Another Audition Date in Trichotomy

Constant Entertainment

After a period of chewing the ottoman cave, the rabbit has returned to chewing on the couch. We had tried to distract him with other chew toys but he always returned to the couch.

That got me wondering why the couch is so much more attractive. But then I realized maybe the couch didn’t become more attractive, it’s the ottoman cave that lost its pull. I crawled inside and found that the debris he created in the ottoman blocked him from going deep into the cage (there used to be a wicker hut, which he had since destroyed, but its base is a solid wood frame which now blocked the cave). So I removed the wood frame.

And now he’s interested in the cave again.

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Professional Artiste

Upon learning that the amateur music group’s Carnegie Hall concert auditions were this weekend, the Veena player wrote to ask for an audition. But because he is a “professional artiste with a prior commitment”, he couldn’t come to our audition time. Instead, he sent a recording of himself playing (after complaining that the website won’t let him upload a recording, which it was not designed to do), and asked us to evaluate the performance.

I let ENT doctor pianist deal with it and made it clear that he also previously requested at least 10-15 to perform too. ENT pianist’s reply is so much more diplomatic than mine would have been.

I guess he still hasn’t gotten what we are about.

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Something old, something new

After the high number of auditioners last year, the number was back to normal this year, only 30 groups sent in their names (15 solos and 15 ensembles). ENT pianist seems not interested in doing 2 concerts this year - unless we want to cram in an orchestral performance again to create another chamber/orchestral concert, in which case we’d need to pick 12 or 18 from 28 (we had a couple of no-shows).

The standard is getting higher - I’m glad I have no repertoire to play there now. We had a board meeting afterwards, it turns out there is a high demand for recital times, so I’ll try to book another one in late June. But the social directors are saying they have very little engagement on outreach concerts, so we’d need to collaborate to get more visibility into those… maybe get people to perform in those instead.

The rest of the meeting it’s the same story - the orchestra is draining money and we try to make up for the losses it incurs; ideas range from asking orchestra members to contribute to rehearsal costs, to organising a fund-raiser, to organising more orchestral concerts, to finding angel donors. There was a lot of ideas floating around and no one implementing them.

It is starting to get old.

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