Fresh Inc 2013: Day 4 Recap
Day four of the 2013 festival was our first heavy rehearsal day. Over the course of the day, 22 pieces rehearsed! We're starting to get into second rehearsals for pieces, so composers have started attending rehearsals of their pieces so that they can do some coaching and assisting. I got to sneak into a couple of rehearsals, and it was really cool to see everyone in action, and the excitement on the faces of composers hearing their pieces played for the first time!
I snuck past a few practice rooms to peek in on some practicing. Man, did we hit the jackpot of awesomeness with our participants this year!
We took a little bit of time out of our rehearsing to attend one workshop on day 4 about fundraising! This insightful workshop started out with a flash mob performing David Lang's Pay Me Now, which is being rehearsed at the festival! Then, Kevin Clark, composer and New Music USA communications manager, phoned in via Skype to talk about one of his particular areas of expertise: crowd funding. And Melissa, Stacy, and Dan all contributed information about grants, individual giving, coporate giving, and more. I can definitely say that our participants got a LOT out of this workshop, and I think this one has had the most questions thus far!
While our instrumentalists are rehearsing, the composers are attending forums and presentations and having private lessons with Stacy and Dan. On day 4, I stopped by the composer forum to see a little bit of festival harpist Jennifer Ellis explaining the inner workings of a harp, giving some pointers on writing for harp, and demonstrating some of the tricks harpists have up their sleeves!
After dinner, we had our first participant salon night! We heard some pretty amazing stuff, including a bassoon sonata, a trumpet solo with audio, JacobTVs The Body Of Your Dreams, self compositions, a piece from a contemporary opera, and more!
And if that wasn't enough, the night ended with some of our participants having a crazy awesome jam session! Never have I ever heard harp, piano, sax, electric guitar, a drum set, a double bass, and a viola all jamming at one time, but I'd definitely listen to that again any day! Be sure to check back tomorrow! Day 5 includes a trip the Racine Art Museum for the second performance of the festival!
