Obligatory update etc.

Another month, another update, apparently. So a couple of posts back I had this huge list of stuff that I had to do and such. Almost all of it is done now...I think out of all of them I just have my massive project report to complete. After that and one more midterm, smooth sailing for the finals.

About time, too. This term has been so ridiculously busy...I am definitely looking forward to the summer, where I may be busy, but at least it will be the kind of busy where the demands on my time are not competing with each other...

Anyway, onto some pictures -- these are from the recent residence musical production that I directed the pit band for.

Here's us at the final rehearsal before opening night in the Telus theatre. The band had a total of 10 players -- a relatively large pit band by rez standards. We had a very short turnaround time on getting things ready (the cast had ~3 months to practice their singing and dancing, we had ~3 weeks to learn all the music and accompany them). All the musicians were good though, so we managed to pull it off and sound half-decent.

Night of one of the shows -- here is half of my wind section in the dressing room!

All in all, even with some really sketchy parts in the music, it turned out okay. I'm sure it's responsible for more than a couple of grey hairs on my head, too...but if you asked me if I'd do it again, the answer would almost certainly be "Yes!". Am I crazy? Yea, probably.

The jazz band is sounding great this year too. In fact I managed to get my hands on one of our recordings from early in the year, and put an mp3 up on some web space. Check us out here! Playing with this band has been great this year. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year...I should probably do some practicing and take some lessons this summer.

EDIT 2 April: Thanks be to Shannon for the pictures posted here!