Klarinet Archive - Posting 000141.txt from 2001/09

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Ed Lacy`s instrument rental
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 12:59:30 -0400

Thanks to several people who have given me very helpful suggestions. I now
feel confident that the problem can be solved.

Tony Wakefield asks:

> Sly question - If you don`t want to lug/carry/porter/haul an instru.
around
> U.K. for a month, prior to hiring, how then do you intend to practise and
> prepare for your concerts?

That's a fair question, and one with which I have been wrestling as well.
Unfortunately, it's one of those short questions with a very long answer. I
don't know if the long version of the answer is of very much general
interest, so I'll try to give the "Reader's Digest" version.

My reason for going to England next summer is to teach during the summer
term at the University of Evansville's British campus, Harlaxton College,
located near Grantham, Lincolnshire. That will last for five weeks, from
mid-May to the third week of June. I'll have relatively little occasion to
perform during that period.

Then, at some point just after that period, my wife and I will go to
Normandy, France. There is a small village there named Lassy, which happens
to be the place where members of the Lacy family lived until the Norman
conquest of England in 1066, and also the place where the name "Lacy"
originates. (As yet, I can't prove a descent from that important medieval
family, but hope to be able to find out someday exactly what connection
exists, if any.) There is an interesting experiment going on in the village
of Lassy, which is a town with a population of perhaps fewer than 50 people,
plus a few more in the outlying countryside. At the village inn/pub/tavern,
they have started a cultural arts performance series. They bring musicians,
poets, artists, and others from various parts of France and other countries
of Europe to do performances. There is a great deal more involved in the
program, which I won't burden you with. It's a most remarkable and
praiseworthy experiment. I don't know of anything like it in any other
village of comparable size anywhere in the world. In any event, my wife and
I have been invited to do a performance there. We will do an informal
recital (piano and alto saxophone) which we will call something like
"Monuments of American Musical Theater." (or "Theatre") We'll be playing
representative music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers,
Leonard Bernstein, etc. It won't be extremely demanding technically. If I
have the music properly prepared before leaving for Europe, and can obtain
an instrument at least a week in advance of the performance, I think I can
get the music back into shape without too much trouble.

As a long-term woodwind doubler, I have had to become accustomed to
performing without the luxury of long hours and days of practice.

So, that's probably a lot more than you wanted to know about that. By the
way, Tony, when those Lacys came from France to England about 1066, one of
them was favored by William the Conqueror with the lordship of large areas
around the town of Pontefract, which is near Wakefield. Do you have
connections with that area?

Ed Lacy
**************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy, Professor of Music
University of Evansville
1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
telephone (812)479-2252; e-mail: EL2@-----.edu
**************************************************************

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