FROM JERRY ROBBINS, CONDUCTOR

August 21, 2008.  There's been a lot going on!  I had a great time with my first experience with Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp last month.  I was with a relatively small group of not-so-advanced players and I think that next time, I'll just have to adjust my schedule such as to go play with a larger, more advanced group.  Even so, I got a lot out of it and certainly would recommend adult band camp to other players.  

Then there was the pit orchestra for the Hartland Players production of "West Side Story."  YCB furnished many of the wind and percussion players for this group, and I played--or attempted to--the 2nd trombone part.  We got the (quite difficult!) music and a CD well ahead of time.  Then we had three rehearsals and five performances in the early days of August.  It was a great place to play (Hartland High School auditorium) and a great group of players in the pit.  Enormous fun, even as this took up a lot of time.

We've had a bad summer in connection with the weather.  The July 2 concert and fireworks show music was completely rained out and then, on August 7, in Milan, we only got through the national anthem and "Colonel Bogey" before the weather stopped us again.  However, the Heritage Festival concert in Riverside Park on August 16 turned out to be, musically, one of our best outdoor performances ever.

I'm spending a lot of time these days working on a 30-year history of the YCB.  Our records are not in good order and I'm spending more time, so far, trying to get our records in better order than I am in actual writing.  This is scheduled for publication in the quarterly journal of the Ypsilanti Historical Society this fall. 

Last weekend, I went to Howell to tour the old Opera House.  Located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a downtown building, it has essentially not been used since around 1924 and is in much the same (bad) shape as it was when last used.  Restoration work has hardly begun and, as a result, this was an interesting trip "back in time."  Never used for "opera" or other large musical productions, it was interesting to see, in various ways, how dramatic productions were brought to small towns roughly 100 years ago.