Saturday, December 31, 2011

China Day Ten - New Year's Eve concert in Shenyang

The Laioning Grand Theatre was full of snazz and pizzazz - a perfect setting for a New Year's Eve concert.  As we got ready I started thinking about the other New Year's Eve gigs I'd played far from home.

The first one was in 1999, heading into 2000, at the House of Blues in Tunica Mississippi.  That was trumped in 2003 when I found myself playing on the Crystal Serenity cruise ship off the Pacific coast of Mexico.  Since then it's always been in the DC area.  I guess this year in China takes the cake!

Before each concert the cello players have to do an enormous amount of prep work to get the Chinese cellos into playable condition.  The basses were often pretty bad too, but we managed to get away without having to re-string them.  They usually need some bridge adjustment and/or shimming though.


I think this must be the gaudiest theater ever.  Can you even find the percussion section amidst all of that?  It was both funny and fun in my opinion.


HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! !


3 comments:

Meghann said...

You and Doug are living the dream life of me and my husband, lol! We'd love to be able to travel and play (and he'd love to do instrument repair and make mouthpieces, but he's in the army for now, because we have four kids and need a steady income. Sigh.)

So thank you for these posts, so I can live vicariously through you!

lacochran's evil twin said...

So glad you've had such a a fantastic adventure!

Cyndy said...

Thanks Meghann - I never dreamed we'd be doing a tour of China, but here we are. You just never know!

lacochran - it's been a wonderful experience.