We had an eventful and great practice time today. The two spectators who happened to pass by the main hall and a gentleman who came to inquire about us, grabbed a seat, formed our impromptu audience and enjoyed listening to our music. One might disagree with me, but I draw that conclusion based on the fact that they stayed around for the full 90 minutes! One of them mentioned that she could not understand how we sounded so good just after a few weeks of practice. 

To my friends who say “Who wants to hear an amateur orchestra” I say: Come and check us out on Thursdays, you might even decide to stick around!

The amateur violinist who came to check us out sounded a bit discouraged by what he described as the “great” level of our play. How does one balance attracting amateur musicians of all level without intimidating them by our rising level of play? And that is my question of the day. I don’t have the answer except that I’ll follow-up and encourage him to join.

• We are now fifteen accomplished and intermediate level musicians. I am thankful to all for sharing your precious talent and contributing to our weekly practice and play;
• We are building a repertoire of some nineteen orchestral classical pieces;
• Seven orchestral pieces have been donated to the orchestra;
• Our coach/conductor has taken charge and organized our music library;
• We are learning to play together while having lots of fun doing it!
• We are planning to play a couple of pieces during a Sunday service in September and a few more during November;
• Subsets of our musicians wanting to play chamber music are beginning to form; please keep us informed of your progress;
• Upon deciding to join us, a pianist has donated an electric piano to GS for the enjoyment of all; we are thankful for her donation to GS but most importantly for her talent.

Looking ahead, our objective is to grow our complement to 25 musicians by Q1 2012. We will maintain our recruiting effort and keep updating a few snowbird musicians who have already expressed a strong interest in joining us.

We are starting to create an awareness about our existence and to establish key contacts in the Venice community. With time, thanks to a growing reputation we will be able to attract more talent and share it with our community.

I welcome our musicians and friends’ feedback, ideas and help in continuing to build the VCO.

It’s always nice to return home following two weeks of travel. Yesterday when I returned from my few days out of town it was a bit different though. As I was heading home along Center Rd around 6 pm and passing by GS I noticed that there were quite a few cars in the parking lot and somehow wished I could join our orchestra immediately! But no, not too practical, I will have to wait until next week.

Today as I am catching up with my email I am gratified to know that we have been joined by two new members, I look forward to meeting them next Thursday!

Setting up and maintaining our library of music is a major and very important task that needs to be addressed in the early stages of building an orchestra. We are very fortunate that our Coach/Conductor has volunteered to organise this very important function. As the VCO continues to grow and mature we will encourage other musicians to help Angela and the orchestra with this essential role.

As our orchestra grows in number, level of performance and recognition, we anticipate to continue attracting selected sponsors to help with the various responsibilities and expenses associated with the development of an orchestra.

The VCO is a multigenerational orchestra. Its goal is to provide an entry point for musicians of all ages and skill levels, or a comfortable re-entry point for retired professional musicians and adults who played music in school and would like to resume playing after long years of building careers and raising children. Beginners and former players will enjoy playing with more experienced musicians who also will derive great satisfaction of helping out less experienced musician in a non-competitive environment while having fun doing it. The VCO will promote musical participation, appreciation and enjoyment in our community through our occasional performances.

The VCO is owned by its musicians. Ownership of an orchestra is a nebulous concept yet no one can disagree that without the musicians there will be no music! As a smaller group of musicians, do we need a formal structure to help with decisions, objectives, music to play etc? Hopefully not, I would like to believe that at this stage, none of these issues should be that difficult to address informally and without the burden of a formal structure.

It is now official! Our new and budding orchestra has adopted the name “The Venice Community Orchestra” of the Good Shepherd Church. We started our project in early May 2011 with a couple of announcements in the local newspapers a webpage on the Good Shepherd’s website and emails to local music teachers and other parties with a possible interest in supporting our recruiting efforts. I am thrilled to report that as of today we are 15 musicians including former musicians longing to get back into playing their favorite instrument, current members of the Venice Symphony Orchestra and past members wanting to keep playing as well as music students wanting to hone their skills while having fun doing it.

Good Shepherd Church on Center Rd in Venice, Fl have graciously accepted to host us for weekly practice. Most recently, the choir Director volunteered to coach and conduct our young orchestra.

Creating a community orchestra in Venice was just a wish I had while traveling back and forth to Sarasota to play and perform with other amateur musicians; it is real now! We play short pieces of classical and contemporary music. Our current repertoire includes short pieces by Handel, Corelli, Beethoven and Vivaldi.

Our plan is to practice and play throughout the year while trying to keep our seasonal members in the loop as to the various pieces of music we will be introducing during summer time.

Word of mouth has also proven to be critical in attracting local talent and as we grow, I am asking my fellow musicians, friends and friendly contacts to spread the news to help attract talent to the Venice Community Orchestra. Our objective is a complement of 25 musicians. You can rest assured that you’ll be invited to our first official performance before the end of this year.

Thank you for visiting.

I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a long and positive journey for each member of the orchestra, for our first sponsor Church of the Good Shepherd on Center Rd and for the Venice community.

A lot has happened since I decided, right after my first music camp in Atlanta in April ’11, to go ahead and work on building an orchestra in Venice Fl, yet it seems as if it was yesterday that I started thinking about it. In a year or two I would like to reflect on what the orchestra has accomplished and share it with our musicians and friends who might be interested to know more about us. I know it will be a great story to share!

In the shorter term, this blog will help answer a few simple but important questions that I’m being asked by fellow musicians. Based on my last few weeks’ experience, most of these questions are raised either before a musician decides to join us or within the first couple of weeks of joining us.

As a way of starting the dialogue this blog reflects my personal perspective. I welcome any constructive feedback, reaction or opinion from members of the VCO and other members of the community willing to post them or contact me directly. This will help orient our work with a more balanced perspective.