Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Dave Wilson: Day 1

Dave Wilson in the Hotseat

I'm sitting here in our meeting room at the Buffalo Philharmonic, waiting for the beginning of the readings in forty-five minutes. In about ten minutes, I'll have my final meeting with the conductor (which will last about five minutes), to go over any last minute notes or changes. Hearing my piece played for the first time yesterday was an incredible learning experience--from the first moment I began to understand even better how to clearly communicate my musical ideas in a way translatable to a symphony orchestra. Yesterday, musicians from each section met with us and gave us some immensely helpful input on how to make our parts even more easy to read. Throughout my music career I've usually worked as a player in situations like this, so hearing players communicate about issues of concern to orchestral musicians was refreshing and helped me connect even more to compositional and notation strategies for more effective communication of my musical ideas. I'm looking forward to the reading, and I'm sure I'll continue to learn even more in the next few days.