On those long notes behind the trumpet solo, if anyone lets his mind wander for a minute he is dead.
I begin by assembling notes on characters. Large swaths of the plot become clear to me as I do this.
I was singing about six notes higher than I had to, in a range that kept me up in a bubblegum sound.
Conducting is about communication. You don't play any notes, but you communicate with the musicians.
That's what it is that you rehearse - the making of music, not the playing of notes as abstractions.