 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: J. J.
Date: 2006-06-01 03:14
A recent post on a MyAuditions.com forum reveals Greg Williams (Kansas City) as the winner of the Associate Principal/Eb position after a trial period opposite someone else.
What is this likely to mean for his Kansas City position in the near future?
and
What is the current situation with the rest of the clarinet section. Do they have a permanent 2nd clarinetist and a permanent Bass clarinetist?
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2006-06-01 04:49
I want to congratulate Greg on his position. He was my private clarinet teacher my freshman year of high school. He works hard and I know he deserved to win this position. He's also very friendly too, so I'm happy that a nice person won it.
As far as the KC Symphony goes, here's what I know of the situation as of now:
Forrest Philpott was the associate Principal and I heard that he's been taking over as Principal right now. Forrest was the associate Principal/Bass clarinet player. Now, Michael Wayne is the 2nd clarinetist and he also plays the Eb in the KCSO.
Someone please correct me on this if I am wrong.
I got to sit inside the KCSO in February I think. They did a concert at our local high school to raise money for our school district's music program. I got to sit next to Michael Wayne and I have to say that him and Greg were great. It was amazing to sit inside the orchestra.
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Author: rc_clarinetlady
Date: 2006-06-01 07:55
I live in the KC area and play in the Lee's Summit Symphony, a community symphony, but love to go hear KC any time possible. My son takes trumpet lessons from Phil Clark, one of the principal trumpeters of the KC Symphony and we are good friends with Marvin Gruenbaum, viola. I get some of the inside scoop when I want it and this is what I learned a while ago.....
We called Phil on April 28th to tell him of Alex' 1 rating at state contest on his solo and asked about a free concert that night The symphony was playing Rhapsody in Blue so I asked if Greg was playing the solo part. That's when he said that Greg was probably leaving. To be honest with you all I've wondered how we kept Greg all this time. He's amazing. I love his sound and he just never makes any kind of errors. He plays with such finesse and yet with such little effort that I knew we'd lose him soon. He's fairly young and will go far in his career.
Now, about your question. Yes, we have a permanent 2nd cl. player in Michael Wayne and the bass is Forrest Philpott. Both are very good and have been here for a long time but I don't think either one of them will move into the principal position. I think they'll be looking for another principal. Greg is just superior and the symphony as a whole has improved tremendously this year under the direction of Michael Stern.
I was watching KCPT, our local PBS station on Sunday, where they were playing the Memorial day concert at Union Station. I saw Michael and Forrest but also another clarinetist I didn't know. He was an older man that I wasn't familiar with. I don't know who that was and who was playing principal.
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Author: rc_clarinetlady
Date: 2006-06-01 08:16
Clarity on my earlier post.....even though Forrest Philpott is the bass clarinetist he is also listed as co-principal. He may move into the principal position and may have been playing principal on Sunday's concert. The camera crew didn't do that great a job at letting us see the cl. section that well. I usually see Greg Williiams on principal, Michael Wayne on second and Forrest Philpott on bass.
Carrie, did you see the broacast on Sunday? If Forrest was playing principal then who was on bass? I thought it was Forrest but like I said, the camera work wasn't all that great.
The symphony itself sounded fantastic. We're playing a lot of the same arrangements for the Booms and Blooms concert at Powell Gardens for the July 2 concert so get ready to work hard.
Rebecca
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Author: J. J.
Date: 2006-06-01 09:08
I just re-read my original post. My mistake in how I worded and ordered the questions, because I was wondering what the situation is for the rest of the Minnesota section, not the KC section. Thanks for the responses, though.
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Author: clairannette
Date: 2006-06-01 14:37
They don't have a permanent 2nd or bass player in Minnesota. The auditions are supposedly going to be next season, first the 2nd one and then the bass one in the spring. At least Burt has one other permanent person in his section now!
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Author: Brandon
Date: 2006-06-01 17:52
You all in KC are very lucky to have such a lucky maestro as well. Michael Stern is the conductor of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra here in Memphis(well, Germantown actually). They are the finest orchestra in town and their pay scale rivals major orchestras. Hopefully we will get to keep him here for awhile, but Stern is amazing.
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Author: rc_clarinetlady
Date: 2006-06-03 23:35
I've been quite impressed with every performance of the KC symphony I've heard this year. Stern has done some wonderful things with the organization and so have the guest conductors that have come in while he's been gone. I think that also says a lot about the calibre of players we have here.
Again. I'm very sorry to see Greg Williams leave our symphony. His sound is so sweet and his playing is full of finesse and maturity beyond his years.
Our loss is Minnesota's gain.
Rebecca
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