Even though we have a few less full group performances this season, this summer has just flown by. I can’t believe tomorrow is August 1st, which for us means it’s the back half of the performance season. Our summer performance season is basically June to early September. You can imagine that playing outdoors when it gets cold is not too much fun!

Let me try and give you a recap of the season so far. Let’s see….in June we performed at the Parry Sound Dragon Boat Festival. That has turned out to kind of be the kick off to our season the last 5 or 6 years. And no lie every year when we drive over to Parry Sound there have been ominous clouds threatening rain, but guess what? Not this year. Hallelujah! It’s no fun setting up in the rain. Trust me I know. It turned out to be a perfect day to start summer and the races were great. Every year the event seems to get bigger. I have also personally discovered that Dragon Boat Racers are a pretty fun group. After Parry Sound we had a couple of small groups and then off to Orrville. For those of you who don’t know where Orrville is, I’m not surprised. It’s a pretty small community about 45 minutes from us. We played in Orrville for Canada Day years ago and they have been anxious to get us back. Then came Belleville’s Canada Day Celebration.

Belleville is a really fun event to do. It’s all about the Maple Leaf, the park we play in becomes transformed into a sea of Red & White. It also doesn’t hurt that the hotel we stay at has a pretty good pool This year the timing of the fly over was perfect. When we play “Oh Canada” some fighter jets from CFB Trenton fly over. It’s always seems to be kind of hit or miss whether it works out on time. But this year if I remember right, just as we got to the phrase that says “we stand on guard for thee” the jets passed over head. It was a long day especially for those of us who had to leave home by 5 AM and be on the road for 5 hours. We were all glad to get to the hotel that night.

Before we had a chance to recover from Belleville it was time to head to Windsor. That weekend sure was a looong one! We left around 6 in the morning on Friday and we didn’t get to bed till 2 AM on Saturday. Ahh…the joys of being in the orchestra. But I have to admit looking back now it was a really good weekend. Friday night we performed in downtown Windsor on Erie St., Saturday and Sunday we where in Tecumseh performing for the racers and spectators. If you don’t know, the event in Windsor is the International Dragon Boat Races for the Cure. It’s all about raising funds for Breast Cancer. You wouldn’t believe the names of some of the teams. Some of the tamer ones are Breast Friends, ABREAST in a Boat Society, Tunnel Tah-Tahs. Let’s just say some people have a lot of creativity. But hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, it’s for a good cause, at least that’s what I think. One thing I had forgotten since it had been a couple of years since we had been to Windsor to perform is how humid it gets!!! When you are running on so little sleep and it’s that hot and humid it sure zaps the energy right out of you. But fortunately for us the crowd had plenty of energy to give us. It’s amazing how when you are performing (not just playing but performing, pouring your all into it) how much you can feed off the crowd.

Well we have had a handful of small groups since then and now it’s the Dwight/Kearney weekend. We like all our performances but I have to admit it seems we get extra psyched for these two. I am pretty sure it has to do with it being an evening performance. When it starts to get dark and the lights come on…LOOK OUT!

Amidst all of this we are also trying to learn a new song. AHHH! Sometimes you just have to remind yourself to breath, it is possible, you have done it before, you will learn this song too. So far it sounds pretty good. At least up to this latest section it does. I am not sure how everyone who has to play the 64 note run will do, but hey it’s the lower voices who have to worry about that. J/K. We’ll get it…eventually

Oh man. I didn’t mean for this post to be so long. It just wanted to get you up to speed. Catch you later.

Welcome everybody to my blog. I know that the NLSO is a not your run-of-the-mill orchestra and it can be quite an amazing experience to be a part of. I just want to give you a glimpse of what it’s like. So please check out the future posts and leave your comments.