PA Arts Sunday - Part One - A Beautiful Harpsichord and a Cantankerous Alto Trombone

Friday night, the Anchorage Civic Orchestra gave their fall concert. It was the first concert of that orchestra that has featured a choral work. The masterpiece was Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria. We also performed Rossini's Semiramide Overture and Mendelssohn's 5th Symphony, the Reformation Symphony. Overall, the orchestra did quite well. There was a big audience and they gave the orchestra a standing ovation.

For Vivaldi's Gloria, a harpsichord was needed for the basso continuo. Anchorage musical educator, sometimes composer and cellist, Linda Marsh-Ives had just completed a long-term project harpsichord, so she volunteered the instrument. It played magnificently.

Here are two pictures of it:

I usually play tuba with the orchestra, but there were no tuba parts, and Chris Sweeney, who usually plays first trombone with the orchestra was busy, so I subbed for him. The Mendelssohn symphony requires an alto trombone for the first part. I had only played an alto trombone one time before this concert. I wasn't doing very well in the final two rehearsals. I finally figured out the mouthpiece that came with UAA's alto wasn't right for me. The Horn Doctor in Anchorage fixed me up with a new mouthpiece, and I did, well - I did OK.

Here's the Vincent Bach alto trombone I played (in the foreground) next to my Antoine Courtois tenor: