Marimba

[eve_prime]

Yesterday we had a search committee meeting, and later, while D. was at junior orchestra, I popped over to the youth symphony and watched our interim conductor at work. He was awesome, so focused and serious, but friendly, not stern. The students were working on a marimba concerto -- the spring soloist plays marimba -- and it was a very difficult piece. The rhythm would go 6/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 4/4... (D. later told me this isn't so hard, but D. has an excellent innate sense of rhythm. I do not.) During their break, I talked in private with three of the students, who'd been asked if they were willing to talk with the board about the conductor. They were all so enthusiastic! Then I listened to them work on a difficult section from the Polovetsian Dances, which I had never realized is quite a challenging piece. Then it was time to go get D, but after I got home I wrote up my impressions and sent them to the rest of the search committee. It's very likely that we'll hire this conductor permanently, but it's even better to be excited about him. I really want D. to get the experience of working with someone like him.