The audience comes first
The programme starts with the question of who will be in the hall. A concert in a theatre, where people have come to listen, is built differently from a ball, where people dance, or a corporate evening, where music is part of a wider programme.
Arrangements for twenty people
Every song the orchestra plays needs an arrangement — written-out parts for every section: saxophones, trombones, trumpets and rhythm. Only the arrangement decides who plays the melody, where the solo comes and how the sections pass the word to each other.
The dramaturgy of the evening
- the opening — an energetic instrumental that wakes up the hall,
- changes of tempo — a ballad after a fast swing number, Latin after a ballad,
- changes of voice — David Kleňha, Mirka Lendělová, duets and instrumental numbers,
- a climax at the end of each set — a song after which the audience has earned its break.
Why sets of 40 minutes
Playing wind instruments is physically demanding. Sets of 40 minutes with a twenty-minute break and a maximum of three hours of music per evening ensure that the orchestra sounds as good at the end as at the beginning.