Concert Band

Massive frustration, at each attempt. We’d all start to breathe again, when he would move on to another piece. Until the magical evening when we were struggling through the second movement, and the solo trumpeter suddenly stopped and gasped. Then resumed, but now with inspiration. We spent the rest of that rehearsal on “The Hindemith,” and at least half of us had a similar musical epiphany, before we were through.

By the end of the next rehearsal, as I recall, we had all grasped what Hindemith was saying, and we were all sorry to turn to something else, each time John decided we’d had enough of what would become our signature work.