Rhodes Choir Year in Review

For the past several years we have the great pleasure of working with the Rhodes Jr High School Orchestra. At the end of the performance season we spend a couple of hours recording music that the ensemble has performed through out the year.

This year, Michael Markowski took on the task of the recording project. It seemed only fitting, since he is an alum of the Rhodes Performing Atrs Department.

Every year I am amazed at how much the ensemble values this experience. It also gives me a great opportunity to hear what Dobson has coming it’s way.

Dobson Bands Celebrates 25 years of great music

On May 10th and 11th, Dobson Bands celebrated 25 years of historic music making.

For this event Dan and Mike brought a new level of production to the events. Not only did we capture the event in 5.1 surround, but we also captured it with 4 cameras and live video switching.

For the first time, the Dobson audience was able to watch the performances from a point of view not seen before. They were able to see the “behind the stage” laughter as the MC was making jokes. They were able to see the expressions on the director’s faces as they were conducting. This level of production created a much deeper experience for the audience and as the director of Orchestras, Rob Nichols put it, the audience was captivated. Even the younger audience that is normally….noisy was intrigued by the visual presentation.

The performance was mixed and edited and released on both CD and DVD.

Karl Schindler's Ghost Voices & Kendra D'Ercole's Wie Die Blatter des Herbstes Herabfallen

Tuesday Mike and Dan were at Paradise Community College to record works by composers Karl Schindler's & Kendra D'Ercole's.

The evening did have some interesting challenges to it, the first work, Schindler’s Ghost Voices: Songs from a Cemetery, used a choir in costume and a chamber ensemble in the orchestra pit. Unfortunately, the Paradise Community College Theater was not designed with me in mind so we had to get creative. Since there was a live audience, we were not able to place microphones in more traditional locations. Instead, we used the bi-directional ribbon microphones and had one side facing the choir, while the other was facing the chamber ensemble.

For D'Ercole's work, Wie Die Blatter des Herbstes Herabfallen, we had to reset, and accommodate a larger ensemble that was placed entirely on the stage.

Both works were enjoyable and received well by the audience.