Who isn’t a bit envious of this ridiculous creature? Of course I love my Tuesday students….but still.

I have a love hate relationship with my readers.  I want you to read my blog.  I tweet about my blog, I post it on facebook.  I use it in my email signature.  I love you all!

But I get embarrassed when you want to talk to me in real life about it.  Weird, huh?  Of course I thrive on embarrassment in my life, but that’s another story… but seriously, my blog is on the INTERNET.  What happens on the internet stays on the internet, right?

(and remember, friends, the internet is NOT a big truck, it’s a series of tubes.)

I know many of my friends read this.  Thanks guys!  In fact, sometimes I just assume my friends HAVE read and reference it as if they have not only read but memorized my words.  So I am a very hypocritical attention seeker.  There, I said it.  If any of my readers have a blog, you probably know exactly what I mean.  You want traffic, you want attention…but not too much.

Today was one of those times where I got exactly what I deserved.

Do you remember the “poop” picture and story about the woman who, well, lost control of her bowels while running the Boston Marathon?  Of course you do, even though you’d probably prefer not to.  In any case, earlier this week the photographer emailed me and asked me to please take the picture down.  He said that he had thought it was a funny story but it ended up being a huge hassle for Caroline White.  (Evidently he is new to the internetz).  He also corrected me and said she was trying for a PR, and had already qualified for the Olympic trials the year before.  In any case, I felt really bad and of course took the picture down.

I was in the middle of my workout with Mike (you know, Mike, my personal trainer) this morning and I brought this up.  I had mentioned my blog in the past, and I told him the story of the guy asking me to take down the picture.  He said, “oh, yeah, I read that on your blog”.  Then he said, “next week I’ll teach you how to run airborne.”

It took me a few seconds, but then I realized that he had read this post.  I think I turned beet red.

Mike went on to tell me how he was looking for the Ocarina concert and couldn’t get it to load, but instead was poking around my blog and just happened to notice a picture of himself.

I think that time stopped due to my extreme embarrassment (Chris is also embarrassed FOR me and I think for himself as well to be engaged to someone like me).  I was trying to play it all cool, but I’m pretty sure that I was bright red and perhaps sweating profusely.

I asked if he minded, and he said no, it was fine.  I hope he wasn’t just saying that.  Maybe I’ll never see Mike again, or he is going to file a restraining order against me…I DID tell him about my blog, and I DID somewhat encourage him to read it.  So it is entirely my fault (see previous comment re: being a hypocritical attention seeker.)

But I’m not a stalker.  Just a blogger who likes to borrow other people’s photos on the internet.  And sometimes I have a lot of free time.

Here’s a picture of my own cat, judging me:

So…hi Mike, welcome to my blog!  I promise I’m not a crazy stalker, I’m just crazy 🙂  And seriously people, he’s a great trainer, you should sign on with him.  I plan to continue until at least my wedding, if it’s possible.

Does anybody else want a shout out?

This weekend is the final concert series for the SLSO.  After this, they play with Opera Theatre St Louis and have a few other lighter classics concerts until the end of June.  Then the season is over.

I was talking about this with Mike the other day and he asked, when does the season start up again.  I told him, September.  He asked, oh, so do they spend the summer rehearsing for that?

No!  They have time off.

It’s not like middle school band when you spend all semester rehearsing for a concert.  Orchestras generally only rehearse the week of the concert for that weekend’s concert.  Let me repeat that more specifically:  orchestras generally start rehearsing on Tuesday for a Friday concert.

I realized at this point in our conversation that most people (yes, I’m taking Mike’s innocent question as what most people think.  I don’t know THAT many non-musicians, so I take these questions seriously.  Statistically I believe that works.)—most people have no idea what members of symphony orchestras do.  I wrote a wonderful post about how to get a job in a symphony orchestra (or not, really) but  then what?

What do they do in the off-season?  I’ll start with this question, even though it might be a bit backwards.

It’s not like sports, where the team needs a few months to get back in shape.  First off, the team (well, orchestra) never gets OUT of shape.  Most of the members continue working during the “off-season” at various summer festivals.  Other members take some time off and travel or relax, but generally keep practicing throughout the summer.  Or, to be honest, they take some time off, but then make a valiant attempt to get back into shape before the season starts again. Other orchestras don’t have summers off at all, and so the orchestra never gets “out of shape.” Either way, please keep in mind that outside of orchestra rehearsals and concerts, the musicians spend several hours a day practicing on their own.  (I know there are people who don’t, but I’m talking about conscientious musicians that care about their skills, their careers, and their self-worth.)

What happens during the season?  What is the work schedule like?

Generally an orchestra’s work week goes like this (and please don’t yell at me about how YOUR orchestra is different or tell me classical music is dead because I don’t care, I’m just generalizing here for the public):

• Monday:  OFF (Monday is pretty universally the off day in symphony orchestra world.)

• Tuesday: OFF or perhaps one rehearsal of 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Wednesday:  Usually a “double”, meaning two rehearsals, generally one is 2 hours and one is 2 1/2 hours long.
• Thursday:  Often the same as Wednesday, unless the orchestra  plays Thursday night concerts, in which case Tuesday might have been a “double”.  Either way there is generally a morning rehearsal of 2 1/2 hours OR a double.
• Friday:  Depends.  Maybe a morning concert, maybe an evening concert, maybe a morning rehearsal followed by an evening concert.
• Saturday:  Generally just an evening concert
• Sunday:  Matinee (afternoon concert) or OFF.

To complicate matters (or further clarify, depending on your interpretation), each rehearsal or concert is called a “service” and each week would have between 7 and 9 services.  Each orchestra has various rules and restrictions on how many services there can be in a given week or perhaps a limit on the number of say, 8 or 9 service weeks over the course of the season.  Also, in each 2 or 2 1/2 rehearsal there is a break in the middle of 15 to 20 minutes.  Generally for the weekend’s concert series of 2 to 4 concerts (all the same), the orchestra will have had 4 to 5 rehearsals.  The number of concert weeks ranges for each orchestra, but even an orchestra that only performs 5 concerts a year generally then only rehearses for 5 weeks.

Some of you might be saying, wow, that sounds like a pretty light schedule.  Is it?  Let’s see, 8 services, why that’s only 16 to 20 hours of work per week!  But add in 2 to 3 hours of practicing each day, and that’s another 14 to 16 hours of work.  Plus it’s not as if you simply show up right when the rehearsal starts.  Most players are there warming up 15 to 30 minutes early for each service, so that’s another 2 to 4 hours of work.  Last but not least, when you are at work, you are working.  You cannot take a phone call, you cannot respond to an email, you cannot eat a snack (well, at break you can), you cannot do countless things that it seems to me people with other jobs do.  Not to mention that it might actually take MORE practicing that 2 to 3 hours a day sometimes.  Let’s average it out to a 35 to 50 hour work week counting practice.  Oh, and remember that many orchestras make 30,000 to 40,000 a year, and many musicians have a master’s degree.  Not a light schedule, and not a cushy job.  And you do have to keep up a certain standard of playing throughout your career, a standard that is constantly getting higher.

Next, the orchestra might expect the musicians to do community service (and they SHOULD do this, community service or outreach is very important.)  This service would generally be extra pay (the symphony here trades for a week off if you do a certain amount of outreach) but would also be extra time.

Additionally, many orchestra members teach.  They generally do this on Mondays as that is pretty universally a day off (note there is no real weekend then…).  Of course, it’s extra money.  But when the orchestra gets locked out, goes bankrupt, or simply cancels the rest of the season,  those students can be a lifesaver.

That’s the day to day life of an orchestral musician (in the USA) in a nutshell.  Any questions?

(this sums up the life of a freelance musician such as myself)

Remember the concert starts very very soon:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/stlocarina

Enjoy 🙂

I came home from my long day (and my Modern Mexican dinner at Milagro with a friend) to an  Amazon box containing two of the greatest things ever.

One, the latest Harry Potter movie on DVD.  SWEET!  I hadn’t necessarily liked the first 6 HP movies, but Deathly Hallows Part 1 was great!  I did cry a lot.  I started crying pretty much as soon as I realized it was near the point where (spoiler alert?) Dobby dies.  I’m a cry baby 🙁

Two, my new Kindle!  (My old one got stolen).  My new Kindle, WHICH as we speak is charging AND downloading all my previous 56 books to it…I am so ridiculously happy about this.  My parents gave me the first one for Christmas and I loved it.  Then it got stolen and I was sad and really missed it.  Now it is back!  Still haven’t gotten the insurance check yet, but all in good time I’m sure.  I was IN THE MIDDLE of a book, which I can now finish reading!!

It will be another month before I get the case I had before (and I wanted the same one, I liked it, it was purple) but I’ll live.  I’m just thrilled that my life is beginning to return to normal.

Now for my stomach to return to normal.  OMG.  Milagro was delicious, though the service was a bit…overwhelmed?  We split the “street” corn off the cob and some guacamole, and I had the shrimp tacos.  YUM.  What makes it modern mexican?  I’m not entirely sure (I could guess but it would probably just sound racist.)

Remember tomorrow is the internet concert—tune in at 6 pm central 🙂