Over the past year or so, many of our performing players in Landolfi Ensembles have acquired, and are using, 12.9” iPads in place of the customary sheet music for our engagements. The use of this technology has greatly improved our ability to have instant access to literally hundreds of songs – it’s great for taking requests, organizing customized playlists for ceremonies and events, and helping us streamline the transitions between songs – with the click of a (foot)switch! The problem with having such an extensive library like Landolfi has is that transporting the sheet music for all four members of a quartet, for example, can be a rather daunting (and heavy!) task! Now, each performer can bring their own personal “Landolfi Library”, and have the playlist for the event cued up already!
As players, we like using them for MUCH more practical reasons too, things like: 1) eliminates the need for stand lights in dark settings 2) the music won’t blow off the music stand (in outdoor situations….yes, it happens!) 3) we can edit/share music instantly amongst ourselves with the ease of AirDrop – especially helpful when adding new songs to our library 4) can organize music with more descriptions by adding various tags such as genre, composer, decade – very helpful when searching for requests. There is a great app called ForScore that we all use, which has many features we use. These include sharing, sorting, editing, and scanning. Many of our players are private instructors and do freelance playing as well. Being able to use our iPads to organize and store our personal libraries for teaching, orchestral playing, and other work is a huge convenience for us all.
Music selection for events, especially wedding ceremonies, is an important and personal choice. While some opt for the more traditional musical choices, many often have very specific wishes, and music is a integral part of their ceremony. Quite often this may include a specially requested arrangement of a song that is not on our extensive playlist. Landolfi offers this service for a fee, and will produce an arrangement for any special request(s). We are also happy to work with other instrumentalists or singers at your request. For the ceremonies that are a bit more complicated, it’s wonderful to have the ease and assurance that our next song is simply a click away, thanks to our iPads!!