We've been waiting 17 months to say this - Come join us for our next IN-PERSON Open Session on Saturday, July 10 from 2-5pm at Sports Basement, Berkeley!
EVENT DETAILS
WHEN: Saturday, July 10, 2021, 2-5pm
WHERE: Sports Basement, 2727 Milvia St., Berkeley, CA
TRANSPORTATION SUGGESTIONS: It's a 0.5 mile walk north of Ashby BART. Limited paid street parking is available, but as always, we strongly suggest public transit, biking, or ride-sharing. Please join our Discord here to coordinate a carpool or find some public transportation walking buddies!
COST: FREE for musicians and audience members. However, for health and safety reasons there is a musician cap of 65 and you MUST sign-up to participate (link below). There is also an audience cap of 35, and audience members must RSVP to attend (RSVP below).
COVID GUIDELINES: In the spirit of keeping this as safe as possible, this won’t be a typical session. Our repertoire is for STRINGS ONLY (and a few percussion parts… sorry brass, woodwinds, and singers - we promise to have y’all at the next session TBD) and we’re capping our musician list at 65 and our audience list at 35 on a first-come-first-served basis via our sign-ups! While we will be keeping the area as ventilated as possible, please note that this session is INDOORS.
If you are vaccinated, face masks are OPTIONAL.
If you are not vaccinated, face masks are REQUIRED.
We will be slightly more spread out than normal, but we won’t be keeping six feet between players. Musicians are welcome to sit one player per stand if they wish.
**IMPORTANT**
We are not asking for proof of vaccination, so please keep your community safe by respecting the honor system. If you are high-risk we ask that you make whatever judgment call keeps you the safest. If you are feeling ill, or you’re taking care of someone who is sick, we ask that you not attend this session. We plan on having more in-person sessions this year, so this isn’t your only opportunity to join us — deciding to sit this one out for health or safety reasons is entirely your call and we look forward to having you join us at a session in the future.
PLAYER AND AUDIENCE LIMITS:
Musician Sign-ups required: 65 musician cap
Audience RSVP required: 35 audience member cap
REPERTOIRE, INSTRUMENTATION, AND SCHEDULE:
Founding Artistic Director Dave Möschler conducting
2:00-2:40pm - Libertango by Astor Piazzolla (arr. J. Kazik)
instrumentation: percussion (bongos, congas, cajon, shaker), first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, double basses
3:00-4:00pm - Serenade for Strings in E Minor by Edward Elgar
instrumentation: first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, double basses
4:15-5:00pm - Ceridwen by Holly Mead (world premiere reading)
instrumentation: first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, double basses, featuring Diana Strong on accordion solo
REFERENCE RECORDINGS: linked above.
SHEET MUSIC: As always, sheet music for upcoming sessions can be found on Google Drive at: bit.ly/AOCOpenSession
EXTRA DETAILS: We'll provide chairs and sheet music - MUSICIANS please bring your own music stand! Sadly, there is no eating or drinking allowed at this event.
Musicians
MUSICIANS: We have capacity for 14 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, 8 basses, and 5 percussion players. We will close the sign-up form once we hit capacity and have a small waitlist.
The sign-up deadline for all sections is Monday, July 5 - But we expect to hit capacity before that date - so be sure to sign up early! You can expect an email from your Awesöme Ambassadors with specific info by Tuesday, July 6 (check your spam filters if this is your first session). Email your ambassadors if you haven't heard back by Wednesday, July 7. (Please be patient—they have a lot of information to collect before emailing everyone.) Their information can be found here.
Audience
AUDIENCE: We have capacity for 35 audience members and each person much fill out their own RSVP form (for contact tracing purposes). We will close the Audience RSVP form once we hit capacity and have a small waitlist, so sign up early and email us (awesomeorchestra@gmail.com) if your plans change!
As we transition back to in-person events, we want to re-center our mission of making our musicians and community members feel as welcome and included as possible. Let’s get to know each other better - especially after so many months apart! Whether or not you’re able to attend Session 75, we hope you’ll join us at Cornerstone on Shattuck for an after-session social hang starting at 5:30pm directly following the event on July 10.