Opening Exercises

Notes from the Berkshires, Day 30

Lenox Coffee, 7.11 a.m.

For perhaps the first time since my first week here, it is an absolutely beautiful morning. Blue skies, cool but not cold, and just a bit of a breeze. I’d spend it outdoors if I could. Actually, today is a designated day off for all of the Fellows, with no rehearsals or activities scheduled. For the piano techs, however, that means total access to the pianos, so we’ll be working as usual. My plans include seeing to pianos in at least four different spaces, for issues from tuning to pedal squeak chasing.

Yesterday we went through Opening Exercises, a tradition here at Tanglewood since the school was started in the 1940s. A performance by a faculty string quintet of some Schubert, speaking by the Director of the Music Center, and a singing by the assembled Fellows of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia, composed for the first opening exercises at what was then the Berkshire Music School in 1940. I hadn’t sung the piece since high school, and it brought back memories of singing in the a Capella choir under Milt Anderson; my Mom was the accompanist.

Met a trio of the string bass Fellows outside the Ozawa courtyard yesterday afternoon, having a general playing/bull session and working through a movement of the Bottesini b minor. I stood by and listened for awhile before introducing myself and chatting for a bit. There will be a performance of the Schuller within the next few weeks, and I hope to observe one of the coaching sessions. Nice young folks, and very skilled – if I had started playing bass when they did, rather than the age they’re at now, I might have taken a different direction in my life. But as I’m so often telling V, that would also mean not having met her, and not being where I am now. So, no regrets. Seeing the bassists reminded me how cool we bass players are, as a general rule. Small fraternities of like-minded individuals tend to be that way, I suppose.