DC Humidity, Herbie's World, Black Cat, etc.
The humidity has returned to DC. This means I am going to have to use some major heat (and lots of time) to keep my hair straight. Or I can go au natural with my hair's odd mix of wavy, straight, and curly locks, which looks decent 25% of the time, but is usually a horrific rat's nest. I've always had straight hair - with the right hair cut and product I could wash 'n go and look decent - until 2003, when I got very sick and suddenly my hair got wavy. Then some of the waviness changed to curls but only on a few locks. When my health returned, my strange hair remained. So I've had to relearn what to do with it. And that means lots of flat ironing or blowdrying on high heat with a round brush, all of which takes at least an hour when dry. Ah, beauty. ::Sigh::
The Institute has been busy preparing for our Carnegie Hall event, called "Herbie's World: Herbie Hancock & Friends," coming up in late June (see the invitation here). It's a benefit concert, which means 200 seats have been set aside for us to sell at $1000, and we keep the proceeds from the sales of those seats. In exchange, individuals and corporations get fabulous seats and admission to the VIP pre-reception, where all of the musicians and performers, including Herbie Hancock and Bill Cosby, will hang. The concert will be a huge smash of some of the biggest names in jazz: Herbie, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, and a slew of others. I've had a lot of our former students ask if they can get in free, which I completely understand. We often give passes to our annual international jazz competition, and events like this are a great way for musicians early in their professional careers to meet the masters. But Herbie's World is a BENEFIT. Come on, people! This is so we can raise funds for our education programs. If we give away $1,000 seats, then we're not bringing in the money.
I will be working this event, which I'm excited about because I've never been inside Carnegie Hall. Apparently I will be flying up the morning of and leaving the next day. I hate arriving the day of an event, because there's no time to refresh before you have to be "on." Last year, my boss didn't want to pay for a hotel room for me for another NYC event at the United Nations, so I took the train up in the morning, immediately jumped in a cab upon arrival, and worked my ass off for 12 hours, then had to take a train back that night. Ugh. I was useless the next day!
Anyway, my role leading up to Herbie's World has been dealing with invite lists, managing the email blast (1700+ emails, half of which were to law firms in NYC; go where the money is!), and coordinating with the event company we're using. We've never used this particular company before, and so far I'm impressed. We will be watching out for whether they actually help bring in funds - which is the whole point of the benefit - but I've been pleasantly surprised with their project management leading up to the event. Deadlines, agendas, assignments: I love their organizational detail! That kind of thing is strangely missing in a lot of projects we do.
One of the great benefits of traveling with the Institute is that I get to meet up with old friends in the different cities we visit. I just discovered that a friend from jr. high and high school, Renae D., who now lives in LA, will be rehearsing at Carnegie Hall the morning I'm there! Her choir has a performance the night after our event. What a small world. So we're going to try to meet up. Also, the girlfriend of one of the musicians we tour with works at Jazz at Lincoln Center, so I'm hoping to hang with her as well. And then there are all the musicians we work with and their various gigs that weekend that I would love to see. So little time! Maybe I'll stay an extra night to fit it all in.
On top of everything else, I am also the president of the Flute Society of Washington. When I took over two years ago, the FSW didn't have much of a season schedule; they pretty much did four recitals a year and had the huge Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair. Both programs were excellent, but the recitals had very little audience. Plus, I began receiving emails from people who just signed up and realized that there wasn't much to offer for their $30 membership dues. Refunds were demanded! So I rallied the troops and brainstormed with my board of directors. The result is, I'm happy to say, a full schedule for the 2006-2007 season. In addition to the recital series and the flute fair, we've got a second recital series (parlor recitals, held in members' homes); an annual Fall Guest Artist weekend (this fall we'll host Mary Karen Clardy); a four-part workshop series that showcases "outside the box" techniques like Celtic and Native American traditions, jazz improvisation (can you tell that was my idea?!), and the Baroque; a student workshop series; and lots of special one-time events, like an Adult Amateur Workshop, a field trip to the Library of Congress, and a collaboration with the Levine School of Music. Woo hoo! It's neat to see our members excited about the FSW again.
In other news, I recently went to the Black Cat in DC for the first time, a bar that Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl owns. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but alas, he was not there that evening. Mary, Chris, and Al, you would feel right at home there. It's a little like the Way-Out in STL, but with couches and two floors. Drinks were cheap, there's interesting art work on the walls, and of course the music was good. I'll have to take you there when you visit next.
Joel and I have tickets to see the NSO perform Mahler 8, also known as the Symphony of a Thousand, next week. It has an early start time - 7pm - because of the enormity and length of the piece. Performers will be strategically placed around the audience, and apparently there were less seats available to buy to make room for them. We're meeting friends there and will go to Dish afterwards for dinner. I've seen most of the Mahler symphonies now, either with the NSO or the (cough) Phoenix Symphony, but I've never seen No. 8. Can't wait!
And so it goes, the musical arts in the DC area...
The Institute has been busy preparing for our Carnegie Hall event, called "Herbie's World: Herbie Hancock & Friends," coming up in late June (see the invitation here). It's a benefit concert, which means 200 seats have been set aside for us to sell at $1000, and we keep the proceeds from the sales of those seats. In exchange, individuals and corporations get fabulous seats and admission to the VIP pre-reception, where all of the musicians and performers, including Herbie Hancock and Bill Cosby, will hang. The concert will be a huge smash of some of the biggest names in jazz: Herbie, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, and a slew of others. I've had a lot of our former students ask if they can get in free, which I completely understand. We often give passes to our annual international jazz competition, and events like this are a great way for musicians early in their professional careers to meet the masters. But Herbie's World is a BENEFIT. Come on, people! This is so we can raise funds for our education programs. If we give away $1,000 seats, then we're not bringing in the money.
I will be working this event, which I'm excited about because I've never been inside Carnegie Hall. Apparently I will be flying up the morning of and leaving the next day. I hate arriving the day of an event, because there's no time to refresh before you have to be "on." Last year, my boss didn't want to pay for a hotel room for me for another NYC event at the United Nations, so I took the train up in the morning, immediately jumped in a cab upon arrival, and worked my ass off for 12 hours, then had to take a train back that night. Ugh. I was useless the next day!
Anyway, my role leading up to Herbie's World has been dealing with invite lists, managing the email blast (1700+ emails, half of which were to law firms in NYC; go where the money is!), and coordinating with the event company we're using. We've never used this particular company before, and so far I'm impressed. We will be watching out for whether they actually help bring in funds - which is the whole point of the benefit - but I've been pleasantly surprised with their project management leading up to the event. Deadlines, agendas, assignments: I love their organizational detail! That kind of thing is strangely missing in a lot of projects we do.
One of the great benefits of traveling with the Institute is that I get to meet up with old friends in the different cities we visit. I just discovered that a friend from jr. high and high school, Renae D., who now lives in LA, will be rehearsing at Carnegie Hall the morning I'm there! Her choir has a performance the night after our event. What a small world. So we're going to try to meet up. Also, the girlfriend of one of the musicians we tour with works at Jazz at Lincoln Center, so I'm hoping to hang with her as well. And then there are all the musicians we work with and their various gigs that weekend that I would love to see. So little time! Maybe I'll stay an extra night to fit it all in.
On top of everything else, I am also the president of the Flute Society of Washington. When I took over two years ago, the FSW didn't have much of a season schedule; they pretty much did four recitals a year and had the huge Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair. Both programs were excellent, but the recitals had very little audience. Plus, I began receiving emails from people who just signed up and realized that there wasn't much to offer for their $30 membership dues. Refunds were demanded! So I rallied the troops and brainstormed with my board of directors. The result is, I'm happy to say, a full schedule for the 2006-2007 season. In addition to the recital series and the flute fair, we've got a second recital series (parlor recitals, held in members' homes); an annual Fall Guest Artist weekend (this fall we'll host Mary Karen Clardy); a four-part workshop series that showcases "outside the box" techniques like Celtic and Native American traditions, jazz improvisation (can you tell that was my idea?!), and the Baroque; a student workshop series; and lots of special one-time events, like an Adult Amateur Workshop, a field trip to the Library of Congress, and a collaboration with the Levine School of Music. Woo hoo! It's neat to see our members excited about the FSW again.
In other news, I recently went to the Black Cat in DC for the first time, a bar that Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl owns. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but alas, he was not there that evening. Mary, Chris, and Al, you would feel right at home there. It's a little like the Way-Out in STL, but with couches and two floors. Drinks were cheap, there's interesting art work on the walls, and of course the music was good. I'll have to take you there when you visit next.
Joel and I have tickets to see the NSO perform Mahler 8, also known as the Symphony of a Thousand, next week. It has an early start time - 7pm - because of the enormity and length of the piece. Performers will be strategically placed around the audience, and apparently there were less seats available to buy to make room for them. We're meeting friends there and will go to Dish afterwards for dinner. I've seen most of the Mahler symphonies now, either with the NSO or the (cough) Phoenix Symphony, but I've never seen No. 8. Can't wait!
And so it goes, the musical arts in the DC area...
posted by DC arts girl at 10:08 AM
1 Comments:
Wow, I played at that flute fair back in 1996 or something.
And Carnegie Hall is so gorgeous, I love it there.
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