New Year, New York!

In this, the year of the RTO’s American debut, players have embarked on a rigorous rehearsal schedule in preparation for the big day (April 1!). We meet next week, for the first time since December 6, in what promises to be a lively session, especially if the musical director feels able to make an announcement regarding the New York programme.
Pippa Lockhart, first trumpet and musical secretary, will be filling in for the Chairman of the New York Committee, Zandra Macpherson (who is exploring future concert opportunities in New Zealand), and hopefully providing an update on ticket sales. All eyes and ears of the orchestra will be on you, Pippa!
The work of the committee has continued over the holiday period – in fact, has intensified – with a number of notable changes in strategy worth mentioning. Most significant is the rearrangement of committee meetings from Tuesday afternoons at Zandra’s to Monday afternoons at Pippa’s. This suits Pippa, though not necessarily all the other committee members. It has been suggested that shifting the meetings to St George’s School for Girls on Wednesday nights, half an hour before RTO rehearsals begin, would not only be more convenient for some of us but would also save on emissions, very much an RTO objective. But as several committee members cannot make the earlier time of 7pm, a practical solution has been put forward by Sir Richard, the musical director. Rather than having the meetings before the rehearsal, it might be more productive, said Sir Richard, to have them during the rehearsal (while sight reading, say, or playing scales) and this way add to the skill sets of everyone present. This is something that will be discussed, no doubt, on Wednesday.
Another slight change in plan concerns the hiring of instruments in New York. The committee’s director of instrument hire, Susie Stevenson (the RTO Chairman’s wife), believes she has found an excellent musical instruments store in New York but advises that because of the great demand for instruments in that city, some RTO musicians may not get exactly the instrument they have requested. For example, while there are plenty of double basses, there may not be enough horns to go round on the day. Violins, too, are obviously very popular and likely to run out. Of course, this is a worst case scenario and possibly everyone will get their first choice of instrument, but Susie just says we should be prepared to be flexible on this matter and take what we get.
There now follows a statement from the Chairman, Peter Stevenson: ‘A happy New Year to family, friends and fans of the RTO, without whom New York would not be possible. And a very big thank you to the committee, whose tireless efforts will go unrewarded.’

* For those who still haven’t bought their tickets for the RTO’s New York Town Hall appearance don’t delay – there are only 80 shopping days left!
* For all the latest RTO news in the countdown to April 1 watch this space!