Friends of Curt Ebersole

07/19/2024

Another tour today at the Percy Grainger Home & Studio with Alex Gray and Patrick Gray. The summer is slipping by - if you'd like to see where Percy lived and work, contact me to schedule a tour!

07/04/2024

It’s my tenth performance conducting the Westchester Symphonic Winds at Caramoor on the Fourth of July! This magnificent venue has sold out the 1700 seat Venetian Theater AND all the lawn seats. We are ready to go!

05/11/2024

Another tour of the Percy Grainger Home & Studio yesterday, with Tim Robblee. He is the guest conductor for our Westchester Symphonic Winds concert tonight at 8:00 pm at Tarrytown Music Hall, conducting two works by PAG himself. Also Chris Leslie will perform the Davoren Concerto for Euphonium. And our finale is the incredible Symphony in B-flat by Paul Hindemith. It will be an epic finale for our 2023-24 season!

04/30/2024

I'm checking off a major bucket list item -- the Hindemith Symphony in Bb -- with the Westchester Symphonic Winds at our season finale on Saturday, May 11 at 8:00 pm, at Tarrytown Music Hall. This titanic work is an amazing combination of counterpoint, thematic development, and 20th century harmony. The program also includes guest euphonium soloist Chris Leslie, and guest conductor Tim Robblee. Please consider joining us!

03/22/2024

I just spent the past three days at the North Jersey School Music Association Concert Band Festival, tag-teaming the post-performance clinics with my best bud Todd Nichols, working with adjudicators (and Northwestern alumni pals) Shelley Axelson and Dominic Talanca, and our brilliant NJSMA festival administrators/volunteers Mike Iapicca, John Maiello, Amy Wilcox, and Teddi Sotiropoulos. Great bands, great music, great week!

03/18/2024

I'm incredibly proud and grateful to the members of the Westchester Symphonic Winds for their brilliant reprise performance Saturday with the West Point Band, along with their commander, Lt. Col. Daniel Toven. These two collaborative concerts, and the opportunity to conduct the combined ensembles, has been a career highpoint for me and our WSW players! (Photo credit: Staff Sgt. Francisco Aisporna)

03/13/2024

Thrilled to be here at Boyer College of Music and Dance - Temple University for this week’s Festival of Winds, with host Trish Cornett!

03/10/2024

I’m very proud of the Westchester Symphonic Winds collaborative performance today with the West Point Band at Eisenhower Hall. Thank you to Lt Col Daniel Toven and his staff for being such gracious hosts.

02/10/2024

Very excited and looking forward to our Westchester Symphonic Winds concert tomorrow at Tarrytown Music Hall! This program pays tribute to monumental works of both opera and musical theater, including West Side Story, Les Miz, Nabucco, and Turandot! Downbeat at 2:00 pm -- plenty of time to get home and watch the Chiefs win!

12/31/2023

Hard to believe: it's been 10 years since the original squirrel story. I hope we all have learned some important lessons since then -- I know I have!

So this was my New Year's Eve from HELL. You just can't make up this stuff.
6 friends were invited for dinner. I ordered a prime rib from Fairway, and put the box (see photo) on the deck to keep it all chilled. At 5:30 I brought it in, and I when I picked it up, it felt like something shifted inside, like something MOVED. Before I could think, I set it down on the living room floor, and as I did I felt something FURRY touch my hand, inside the lift hole. As I put it on the floor a BLACK SQUIRREL jumped out through that tiny hole, and started running around through the condo! The cats, Darren and Jezebel, started chasing it. It crawled up/down the curtains, jumped off, ran under the sofa, crossed to the den, ran under the media center, and back out again. It was scared and completely crazed. I grabbed the cats and locked them in the bedroom, fearing they might be bitten. After about 5 minutes, there was no more scurrying sound, and it seemed like it might have run back out the open deck door without me seeing it. I listened and looked and poked around, but no squirrel. I resumed prepping dinner, but soon heard scratch-scratch-scratch, and located the squirrel INSIDE the den sleeper loveseat. It seemed to be inside, but when I opened the bed, nothing ran out. The scratching continued from inside the back of the loveseat, then slowed and stopped. It really seemed like it might have suffocated or impaled itself on a spring. I lifted and banged the loveseat, but got no reaction. I resigned myself to pulling the loveseat outside to remove the dead squirrel tomorrow. I finished prepping and my guests enjoyed dinner; what else was I gonna do? At 11:00 pm we sat down in the living room to enjoy drinks and await the ball drop -- when suddenly, my friend Paul yelled, "There's the squirrel, behind the couch!" What ensued were 5 minutes of complete mayhem -- the ladies pulling back and keeping their distance, while Paul and I used a bathtowel, mop handle, and doormat to try to corral the squirrel and push it toward the open deck door. Finally, the little guy ran out the door, and we slammed it shut. Somehow through the entire trauma I managed to avoid screaming like a little girl.
Moral of the story: Never store food outside without completely sealing all openings completely shut!!!!
And with that, Happy 2014 to all!

12/20/2023

Let the Midwest Mayhem begin!

12/18/2023

I gave another tour at the Percy Grainger Home & Studio yesterday. So excited to see Javier Calistoga again (her fourth visit to PGH) and to meet Nicholas Williams and host his first tour!
Let me know if you’re in the White Plains area and would like to schedule a tour of your own!

11/28/2023

Among all the notable organizations you may consider giving to today, please consider the Westchester Symphonic Winds as a possible beneficiary. I'm extremely proud of the work the ensemble does, and the high quality of live music it brings to its audiences. Thank you!
http://www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org

05/10/2019

My final concert of this season features music from LES MIZ! Tarrytown Music Hall tomorrow evening at 8 pm!

Join us on Saturday, May 11 at 8 pm at Tarrytown Music Hall for our season concert finale! This exciting concert includes a brilliant new arrangement of highlights from LES MISÉRABLES by Barton Green, featuring the voices of Jennifer Dapice, Jessica Bogart, Emily Geller Hardman, Björn Olsson, John Anthony Lopez, Brian Joseph Shaheen, and Tommy Leo. Also featured will be our guest conductor, Joe Higgins, leading WSW in a performance of Unquiet Hours by David Biedenbender. Other works on the program include: Lauds by Ron Nelson, Suite Française by Darius Milhaud, The Hope Within by Benjamin Taylor, and Liturgical Dances by David Holsinger. Tickets are available now at www.tarrytownmusichall.org.

02/12/2019

I was honored over the weekend to serve as guest conductor for Honors Performance Series Young Adult Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. The program included the music of Jager, Tchaikovsky, and Michael Markowski, who participated in a rehearsal clinic of his CITY TREES with the band. Wonderful players, great administrative support, and this magnificent space made my third performance at Carnegie Hall truly memorable!

11/14/2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaXTOLXUZaQ

Curt Ebersole shares his ideas and experiences on how we can effectively manage and learn from failure. His talk offers thoughts on how to rethink our experi...