Fall music links are now available! Instructions on how to access and print your music was sent out via the weekly newsletter on Thursday, September 18 at 4:00 pm. Check your spam/junk folder if you don’t see it. If you still don’t see it, email admin@byso.org for instructions.
Rehearsals will be held on Monday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Musicians are expected to arrive and be prepared to rehearse 15 minutes prior to start time.
Print your sheet music prior to first rehearsal (using link at top of this page) and bring with you to rehearsal
Arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of rehearsal to ensure you are in your chair and ready to play at the start of rehearsal
Have fun!
About
Every two years BYSO produces a concert at Benaroya Hall that features its most advanced ensembles. For this bi-annual performance, Flute Choir and Flute Orchestra combine for a spectacular performance on the concert hall stage and for a pre-concert performance in the lobby. Additionally, every December these groups combine for BYSO’s annual Holiday Flute Tour.
For the first time these two events are occurring in the same quarter, so the groups will be paired together for the entirety of Fall Quarter.
Recent Combined Flute Performance at Benaroya Hall
Conductor: Dr. Merrie Siegel Parmley
Dr. Merrie Siegel Parmley holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Rice University. She won the New York Flute Club’s Young Artist Competition at age 19 and since then has performed with the Houston Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and Mozart Society of Philadelphia, among others. Learn more.
George, Ember, Sahana, Sneha on bass; Arshia, Akshara and Samantha Z on regular flute
Remember that we’ll be making sure you have your music organizer, tuner and contact mic all ready to go.
Also, be sure to mark your calendars for our October 11 retreat!
Keep on fluting,
Dr. Merrie
INFO/MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THIS FALL
This Fall, we’ll be essentially preparing 3 concerts: Benaroya (on stage), Lobby Music (before the concert at Benaroya) and our Holiday Caroling Tour. I cannot wait to get started rehearsing all of this exciting music!
Since we will have so many pieces that we’ll need to have at our disposal at all rehearsals, please be sure to purchase the music organizer below, or something similar. Please note that these are different than the conventional plastic sleeves that many students already own: these have plastic to hold the music in place, around the edges only, so musicians can still make markings directly on the music without having to remove it, saving us all valuable rehearsal time.
If you are new to Flute Choir or Flute Orchestra this season: Please note that each flutist will need a tuner and a contact microphone for rehearsal. I have embedded links to some reasonably-priced options, but feel free to purchase anything similar. For both, the cost is @ $39 and can be used over the span of your flutist’s career. (No need to purchase if you already have them.) These tools are vital to our work both during ensemble rehearsal and for individual practice. And while many of us (myself included) rely on a tuner app on our phones, phones are not equipped with the necessary input to connect a contact microphone.
In addition, I highly recommend that you invest in a portable music stand that is sturdier than the wire ones. We spend a considerable amount of rehearsal time wrestling with those when they can’t be either raised or lowered (we play both seated and standing), when the music falls off and/or they’re knocked over. There are many sturdy and portable models available on amazon.com (I did a search for “sturdy, portable music stand”) and they appear to be in the $25-$30 range. Again, this is an investment for throughout your flutist’s career. The link above is an example of a $27 stand where the top part of the stand is solid so that the music won’t fall through, but there are many other ones that are similar.
Music downloads and part assignments will be ready shortly; families will be notified via email. Be sure that your flutist has all of their music printed out and ready to go, as BYSO staff nor I have music at rehearsal. In addition, if you’re assigned to an auxiliary instrument (alto, bass or piccolo) you’ll also be notified by Natalie, our Operations Manager, as to what the next steps will be.
I look forward to an amazing Fall Season of music-making with your talented and amazing flutists!
