Meadowbrook Praises Clay & Co

The Nashua Telegraph published an article today entitled "Symphony and ‘Idol’ make unlikely team". The article talks about the unique partnerships Clay has been forming with symphonies across the nation as he continues his 2007 An Evening with Clay Aiken summer orchestra tour.

Besides from the fact it is a very good read, the article has some great insight into the logistics behind every concert - each orchestra only practices with Clay's musical director, Jesse Vargas, for a few hour before hitting the stage. In the end, the Nashua Symphony credits Clay's team and the terrific talent of his orchestra for pulling the show off without a hitch.

The full article can be read at the Encore by the Nashua Telegraph:

On his 2007 summer tour, Aiken has hired symphony orchestras from each state in which he has performed. Meadowbrook, which collaborated with the Nashua Symphony Orchestra in 2002 when the symphony performed with the Irish Tenors, arranged this collaboration, as well.

The orchestra showed up at 2 p.m. as scheduled to rehearse for the 8 p.m. performance. It was the only opportunity the musicians had to go over the music for Aiken’s 1½ -hour show. But, as Aiken explained to the crowd, neither the music nor the stools he and his two backup singers use arrived from Los Angeles.

It took four hours for the music – 30 pages for each musician – to be faxed, copied and collated at Meadowbrook.

“We ended up having about an hour and a half to rehearse for the show with Clay’s music director, Jesse Vargas,” said Nashua Symphony Association Executive Director Eric Valliere. And out of that hour and a half, Aiken did about a half-hour of sound checks and other preparations.

“These guys (the Aiken people) are pros,” said Valliere. “They were very apologetic for the problems. These things happens. Something unexpected always takes place at a gig. And our people are pros, too. With only an hour and a half rehearsal it means that you’re sight-reading for the most part throughout the whole performance. But this wasn’t really complicated music. It wasn’t Glinka or anything. Our people have been performing their whole lives, so they’re good at sight-reading. So, the moment rehearsal started, even though it was late, it sounded like music.” Even though some of that music was far from what you would expect a symphony to play.