August began with a concert with the Los Angeles Korean Symphony at Disney Hall. Why do I bother to mention this? One reason is that I find it interesting that L.A. has a few Korean orchestras. Basically they are all pick-up orchestras, but is says something that the community is willing to support more than one. The other reason I mention it is that they performed "Dona Nobis Pacem," by Ralph Vaughn Williams. I have wanted to play that piece since I was in junior high school. I was resigned to go to my grave without having done it. Then this opportunity came up. However I was not pleased that they did not include tuba in the budget for rehearsals. My job was to show up at the sound check, play the run-through, then play the concert. What are these people thinking? But I did get it done and can now die easy. At least as far as that is concerned. Besides the Vghn Wms and the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony, the did some Korean music. Some of it was music music and some of it was very patriotic, nationalist music. I mean with flags and fanfares and everything. It was all I could do to not get up and march around the stage. It is interesting that it doesn't have to be the music of your nation, that kind of music makes you want to do things.
This year The Getty Center celebrated its 25th anniversary with 10 community festivals. Earlier in this blog you'll find some photos from the one in Koreatown. When they got to Leimert Park, not surprisingly they asked the ARK (Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra) to perform. We did all compositions by Jessie Sharps. Like the one in Koreatown, there were far fewer people there than I expected, but the numbers were respectable. It was pretty hip.
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