Current mood:	tired
Current music:	Prokofiev Classical Symphony - Berlin Philharmonic, Ozawa

My debut with my first own orchestra...
Well I'm gonna have to say that was a success. It turned out as well as I thought it could have... the veteran members of the orchestra were VERY pleased. Some of them were amazed that I was able to put together a full symphony in such a short period. They were very appreciative of the fact that they were able to play in a full ensemble unlike in the years past. When they hired me as their new conductor, there were only about 12 remaining members. I filled in every hole except the timpani, and today we had almost 40 musicians show up. We were so much bigger than expected that we barely fit in the rehearsal room!

For the first reading session we read through Schubert's Unfinished and Beethoven's 1st Symphony. The orchestra's playing level was far above what I had imagined. We were able to play at performance speed without too much trouble. I am VERY pleased with this ensemble. I have no complaints and the members of the orchestra were SO kind to me. This ensemble is going to force me to pump out repertoire, learning at least 2 symphonies per month on top of my other assignments... and for two full hours, I get quality podium time with a 40-piece ensemble. This is a student conductor's dream. 

And yes, I've decided on the layout. And we are now at:

http:// orchestra.beethovenite.com

There's a chamber orchestra that may be forming in the next one month or so... I am handpicking every single musician and I'm confident that it will be the best non-professional chamber orchestra north of Los Angeles.  This orchestra will give concerts and we will have regular rehearsals... every single person I've asked to be in the orchestra has said yes so far.  Including everyone's favorite music history professor at UCSB!  If this works out, I'm going to have no life whatsoever.  Before the year's over if everything works out as planned, I'll be conducting 4 orchestras regularly and guest conducting 1 or 2 other orchestras.  I seem to get more work done whenever I am busy anyway.  So this is good.