Monday, July 21, 2008

Spadina House

If any of you wondered if Otteto Prosciutto performed yesterday, the answer is yes. We are dedicated. We moved into the coach house area which is to the right of the area in the photo and the audience managed to find shelter under the canopy of the building. The audience was not large but is was appreciative.
We played Ferenc Farkas' Contrafacta Hungarica, Beethoven's Rondino with Diane James performing the 1st horn part, Rosetti's Parthita in f and Schubert's Wind Octet.

After many years,the octet continues to enjoy the opportunity to explore wind octets. Our next public performance will Tuesday October 21st, 7:30 p.m. at Jubilee United Church when all three members of the Taffanel Wind Ensemble with perform with the group.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Next week's concerts

This is a busy week for the members of the Taffanel Wind Ensemble. On Wednesday evening, we will be performing for the Pleine Air concert series. Because this is an outdoor venue, we are hoping for very dry weather. We also have to remember to bring music clips, and I am going to put on insect repellent. There were a number of insects visiting us during our preview performance. I can imagine some of the bugs checking out Zach's fingers as he plays.
Some of you will remember that the Pleine Air stage is a wonderful structure designed for intimate performances. It is interesting what creative individuals will build!






On Saturday, Zach and Nora will perform duos at a seniors residence and then on Sunday, Bill and Nora will join Otteto Prosciutto to perform octets at Spadina house for the addendum to Spadina House's Music in the Orchard series. This historic house is beside Casa Loma. Spadina House which is 140 years old was donated to the city by the Austin family and the last member of the family lived in the house until the 1970's. One of the historically interesting facts about the house is that most of the furniture is original. In the past, the octet has performed under the overhang of the coach house. Hopefully the weather will cooperate once more and the audience can enjoy the experience of hearing music outdoors.

The coach house is now used to store plants from the main house and garden tools.
We hope that some of you might have the chance to join us on Wednesday or Sunday (the Sunday concert is free to the public). Pleine Aire concerts are $10.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Pleine Aire Concert Preview


On June 24, the Taffanel Wind Ensemble performed as part of the Pleine Aire Concert previews. We had the opportunity to experience performing on the unique stage that the organizer, Susan Brown had constructed on the site. The stage provides just enough space for the trio to perform. For a really intimate concert, we could reverse our position and have a small group sitting in built in seats facing us.


As part of our performance, it has become a tradition that we introduce our musical selections. Over the years, Nora has taken on this role and researched the many compositions and composers that we have included in our programmes. We were pleased to hear that the audience appreciated this aspect of our performance. More research will be done before our actual concert on July 16th. Maybe some of you will consider attending this concert.