By The Numbers

The Aces Concert 2020 is at 8pm tonight. It’s the 12th annual and, of course, it’s virtual.

I thought it might be instructive to think about the numbers involved in a typical concert and in this year’s edition.

Typical run time: 2 hours
2020: 23 minutes.

Typical number of pieces: 18-20
2020: 4

Typical hours of rehearsal between March 1 and Aces Concert: 25
2020: 0

Typical number of hours for me outside of rehearsal in concert week: 20
2020: 60

Amount of ice cream served: 10 gallons
2020: BYO (zero)

Typical crowd: 300-500
2020: TBD (we’ll count first 24 hours on YouTube)


And some specific 2020 numbers:

Number of separate guide tracks made for remote recording: 20-30

Total number of audio files: hundreds

Total number of video files: hundreds

Total storage capacity to mix and edit recordings: well over 100GB

Final concert file size (720p): 25GB

Total number of hours spent by singers: 50-60
(estimates ranged from 1-10 hours per singer, 13 singers)

Total number of hours spent by me: 150-200

(Total number of hours in the last 3 days: 40)

Total number of responsibilities to complete in the hour before the “concert” start: 0

Measure of my pride in my students for completing this challenge: ∞

I hope you join us, either live at 8pm or virtually at your convenience!