I have had the unfortunate experience of doing many all night drives over the years to get from one gig to another. This is never fun. The main problem is that I work in Memphis, Tennessee and in Chicago and Wisconsin. IRIS Chamber Orchestra concerts will start in Memphis at 8 p.m. on Saturday night and get done at 10 or 10:30 p.m. I will then often have rehearsals (or sometimes even concerts!) the next day in northern Illinois or in Wisconsin. Memphis and Chicago are about 9 1/2 hours apart for driving time, so this can present some complications.

Sometimes I only have a Sunday evening rehearsal or some teaching on Sunday night. This is the best sort of scenario. I simply have to get up around 5 a.m. (which I don’t like doing very much after a late night concert) and be on the road by 6 a.m. It’s a lonely drive through rural Arkansas and Missouri, but I can keep myself entertained with beautiful vistas like this farm:

this state prison:

the friendly hamlet of Salem, Illinois:

and Cairo, Illinois, which has a rich history of hate crimes and violence:

A Time magazine article a few years ago compared photos of downtown Cairo and photos of war zones, and there was very little difference.

Charming as this drive may be during the day, it is even more fun at night! The bad driving scenario (and one which I have done many times) is one in which I have a Memphis concert Saturday night ending at 10:30 p.m. and a Milwaukee service starting 11 a.m. Sunday morning. If I leave the second the concert gets out (no time to change) and hit the road I can make it to Milwaukee with about 45 minutes to spare.

The drive (which I have come to detest more than anything in this world) follows this sort of time line:

• 10:30 p.m. - I load the bass and the stool in the car (still in my suit) and book it to the freeway. Luckily there is a reception after each IRIS concert, so there is never a mad dash to the parking lot. I need to make sure to stop for gas before I leave Memphis, because late night gas stations are spread pretty far apart for the first two-thirds of this drive.
• 11:15 p.m. - By now I have cleared the Memphis area and entered West Memphis, Arkansas, another rough town on the drive. I’ve stopped here before, and to me it is like the East St. Louis of Memphis (any people from Illinois or Missouri know what I mean–it’s bad!).
• 12:15 a.m. - I hit the Arkansas-Missouri state line. Traffic starts to thin out by this point, but there is still some company on the road.
• 1:15 a.m. - I cross the Mississippi river and hit Cairo. The crossing is dramatic during the day, but at night it is creepy. I am basically the only car on the road right now. I’ve driven this drive during pouring rain and whipping wind when the temperature is just a hair above freezing. Here’s a picture of the crossing. Imagine how it looks in the conditions I just described:

• 1:30 a.m. - Now that I’m around Cairo I really start to get creeped out. Anybody interested in this town can read more about it here. I’m sure the town isn’t as bad as I imagine it to be, but I have this nightmare vision of breaking down out here in the pouring rain and never being heard from again. Adding to the creepiness is the fact that you enter a big southern Illinois forest at this point and that the trees at night are often filled with roosting ravens.
• 2:15 a.m. - I pass RIGHT NEXT to this prison:

I am the only car on the road. I make a mental note not to pick up any hitchhikers. Again I have visions of never being heard from again.

• 3-5 a.m. - I begin to enter a more populated, less “Deliverance” style area of the state. This is the point where I also start to feel VERY tired.
• 5-7 a.m. - These are the hardest hours of the drive for me physically. I am back in populated Illinois (I hit Champaign-Urbana around this time), but something about being still in my suit from the night before, unshaved, hungry, and squinting as the sun comes up makes me feel really rotten.
• 7-10 a.m. - I hit and pass metro Chicago on my way up to Milwaukee. I have not hit traffic ever at this time of day. It always strikes me at this point that the Chicago freeway system actually works great if there aren’t any cars on it!
• 10-10:45 a.m. - I arrive in Milwaukee at the ballet studio and brush my teeth in the street as I wait for the hall to open up. These days are doubles (!), so my day is as follows from this point:
• 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Rehearsal #1
• 1:30-2:30 p.m. - crawl inside my bass case to take a nap
• 2:30-5 p.m. - Rehearsal #2
• 5-6:30 p.m. - drive home to Chicago

I haven’t yet had a gig after that second Milwaukee service, but I am sure that it is something that would happen if I were to continue to do these crazy drives. I have vowed to never do one of these days again–I am sure that it takes a month or so off of my lifespan after I do it.

I have also done all night drives to many other places besides Milwaukee, but those stories are for another time.

Dan Klass of The Bitterest Pill recently did an episode in which he talked about the L.A. Opera’s recent production of Manon. Dan’s podcast is hilarious (I am a regular listener), and it offers some real and humorous insight into how opera seems to someone who’s not a fan. If you haven’t checked this episode out you can find it here. Visit The Bitterest Pill for more information on Dan’s show and how to subscribe to the podcast.

You can also play his show via Odeo below:

powered by ODEO

All of the IRIS bass section substitutes have gone on to have great full-time orchestra jobs:

Charles Carlton - Cleveland Orchestra
Matt Medlock - Naples Philharmonic
Ira Gold - National Symphony
Jeff Kail - Kansas City Symphony

My stand partner Scott Best has been principal bass of the Memphis Symphony since the beginning of IRIS. The two of us have been the core bass section for the past seven seasons.

By the way, this photo is the only bit of terrain in the drive from Chicago to Memphis. Anyone who has driven I 57 between these cities knows this hill. It occurs about 30 miles from the Illinois/Missouri border around Cairo. This is a view from the south. You can see how the land rises up to the Illinois plains plateau. If it is raining in the south it will often quit after ascending this hill, and if it is snowing in the north it will often switch to rain after descending this hill.

I recently discovered that some IRIS Chamber Orchestra recordings are available on iTunes. Search the iTunes Store for the Gliere Horn Concerto and you will find a recording that we did a few years ago with Eric Ruske.

There are four great audio clips of IRIS that you can listen to on the IRIS website. Click the numbers in the lower left of the page. To view the current IRIS season, visit this website.

Additionally, recordings can be purchased from Amazon and Naxos at the following links:

IRIS on Naxos
IRIS on Amazon
IRIS on iTunes (will open iTunes on your computer)

technorati tags: IRIS, Chamber, Orchestra, iTunes, CD

The IRIS Chamber Orchestra does not operate like a typical symphony orchestra. It reminds me much more of a summer festival atmosphere (like Aspen or another such festival). We perform approximately one concert a month during the regular season (September through May). Since we only get together once a month things always feel fresh. There are never any Pops concerts or any smarmy, low-quality programming events. The concerts combine a fair amount of modern music with pieces from the standard orchestral repertoire.

Gathering together once a month (with a fair number of new faces each month) also means a period of readjustment to each other’s playing styles. Usually things gel partway into the first rehearsal.

We have four rehearsals for each performance. This is usually ample time to get the repertoire together, but only two of them are typical rehearsals. The first rehearsal is at 6 p.m. on Thursday night. This rehearsal has no audience, but the whole orchestra is usually tired from traveling to Memphis that day (most of us fly in from out of town). I have to leave at 6 a.m. to make the 562 mile drive from Chicago. I have made that drive nearly 50 times over the last seven years.

The second rehearsal is Friday morning, and the second half of the rehearsal is broadcast live on Memphis Public Radio. I think that this is an interesting idea, and I wish that more orchestras would experiment with that.

The final rehearsal is performed for an audience. IRIS has been doing this since the first season. There are some die-hard audience members that are at every single dress rehearsal. Many audience members seem to really appreciate the chance to see the orchestra in a rehearsal setting.

This week’s program is exceptionally busy and difficult for us. The repertoire is all string music this time:

• Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47
• Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, Op. 110
• Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1
• Dvorak: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22

The Shostakovich Piano Concerto features solo trumpet as well as solo piano. The piano soloist for this week is Wendy Chen, and Michael Stern is conducting as always.

Since the orchestra is a chamber orchestra and not a full-sized symphony orchestra we don’t play warhorses like Strauss tone poems or Mahler symphonies. Here is a repertoire list for our first four seasons (we are now in our seventh season):

Season I

9/19/2000
Élégie for cello & orchestra, C minor Op. 24
Gabriel Fauré
Yo-Yo Ma

Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello & orchestra in A major, Op. 33
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Yo-Yo Ma

Fanfare for the Common Man from Symphony No. 3
Aaron Copland

On the Town
Leonard Bernstein

Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67, “Fate”
Ludwig van Beethoven

Capriccio for cello & orchestra
Lukas Foss
Yo-Yo Ma

10/21/2000
Piano Concerto No. 2, B flat major, Op. 19
Ludwig van Beethoven
Garrick Ohlsson

Appalachian Spring
Aaron Copland

Kaiser-Walzer for Orchestra,
“Emporer Waltz”
Johann Strauss II

Overture to Semiramide
Gioachino Rossini

1/13/2001
Serenade for 13 wind instruments
in E flat major, Op. 7
Richard Strauss

Crisantemi “Chrysanthemums”
Giacomo Puccini

Symphony No. 8 in B minor, “Unfinished”
Franz Schubert

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
Sergey Prokofiev
Cho-Liang Lin

Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, Op. 72b
Ludwig van Beethoven

2/3/2001
Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, AV 132
Richard Strauss
Eric Ruske

Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter”
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart

Fugue for string quartet in B flat major, Op. 133, “Grosse Fuge”
Ludwig van Beethoven

Larghetto for horn & orchestra
Emmanuel Chabrier
Eric Ruske

3/31/2001
Concerto Bass and Orchestra
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer

Concerto for chamber orchestra in E-flat Major, “Dumbarton Oaks”
Igor Stravinsky

Symphony No. 101 in D major, “Clock”
Franz Joseph Haydn

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major
Johann Sebastian Bach

4/28/2001
Dances of Galánta for orchestra
Zoltán Kodály

Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, Clarinet Concerto (”Landscapes with Blues”)
World Premiere
Steven Hartke
Richard Stoltzman

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, “Scottish”
Felix Mendelssohn

Season II

10/13/2001
Burlesque for piano and orchestra
Richard Strauss

Symphony No. 3 “Camp Meeting”
Charles Ives

Symphony No. 35 in D Major, “Haffner”
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart
Emanuel Ax

Piano Concerto No. 14 in E Flat Major
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart
Emanuel Ax

12/16/2001
Concerto for piano, violin, cello, & orchestra in C major, “Triple Concerto”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Yo-yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo

Egmont, incidental music, Op. 84
Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Ludwig van Beethoven

1/19/2002
Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Op. 24
Samuel Barber
Janice Chandler

Adagio for Strings
Samuel Barber

Symphony No.2 in B flat major, D. 125
Franz Schubert

Tombeau de Couperin
Maurice Ravel

2/2/2002
Violin Concerto in E minor
Felix Mendelssohn

Eight Instrumental Interludes
Igor Stravinsky

Quiet City
Aaron Copland

Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 “Italian”
Felix Mendelssohn
Kyoko Takezawa

3/2/2002
Symphony No. 103, E flat major “Drum Roll”
Franz Joseph Haydn
Jonathan Haas

Pacific Rim
Steven Hartke

Overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie), opera
Gioachino Rossini

Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra
Philip Glass
Jonathan Haas

4/20/2002
In the Arms of the Beloved, Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra
World Premiere
Richard Danielpour
Laredo & Robinson

Love Scene from Romeo and Juliet
Hector Berlioz

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major “Rhenish”
Robert Schumann

5/4/2002
Verklärte Nacht “Transfigured Night,” Op. 4
Arnold Schoenberg

Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Eroica
Ludwig von Beethoven

Season III

10/5/2002
Suite from Pulcinella
Igor Stravinsky

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61
Ludwig von Beethoven:
Itzhak Perlman

First Light
Richard Danielpour

11/16/2002
Lieder eines farenden Gesellen
“Songs of a Wayfarer”
Gustav Mahler
Michelle DeYoung

Symphony No. 38 in D Major, “Prague”
Wolfgang Amdeus Mozart

Oberon, overture to the opera
Carl Maria von Weber

Arianna a Naxos, Arr. Von Neukomm
Franz Josef Haydn
Michelle DeYoung

12/14/2002
Concerto for Pipa and Stings
Lou Harrison
Wu Man

Half-Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight
Terry Riley

Ma mère l’oye Mother Goose Suite
Maurice Ravel

Sensemayá Chant for the Killing of a Snake
Silvestre Revueltas

Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Classical”
Sergei Prokofiev

1/25/2003
Violin Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 63
Sergei Prokofiev
Boris Belkin

Tango in Time of War (Premiere)
Marshall Fine

Symphony No. 100 in D Major, “Military”
Franz Joseph Haydn

2/22/2003
The Fiddler’s Child
Leos Janácek

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, “Turkish”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Barnabás Kelemen

Zigeunerweisen, for violin & orchestra “Gypsy Airs,” Op. 20
Pablo de Sarasate
Barnabás Kelemen

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Johannes Brahms

3/22/2003
The Hebrides, overture in B minor for orchestra “Fingal’s Cave,” Op. 26
Felix Mendelssohn

Concerto for Vibraphone and Strings
Antonio Vivaldi
Evelyn Glennie

Veni, Veni Emmanuel
James MacMillan
Evelyn Glennie

Symphony No. 1 in B flat major “Spring”
Robert Schumann

4/12/2003
Moz-Art à la Haydnfor 2 violins & 11 strings
Alfred Schnittke

Concerto No. 2 for Bass and Orchestra
World Premiere
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer

Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastoral”
Ludwig van Beethoven

5/3/2003
Piano Concerto No. 2, B flat major, Op. 83
Johannes Brahms
Yefim Bronfman

Souvenirs suite
Samuel Barber

Manfred, overture & incidental music,
Op. 115
Robert Schumann

Season IV

10/11/2003
Piano Concerto in G major
Maurice Ravel
Jean-Yves Thibaudet

A Jazz Symphony
George Antheil

Ragtime Dances
Charles Ives

La création du monde
Darius Milhaud

11/22/2003
Viola Concerto
Krzysztof Penderecki
Roberto Diaz

Italian Serenade in G major
Hugo Wolf

Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Concerto for viola and strings in G major
Georg Philipp Telemann

12/6/2003
Cello Concerto No. 1, E flat major, Op. 107
Dmitry Shostakovich
Jian Wang

Capricorn Concerto, Op. 21
Samuel Barber

Der Bürger als Edelmann, Op. 60
“Le bourgeois gentilhomme”
Richard Strauss

1/24/2004
Concerto St. Marc
Tomaso Albinoni

Rhapsody in Blue Arranged for Trumpet
George Gershwin
Ryan Anthony

Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Op. 60
Antonín Dvorak

The Moldau from Má Vlast
Bedrich Smetana

2/21/2004
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Maurice Ravel

Les Nuits d’été, Op. 7
Hector Berlioz
Susanne Mentzer

Medea, suite for orchestra, Op. 23
Samuel Barber

El Amor BrujoSuite
Manuel de Falla
Susanne Mentzer

3/6/2004
Rituals for percussion & chamber orchestra
World Premiere
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
NEXUS

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Felix Mendelssohn

Suite for Orchestra No. 4 in D major
Johann Sebastian Bach

4/3/2004
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra
Ned Rorem
Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson

Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60
Ludwig van Beethoven

Divertimento for Strings 1939
Béla Bartók

5/8/2004
Symphony No. 25 in G minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Johannes Brahms
Gil Shaham

Music for the Theater
Aaron Copland

technorati tags: IRIS, Chamber, Orchestra, Memphis, Tennessee