Messiah at Easter Time

You are invited to join the choir or orchestra to perform the 2nd and 3rd parts of Handel's oratorio Messiah Sabbath and Sunday evenings, April 15 and 16. (We hope that the evening performances will not collide with your regular Easter plans.)

If you are interested in singing or playing, please visit this page and subscribe to the mailing list. Please also drop me a note reminding me which instrument(s) you play or which part you sing.

Thanks!

January 28: Further Details

As was mentioned in this post, this Sabbath we celebrate the baptisms of both William and Beth. We want to share this celebration in your company.

Here is some more information:

Sabbath Schedule
  9:00 AM Brunch at Triadelphia (breakfast potluck)
  9:30 AM Sabbath School
 10:45 AM Divine Worship, including baptisms
Lunch: potluck at our house

Most of the company will be vegetarian: you may wish to plan any potluck dishes with this in mind.

Addresses:

Triadelphia SDA
12950 Brighton Dam Rd
Clarksville, MD 21029

Ashton Family
11726 Zebrawood Ct
Germantown, MD 20876

Here are directions from Triadelphia SDA to our home.

See you there!

Baptism January 28

Vicki and I are delighted to announce that both of our children, William and Beth, are planning to be baptized at the end of this month. The ceremony will be part of the regular Sabbath-morning church service on January 28 at the Triadelphia SDA church.

We have not finalized plans for the rest of the day, but it seems likely that we may augment the regular potluck. We invite you to share this special occasion with our family.

Manhasset Voyager Music Stands

Through a curious twist of fate (ask me sometime) I wound up with one of these stands and, for a portable stand, I like it very much. I have suggested that the brass ensemble standardize on these, and a handful of players have already ordered both the stand and the carrying case. These links should take you to the Woodwind & Brasswind site. If you purchase there, a small percentage of your purchase should eventually come back to help our ensemble buy more music and equipment.

Please suggest name for brass group

Hello Everyone, (including non-brass-group-members: I'd like your opinions too.)

The Triadelphia Brass has consisted, until quite recently, of musicians from the Triadelphia SDA church. Now we are beginning to expand our membership and, I hope, becoming capable of performing, without significant embarrasment, in churches where our members are not already known and loved individually. <grin>

There are two reasons that I feel it would be wise to distance ourselves from association with any particular congregation.

1. In the past we have been refused use of GC space for practice purposes because we were associated with one congregation. They wanted to avoid the appearance of favoritism.
2. I'm concerned that association with one congregation will dissuade members of other congregations from joining our group.

The Southeast Asia church, where we will be playing January 7, would like to list us as a group with a name. Do we have one? A couple of options come to mind, but I'm not sure that either is spot-on:

1. The brass group I conducted in Atlanta was and is known as Zephyr Brass. Zephyr is a name for the west wind, which was appropriate because that group originated on the west side of Atlanta. There was talk of extending the Zephyr organization to embrace additional ensembles, potentially including brass ensembles in other cities, so I would feel comfortable using this name, at least on a temporary basis.
2. The name Adventist Community Brass was abandonded by David Workman in favor of Washington Community Brass, which has fallen into disuse as that group has remained in hibernation. I think we could lay legitimate claim to ACB if we wanted to.

Association with a larger organization might be appropriate: the Columbia Union Conference encompasses a wide enough area that we would not need to fear excluding any potential members, I think. However, this would require agreement from whatever organization we wanted to associate ourselves with.

What do you suggest?

As always, your comments will have a longer shelf-life if you post them directly to the weblog.

Update: Here are the options I have observed so far.

• Triadelphia Brass
• Zephyr Brass
• Adventist Community Brass
• Sounds of Brass
• Triadelphia Regional Brass
• TriBrass
• TriBrass.org (If Amazon.com can do it, I suppose we can too.)
• Maryland Music Brass
• Maryland Chamber Orchestra Brass

TriBrass Performance Dates

Hello brass players,

I just received a call asking if we can assist, January 7, with the dedication of the new Southeast Asian church near the GC offices. We would be responsible for playing with two hymns and one number as an offertory.

Are we available on January 7?


Also, can we provide service music at Triadelphia February 11 or 25? or another date?

Thanks,

Daniel

TriBrass at CU Office

Hello brass players,

Please remember that we have rehearsal this week, Wednesday evening at 6:00 PM at the Columbia Union office. Be 15 minutes early to unpack and warm up, please. We will probably rehearse for an hour and a half or somewhat less.

Please bring a music stand.

See you there!

TriBrass Rehearsal Before Thanksgiving

I have heard that some brass players are interested in meeting this week even though we know the group will not be complete. I concur.

However, I expect to be working in Germantown tomorrow: meeting at the church would be significantly better for me than meeting at a house on the I-95 corridor.

What is your pleasure? Six o'clock? Where?

Calling All Singers

. . . Vocalists . . . Choristers

Triadelphia SDA plans to present a Christmas Concert, a.k.a Choral Evensong, December 17 at 4 PM. We could use you in the choir.

Group rehearsals will be at Triadelphia at 8 or 8:30 Wednesday evenings (or whenever prayer-meeting finishes). If you can't make the group practices, contact me anyway: I'm willing to meet at another time to help you learn your part.

We will be singing well-known selections such as Still, Still, Still, and Carol of the Bells.

TriBrass Rehearsal Changes

I am delighted to announce that Harold and Christine Greene are interested in joining the brass ensemble at Triadelphia. We will meet with them on Wednesday evenings (at 6 PM) at the Union office(?) near the intersection of Highways 29 and 175. (Will we need to bring music stands?)

This will give us an ensemble with the following configuration:

• 2 Trumpets
• 1 French Horn
• 2 Trombones
• 2 Baritones
• 1 Tuba

(The trumpet players can also double on low-brass instruments: perhaps we can handle some 8-part music in a few months.)

The above configuration doesn't look perfect for standard quintet music: I have a strange belief that standard quintet music (especially Canadian Brass) is intended for exactly five players.

However, the Salvation Army numbers are clearly intended for multiple players on a part. I have a few of these (five or six, I think) but I hope we can buy more in the near future.

Please think over what these changes may mean for us. Let me know what sounds interesting to you. And if you know more brass players, this might be a good time to invite them to join us.

TriBrass Rehearsal Schedule Update

Hello brass players,

We have a new schedule conflict making Tuesday and Thursday nights undesireable for the duration of this month, plus a week or two. We agreed to meet on Wednesday evenings (at 6:00?) until further notice. I would like to have a second rehearsal every week. Mondays are out. Perhaps Sundays? Comment here in the weblog, please.

P.S. We're still on for Thursday night this week, 10/6/05, at 5:00 PM.

TriBrass Postlude 10/29

Hello brass players,

By means that are murky at best, we have been listed to play the postlude at Triadelphia on Sabbath, October 29. Please let me know if this is possible, given your schedule.

TriBrass Rehearsals Update

Hello brass players,

This week we decided to hold Thursday night rehearsal at Triadelphia, beginning at five o'clock. See you there!

TriBrass Rehearsal Update

Hello brass players,

Our discussion last night left us with the following arrangements:

We'll meet Tuesday evenings at six o'clock (call time 5:45 PM) at Triadelphia. We'll meet Thursday evenings at six o'clock (call time 5:45 PM) at Rockville United Methodist Church in Rockville. That address is

112 W Montgomery Ave
Rockville, MD 20850-4213

Meeting in Rockville is a tentative arrangement, subject to change as we learn more about travel times, et cetera.

Please let me know whether this is in agreement with your recollection.

TriBrass Rehearsals

Hello brass players,

We need to choose new rehearsal times. For this coming week (September 4 through 10), please meet Tuesday evening at 5:45, at which time we can decide on a schedule for the coming weeks.

Thanks much,

Daniel

What groups can we form?

Perhaps I've been thinking of ensembles from the wrong direction, or communicating our options poorly. Whatever the case, it might be helpful to list some of the common ensembles. It's fairly easy to get music for these combinations.

String Quartet

2 violins, viola, cello

String Orchestra

Multiple players covering 2 violin, viola, cello and string bass parts

Brass Quartet

2 trumpets, 2 trombones (one of which must have a trigger in many cases)

Brass Quintet

2 trumpets, French horn, trombone, tuba or bass trombone

Woodwind Quintet

Flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon

What other types of ensemble exist? For what other groups could you say "It's easy to get music for that combination of instruments?"

Social Plans for Sept./Oct.

Hello friends,

Last night's supper, hymn sing and game night was a pleasure and a blessing. My deep gratitude to each one who shared their company with us last night.

I would love to have every person on this list together in one place, especially for hymn singing. Is there a Sabbath evening in September or October when many or even (dare I hope?) all of us can meet?

Here's the list of Sabbaths. Let me know what would work for you, and I'll try to pick the week with maximal coverage.

• Sept. 3
• Sept. 10
• Sept. 17
• Sept. 24
• Oct. 1
• Oct. 8
• Oct. 15
• Oct. 22
• Oct. 29

One more question: Someday I'd like to see Fallingwater. It's something like three hours drive from Germantown. Do you want to make plans and go as a group?

TriBrass to play Triadelphia August 27

Hello members of the Triadelphia Brass,

As I mentioned this evening, we have been asked to play for church August 27, providing special music. I don't know who the organist will be: David, could you check on that?

For special music we can play the Chesnekoff "Salvation is Created" or the Dvorak "Gloria."

** Update **

Actually, the Chesnekoff will be problematic, since it takes 6 parts, and Milton and his music will not be with us on the 27th.

As Geri reminded me, we should also prepare a special music for Sabbath School.

Game Night at the Ashton's Home

Hello friends,

Based on the responses received so far, August 27 looks like a good evening for our get together. So the invitation now reads as follows:

You are invited

to

Sabbath Supper

(Pakastani Curry)

and

Hymn Sing

followed by

Game Night

this time featuring

Rook

beginning around

6:00 PM

on

August 27

Please RSVP by posting a comment here or sending e-mail to Daniel@AshtonFam.org.

Need string players August 20

Hello String Players,

We have an opportunity to play prelude and offertory at the Sligo church on August 20. Are you open? When can we practice together? What repertoire would you like to play?

Please leave a comment here in the weblog or reply to Daniel@mdmusic.org.

I'll add to this list as I hear from you.

Violins
• Evonne B.
• Daniel A.
• Celisti
• Myles

Cellos
• Jamey M.
• Anastasia Z.

** UPDATE **

We have rehearsals tentatively scheduled for Friday, August 12 and August 19, at 7 PM at the Beltsville SDA church. Repertoire may include a little Ravel or Holst.

If I haven't heard from you yet, please reply or post a comment to let me know if you're interested.

** UPDATE **

The second rehearsal will be at 7:00 PM in the choir room of the Sligo church. (Please be early.)

We will be playing for both first and second services, so please arrive at the church by 8:15 Sabbath morning.