RTOOT Holiday Concert:
“Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy!”
comes to Chapel Hill
on Saturday, December 10, 2011
at 3:00 p.m.
The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT)
will present their Holiday Concert
"Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy"
on Saturday, 10 December 2011 at 3:00 p.m.
The performance will take place at the Chapel Hill Bible Church
(260 Erwin Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514) located at the
intersection of Sage Road and Erwin Road in Chapel Hill.
The program will include music from the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky,
selections from the Handel Messiah,
a polka from Johann Strauss II and some famous tunes by Leroy Anderson.
Once again the Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT) will have
a sing-along of holiday song favorites with Florence Peacock and Philip van Lidth de Jeude leading the singing.
The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT) encourages
concert goers to help Santa fill the
"Toys for Tots"
sleigh by bringing a new, unwrapped toy to the show.
Tickets are available for $7.00 from orchestra members or at the door.
The Spring 2011
concert by The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT)
was held on Tuesday, 24 May 2011 with an enthusiastic crowd in Duke
University’s Baldwin Auditorium. Billed as the “Worst Side Stories”
concert, it quite literally brought down the house as it was the
last concert before the guts of the auditorium are torn out and a
1-1/2 year renovation takes place. Appearance in
Cary at the Sertoma Bandshell, Bond Park Recent Videos
and Reviews Who Are We Welcome and
thank you for visiting the website of The Really Terrible Orchestra
Of the Triangle (RTOOT)! We invite you to explore our site, listen
to our music, leaf through our program materials, and watch our
rather odd movie, “The
Birth of an Orchestra”. While you’re
here, please sign our RTOOT Guestbook! My Strow W.
Sands Hobgood discusses the program for the inaugural concert with
the Assistant Conductor of The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the
Triangle (RTOOT) Michael Lyle.
RTOOT Now Found in Wikipedia
Spring Concert Tuesday, 24 May 2011
The 55-piece ensemble took the stage with the overture to Rossini’s
opera Semiramide
except that a
bad case of ‘philharmoniphobia’ seized all the players except the
perkussionist, and the conductor was obliged to ask the audience
members to pretend to disappear in order that the musicians could
continue as if they were rehearsing as usual without a crowed of
listeners.
Initial jitters over, the string section went on to a lush reading
of Tchaikovsky’s String Serenade, the Elegie
movement.
Thereafter, some reeds and brass were brought forth to perform two
movements from Bach’s First Brandenburg Concerto. In true RTOOT
form, the second movement was played first, followed by the first
movement. At least it presented a slow-fast tempo progression.
During the second movement (which was the first), the trombone
section was noted in the rear playing a large game of ‘hangman’.
They become quite feisty when they have no parts to play.
The first half of the program concluded with Adolph
Shreiner’s Immer
Kleiner (Always
Smaller). This was a clarinet concerto in one movement featuring
Amanda Jacob, a member of the RTOOT woodwinds. Performed under a
waning gibbous moon, the clarinet itself became smaller and smaller
as the work progressed. In the end, all had disappeared except the
mouthpiece, but the soloist continued on unphased.
After a most welcome intermission, the music and antics continued
with Strauss’ Freulingsstimme waltz (the “Voices of Spring”). As a
prelude, My Strow Hobgood asked the audience to help established a
spring-time mood by imitating a chorus of May frogs. The women and
girls were the spring peepers and the men and boys imitated
bullfrogs. This was really pretty silly but the audience seemed to
find it amusing.
The second piece was a movement from Howard Hanson’s
Romantic
Symphonic No. 2,
the Andante Tenerezzo. This was clearly a stretch for The Really
Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle, but it managed to hold together
to the beautiful very very quiet final chord. After the Hanson,
assistant conductor Michael Lyle took the podium to perform a
medley of tunes from Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, including
The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance. The final
selection was also an arrangement of songs from the musical West
Side Story, proving once again that RTOOT continues to provide the
triangle area with the worst of symphonic music.
RTOOT’s next concert will be in Chapel Hill. Details to be
announced on this website.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle was featured as part
of Cary’s Sertoma Series on Sunday afternoon, 1 May, at 3:00 pm.
The program included light-hearted music for the whole family. We
played selections from Gilbert & Sullivan, a medley of tunes
from West Side Story, and others.
There are videos of this outing on youtube:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSs-nGROjsI
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4lTwdnFtI
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1sHQxe79U
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKtpo0f-l-g
There are several depictions of our Winter 2010 concert on Youtube.
Here is the beginning of the concert with My Strow
Hobgood delivering a long and terribly rambling prologue. The music
actually begins about halfway through this excerpt, around the 7
minute mark.
We have a video of our really terrible rendition of
The
Ruins of Athens from the spring
concert.
Also a scathing review of the Chapel
Hill event from John Lambert, our friend at cvnc.org (Classical
voice of North Carolina). Scathing, of course, in the most terrible
sense of the word. Thank you John!
Finally, a very fine documentary about RTOOT,
made recently by Kim Best as part of her project in the Duke Center
for Documentary Studies.
Who are we? The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle exists to
encourage those who have been prevented from playing music together
with others, either through lack of talent or some other factor, to
rehearse and perform in an ensemble of similarly afflicted players.
From a humble beginning in May 2008, we have grown into a 50-piece
symphony orchestra worthy of its role as one of the premiere
cultural gems of the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill NC (USA)
region known as the Research Triangle. Except that we’re pretty
terrible. Terrible, in the French sense of Des Enfants
Terribles ... in that
while we haven’t made fun of Bach or Mozart yet, we certainly have
had a naughty excursion or two with Strauss and Tchaikovsky.
We acknowledge
as our musical heritage the world-famous Really
Terrible Orchestra (RTO) of
Edinburgh, Scotland , which was founded by the eminent Scottish
author Alexander McCall Smith. Similar to the RTO, the primary goal
of The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT) is to
involve competent musicians in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area
who are not quite competent enough to play with the Durham
Symphony, the Raleigh Symphony, or the Chapel Hill Philharmonia.
Our passionate mission is to reach out to the entire music
community, irrespective of individual expertise,
in order to underline our commitment to accessibility and
relevance. Accessibility,
because we provide a unique opportunity for musicians of any age,
gender, persuasion, political affiliation, race, who want to play
with a group, regardless of their level of competence. Relevance,
since our bizarre performances tend to attract the entire community
(including particularly those on the fringe) who enjoy a good show
and may never otherwise be lured inside a symphonic concert
hall.
All ages, races, genders, and persuasions of instrumentalists are
invited to join our ranks. In particular, if Mom played the viola
in college and Dad played the clarinet, and Junior is playing the
oboe in the middle school orchestra, make it a family occasion and
enjoy playing together in an ensemble!! Just send us an email (see
‘Contact Us’ at the bottom of the page) to sign up and request an
audition.
Yes. There are auditions. We don’t want players who are
too
competent. Full
details are found on the “Auditions” page under “RTOOT Players
Retreat”
Professional musicians may be accepted into membership if they pick
up something they’ve never played before and if they play it badly
enough. For example, the Zachary Taylor Smith Term Professor of
Music at UNC Chapel Hill is third flautist and piccolautist. His
son is in the cello section. A local saxophonist, heard quite often
in broadway touring pit orchestras, plays the oboe for The Really
Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT).
Rehearsals are held weekly on Sunday afternoon in Cary at the Herb
Young Community Center just off Academy Street or at the Bond Park
Community Center just off Highhouse Road.
Generally the RTOOT performs thrice a year, in Durham, Raleigh, and
Chapel Hill, but is available at cost --
great cost -- for birthdays
and corporate events. Persons or organizations wishing to employ
The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT) or a subset
thereof, such as a string quartet or a chamber music ensemble,
should contact our commercial subsidiary, the RTP (Really Terrible
Philharmonic).
My Strow W.
Sands Hobgood
Founder and Conductor of the Really Terrible Orchestra Of the
Triangle is W. Sands Hobgood, keyboardist and conductor in the
triangle area since 1952. He has a legitimate job as a church
musician but believes that the associated institutions would wish
to remain anonymous. Mr. Hobgood, in addition to his conducting
activities, rearranges the hard parts for instruments that are
incapable of performing them as written.
Mr. Hobgood has also appeared in films produced by the local
collective 301 films (see www.301films.com) and appeared
in a major role in “Fast Freddie Fantastic”.
Furthermore, Mr. Hobgood also serves as the Really Terrible
Webmaster. He is now ably assisted by the Assistant Really Terrible
Webmastress, Ms. Rennie Martin, without whom you would not be
reading this.
Really
Terrible Webmaster W. Sands Hobgood consults with Assistant Really
Terrible Webmastress Rennie Martin over aspects of synchronization
of the HTML tags using an RSS feed over multiple CGI linkages
through the ASP interfaces at HostMonster, our server. Photo by
Chris Jones, 501 Diner.
The Assistant Conductor of The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the
Triangle (RTOOT) is Michael Lyle, who comes way over-qualified with
a MM in Conducting. We believe The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the
Triangle (RTOOT) to be the only civic orchestra in the Triangle
with an Assistant Conductor.
Photo by Chris Jones, 501 Diner.
The
Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT) is pleased to
note that we are now found in Wikipedia along with the
original RTO from Edinburgh Scotland.
Nonprofit
Status
The Really
Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT) is chartered as a
Nonprofit Corporation in the State of North Carolina. It is
classified as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt institution by the Internal
Revenue Service.
Board of Directors
The Board Of Directors Of The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the
Triangle (RTOOT), otherwise known as the BODORTOOT, includes the
following members (in alphabetical order):
• Professor Allen Anderson and Head of the Composition Area of the
Music Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Professor Anderson is Vice President of the Board
• W. Sands Hobgood, conductor, music director, and founder of The
Really Terrible Orchestra Of the Triangle (RTOOT), and President
and Chairman of the Board
• Patti Jean Spinillo, who comes to us from the farming community
of Eli Whitney, NC, and who was the Principal Associate and Chief
Roadie on Mr. Hobgood's "Bless Your Heart Eastern European Organ
Concert Tour of 2001". Patti Jean serves as secretary to the
Board
• Florence
Peacock, who describes herself as Diva Soprano of Chapel Hill, NC,
and treasurer of the Board
• Douglass Little,
who
lives in Raleigh and conducts a middle school orchestra in Chapel
Hill. She also plays with The Really Terrible Orchestra Of the
Triangle (RTOOT) and is principal cellist
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Number of
Visitors Since our Founding in May 2008