US Marine Chamber Orchestra in Concert

Your Band got a nice mention on *West Wing* this week

We can assemble all sorts of chamber groups. We send out string quartets for a variety of jobs...most of them at the White House. Yes, at the White House. For those skeptics, classical music is alive and well in Bush's White House.

I don't think that there is a permanently set string quartet, though. The quartets are assembled from our string section just as the brass quintets are assembled from our brass section. Yes, woodwind quintets, too. One would be hard pressed to find a better collection of college/conservatory trained woodwind players anywhere in the world. (I like to think our standards are as high as those of the better symphony orchestras. We recently held a clarinet audition and didn't take anyone. This happens quite often, just as it does in the world of professional orchestras.)

Thanks for the info. It's quite true. On rehearsal days, it's more than that. (Rehearsal + personal practice time.)

(It was Barlet's Second Inaugural, though as usual they didn't show any of the ceremony.) (They come to D.C. every so often to film exteriors; maybe they could actually use you in an episode some time.)

Does he ever attend? stay awake?

I think it was Reagan who stiffed the Kennedy Center Honors, at least

He is at every function I play at the White House.

I was teaching in Texas at the time, so I wouldn't know. But then, what does the Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony have to do with classical music? It's nothing but hype and most of the program goes to something other than classical music.

How many of the functions you're in are classical, rather than band, repertoire?

20% of the KCHonorees are from classical music (composers, conductors, and opera singers, mostly); another 20% are from dance (far more than half, it seems, from classical ballet or modern dance; only a handful from movie musicals); the other three categories are stage (including Broadway composers and performers), screen, and popular music (Bob Dylan and Paul Simon are the first honorees not representing either jazz or the American Song tradition). Thus nearly 40% of the program over the years has been classical.

We hardly ever send a band for indoor functions at the White House. We will usually send a variety of groups for different parts of a function...flute/harp duet, string/piano quintet, chamber orchestra, strolling strings, dance band, solo violin, solo piano, jazz combo, brass quintet (rare), woodwind quintet. A concert or ceremonial band would be much too loud inside the White House...the foyer is much too live.

So 60% of the program wouldn't interest me.

I've played the Kennedy Center Honors reception a few times at the White House. This reception occurs before the honors ceremony at the KC. This year, Liz showed up very late and I didn't see her. I did see Levine pass by the orchestra. He listened for a while and paid some very nice compliments. We will often play a Mozart symphony. There was a time when we sent only one horn player in the chamber orchestra. It was the trombonist's job to play the 2nd horn part. I was able to sharpen my transposition chops by reading the various horn parts for these little played pieces...early symphonies of Mozart and Haydn. What great fun. How many professional trombonists get to play a Mozart symphony? I've been told I'm quite effective at making my trombone sound like a horn. It's quite simple...I just stick my hand in the bell and bust a lot of notes.

I'll be in D.C. March 18-22. Anything interesting going on then? Stuff that kids would like?

LOL!

I don't see much opportunity there for a trombonist to participate. The one inevitable one is even marked 'rare'!

You'd be surprised! (Note that your first mention below is of the Movie honoree.)

This was the first time in living memory that a snippet of the award ceremony wasn't shown in the TV broadcast. Did Dumbya flub his simple little lines? or not bother to show up?

How rude.