet to proceed with a memorial concert that they would sponsor.

"I'm really touched," Sundet said the other day. "His family is saying to us, his students, 'We've already had our closure. This is for oboe players who weren't able to be at the funeral.' They really have not experienced the sober reality that he's not with us."

Sundet and colleagues decided that one aspect of the memorial event should involve as many Mack students as possible. So they asked Griebling-Haigh, an oboist and composer who took lessons with Mack in high school and later, to write a grand finale.

The result is a nine-minute work for which 50 oboists and English hornists (so far) have signed up for the performance, led by Steven Byess. Griebling-Haigh celebrates the honoree by incorporating his name in a chorale based on the notes E-A-C-C#, or the equivalent - almost - of M-A-C-K.

"It's E as in mi, and K like a sharpened C," the composer said.

The chorale will be intoned by the entire ensemble, with groups of five solo players also shaping more complex and lyrical material. At this point, seven solo groups are scheduled to perform these sections, though the overall personnel could expand by concert time.

Along with the variations on M-A-C-K, the composer bases the score's penultimate section numerically within the scale system on the oboist's birth and death dates (10/30/27-7/23/06).
"You'd never notice it going by," said Griebling-Haigh.

In addition, she has woven in "a tiny little twisted section" based on Rossini's "La scala di Seta" overture, which has prominent oboe solos. (Mack can be heard playing them gorgeously on Szell's 1967 Cleveland Orchestra recording.)

The memorial concert, which is free and open to the public, will include spoken and musical tributes to Mack as chamber musician, teacher, orchestral musician, soloist and recitalist. Members of the Cleveland Orchestra will take part.

Sundet said she has sent out nearly 1,000 formal invitations to Mack students, friends and colleagues. Evidently, this number only touches the tip of the oboe iceberg. "We are keenly aware that there are a thousand more people who should be on our list, but we couldn't track them down," said Sundet. "It's just been a very good lesson in the generosity of his spirit that touched everyone."