Final IWS Concert of the Season

The final concert of the 2007–08 regular season for the Indiana Wind Symphony is this Sunday, June 1. This is the concert that ends up taking up so much of my time, and that isn't even for practicing.

We have some traditions at our final concert. We give out the James B. Calvert Award for the Outstanding Indiana Music Educator. We also give out the Bob Day award to the outstanding member of the group. I don't have much to do with that.

But we also have our annual silent auction at our final concert. Once again, it has fallen to me to hold on to the auction items that people bring in (though, to be honest, the only auction items I have are the ones donated by my parents). I also print up auction sheets by creating a spreadsheet and doing a mail merge in Word.

Another tradition, and this is only the third year for it, is for the final piece of the concert to be something big and to include a visual presentation (using PowerPoint). Guess who puts that together. It just happens to be the guy who copy edited the original Cutting Edge PowerPoint For Dummies. This year, the piece is James Barnes' Fourth Symphony, "Yellowstone Portraits." It's about 22 minutes long, and I'm having a hard time finding enough pictures to put it together...or at least enough pictures to make it interesting. I do have a couple of videos to include this year. And it's taking up so much of my time.

As if that weren't enough, I also have to assemble the program, which runs 16 or 20 pages. This year we even have an advertiser.

All this, and I have to play most of the concert, too. I'm even taking Friday off of work to make sure everything gets done on time. And I have two freelance copy editing assignments smoldering on the back burner while I do all this. (sigh)

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing these things -- well, except for the auction stuff, which is just a pain. But I think next year, I'll just sit out for the playing part of the concert and concentrate on the other creative stuff. Or maybe I can get started on the PowerPoint presentation in, say, January (or next week), so I can have it finished before we even start rehearsals for that concert. (Like that'll happen. I thrive on deadlines a little too much.)

After all this, I just hope the concert is a success.