Good to be home

We've done an extraordinary amount of traveling in the past two weeks, a pretty endless succession of flights:


(In the foreground; bassist Matt Frischman and percussionist Kevin Watkins)
A couple were chartered, orchestra-only flights, which generally meant both an easier check-in and the chaos of open seating:


(in the foreground; principal viola Tom Turner and associate principal oboe John Snow)
Countless airport bus transfers (expertly organized - I don't think we ever lost anyone):


A bunch of long bus rides as well, mostly conducive to catching up on a little sleep, but a perfect opportunity to get some studying in; as luck would have it, we had a whole slew of conductors on my bus (one of 4) from Frankfurt to Luxembourg:


(Bassist Bill Schrickel, also music director of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra)


(Violist Ken Freed, also music director of the Mankato Symphony, delighting in Mahler 5)


(Brownie points for whoever can figure out what Osmo is studying - hint: it's a last movement)

For the record, my score-for-study during this 3 hour bus trip was the Greenberg Symphony we're performing at the upcoming Inside the Classics concerts. I ended up lugging around about 8 scores for upcoming performances - there's always works to do and concerts to prepare for, no matter how hectic the travel!