First WEDNESDAYS Highlights (02-03-16)

What a night at the ASMAC Feb 3, 2016 First Wednesday’s The Art of Music Preparation Event! Harpist Gayle Levant introduced the legendary Bob Bornstein who started the festivities with a way too brief overview of his life and accomplishments. Bob closed with a fun story about the great Dimitri Tiomkin responding to a musician questioning his Bb in a certain measure. The answer from Mr. Tiomkin was to play any note other than the Bb that was written. Pete Myers had some very good input and wisdom to share from the audience. Audrey Bornstein graced us with her presence and enjoyed her husband’s speech from the front row.

A very informative back and forth discussion with the audience members was prevalent throughout the night. This was no ordinary audience, in attendance were some of Hollywood’s finest film copyist who contributed their expertise to the conversation. A big ASMAC thanks to Elizabeth Finch for her contributions to several topics.The discussion started with the brief background of panelist Dave Giuli and Ross deRoche.

Host Kim Richmond chatted about a list of his pet peeves in less than perfect music preparation. Intervals, layout, multi measure rest spacing, articulations, accidentals, page turns and music size were among the topics. Ross and David had plenty of great input on all topics.

During the break, Jim Ciancaglini, the owner of Valle Music in North Hollywood demonstrated his ninja music binding skills with cloth tape and a razor blade. After the break, Jim discussed many of the finer points of preparing parts for orchestras including binding, paper weight and paper color.Ross, David and Kim offered input and more Q&A came from the audience.

Gayle Levant mentioned her frequent visits to Jim and Valle Music to have emailed parts enlarged. The evening continued with the participants at the edge of their seats; Disney’s Dave Giuli dazzled all with his knowledge of Finale and Sibelius from his laptop. Dave discussed harp part notation with input from legendary harpist Gayle Levant. Followed by a percussion part discussion as the clock wound down.

The clock robbed us of a string part and budget discussion prepared by Ross deRoche which prompted a unanimous call for an encore Music Preparation event next month. Stay tuned for details on the location and date.

The night wrapped up in overtime with a drawing for door prizes including Bob Bornstein’s new Range, Transposition and Tuning guide for over 500 instruments. Also included was free passes to ASMAC Master Classes, pencils and manuscript paper courtesy of Valle Music and a copy of Finale 2014.5 generously donated by Make Music. Congratulations to Joseph Carrillo, the new proud owner of Finale 2014.5

We look forward to having you join us at our next “First Wednesday” event on February 3, 2016!