Master Works 4
Illinois Symphony does the following 5 categories of concerts: Master Works, Pops, Chamber Concerts, Sneakers & Jeans, and Education Concerts. I have only signed on for the Master Works series, because those are the most challenging concerts and need the largest number of musicians generally. I am placed at the back of the 2nd violins, partially because I play on such a limited basis I think. Might also have to do with that all the other violinists around me are really good. I’m avoiding saying I’m the worst player in the violin section. Really I’m just happy to be on the stage and doing this great music with such good musicians. I do hold my own - except for a very small percentage of very difficult passages which I fake. Faking is a necessary art for orchestral musicians. I don’t think anyone actually plays all those notes perfectly unless it is the concert master and maybe a few of the front row players? During a concert week, I typically arrive at the first rehearsal (Tues or Wed) without having spent much time studying my part. I do make an effort to go through the music, but don’t usually get very far. The problem is that when I get home off the road the Friday before the first rehearsal, the envelope of music is waiting, but I don’t feel I can jump right in and work on the music as a first priority - too much other mundane stuff or planned activities to do first. Maybe next time I’ll try to make it a higher priority so I can be better prepared ahead of time. It is also just easier to wait till the first rehearsal to discover the worst passages and how fast they go. I work very hard after the first rehearsal, so by the concert I have most of the problems worked out.
It seems to me I’m in a unique position among members of the IL Symphony. Everyone there is very focused on the concert. This is a professional gig; we’re here to do a job and do it well. So in the dressing room and back stage there is a lot of talk about the music we’re playing, or other concerts, or instruments, or who got a new bow, or evaluations of this & that - all interesting stuff to us, and there’s a lot of material there to talk about. Of course that is why we all come together from far & wide. There are musicians from Chicago, St. Louis, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Peoria, Carbondale, Springfield (of course) - even from as far away as Arizona and Toronto sometimes. There is certainly a social element at this coming together. These are relationships built on music. Most of those who don’t live in Springfield are hosted by Symphony Guild members in their homes - some pretty fabulous places I hear. BUT…
I may be the only one who comes to Springfield for other reasons. I don’t stay in the housing provided by the Symphony. I always stay with my friend Kregg. I actually go HOME to Kregg’s house after rehearsals. I know him. I feel comfortable and at home. I don’t have to be polite or tip-toe around in Kregg’s house. We always do special things - try a new restaurant, hang out with other friends, play bluegrass music with Jim (a newer friend whom I met through Kregg,) visit Kregg’s parents’ home-on-the-golf-course, and really VISIT. I have a history with Kregg, which started when we were grad students at U of I and met at church. He was at our wedding. He visited Peggy and me in Korea in 1995. We visited the largest church in the world together - Yoido Full Gospel. He took a trip to Florida with us (total of 7 people I think) in an old conversion van in about 1997, when Zack (also on this trip) was just a baby. So even though I am in Springfield to play the orchestra concert, that is not the main reason for me. Or at least it is closely tied with being able to hang out with Kregg. For me this is like a working vacation. I do work hard on the music, but one can’t practice all day. I spend about 3 hours each morning and then I’m finished until the evening rehearsal. It is a most relaxing week. I love the music, and I love being able to get away from the ‘symphony sub-culture’ which can be rather superficial.
The orchestra was in shock last week over the death of one of the best violinists in the orchestra. Peter committed suicide the week before last. He was Romanian, a few years younger than me, married, very handsome and always well-dressed, very smart and outspoken. I think I only chatted with him once backstage, but his presence was impossible to overlook. He lived in Chicago. Details and reasons why this happened were not discussed. At the first rehearsal last week, the conductor, Karen Deal, announced ‘as you all know, we lost Peter.’ I didn’t know that. I had seen an email just a couple days earlier that the orchestra manager Kamen had gone to Chicago to say his final goodbyes to Peter. I just thought Peter was going back to Romania, and since Kamen is also Romanian, he went to see him off. Maybe I am just naïve, but no form of the word ’death‘ was used from the podium all week. I turned to my Romanian stand partner, Teodor, to ask what happened to Peter. He told me Peter had died. There was a collection taken for Peter’s wife. She still played violin in the concert, though she was obviously having a rough time emotionally. We played a special piece for Peter in the concert : ‘Nimrod’ from “Enigma Variations” of Elgar. I only knew Peter superficially. This is the 2nd encounter in one week that I have had with someone’s untimely death. A young man near where we live who ran a gym out of his basement where I worked out for awhile, died of injuries from a car accident last week. I can only hope these two men had made peace with God and are standing in the presence of Jesus. I hope their lives served to bring others to Jesus. I hope mine does. Life is so fragile. No-one knows which day will be his last. What could possibly be more important in life than knowing God and accepting the free gift of salvation. Probably some will read this statement and think me simple-minded & childish for responding that way to these encounters with death. When I take the time to dwell on these lives that were cut short, it bewilders me. I don’t know what to think. By the grace of God we walk through each day. I know I could live each day more fully and could contribute much more to the lives around me. I pray that God will use my life! I am willing.
OK… During Master Works 4 week, on Thursday, I got to visit my grandson Zack’s violin lesson in Urbana for the first time since he started violin. And Zack’s mom brought him over to Normal the next day to hear our concert. Zack and I went to visit the Muirs, a very musical family I had known in Urbana but lost track of for the past 10 years. What a wonderful reunion. I took Zack to the Muirs house before the concert for dinner. I brought 5 comp tickets. Zack sat with them during the concert. Over dinner we resumed right where we left off 10 years ago, but so much has happened since we’d last met. There’s a whole lot I could say about that but won’t. Trying to close…
Peggy and I decided I should stay over till Monday to take care of business at the Secretary of State’s office - had to pay for another year of truck license - could not move the truck till this was taken care of. We had mailed a personal check, but they wanted a certified check. So I had an extra day with Kregg. We went to church at Hope Evangelical Free. It’s modeled after the big, famous Willow Creek Church in Barrington, IL - user friendly, very casual, contemporary, artsy. I could see the similarity immediately, having visited Willow Creek a couple times. Then it was confirmed to me later that ‘Hope’ was very much modeled after W.C. I really enjoyed the experience. The theme was about dancing to your own beat or something like that. So 8 youthful dancers did a very excellent routine to open the service. During the offering, a video was shown of a movie clip which neither Kregg nor I recognized. It showed a tall skinny guy going onto stage to do a really great solo dance. He had on a T-shirt which said “Vote for Pedro.” By now you may know what movie that was from. We were clueless. But it just so happened that evening I rented “Napoleon Dynamite,” which was recommended in a blog which Kregg and I both read. We thought it was very funny that we had just that morning in church unknowingly seen an excerpt of the movie we chose to watch that evening. We both agreed it was a very stupid film. But in just one day, I have been made aware of several people who seem to like that film. So…whatever… I thought that dance scene was excellent, and all the more because it comes as such a surprise, having been conditioned through the entire film to see Napoleon as a hard-core nerd, uncoordinated, clumsy, gangly, gawky, un-cool…but then he does the coolest possible, most graceful, highly coordinated, solo dance routine and gets a standing ovation for himself and his friend who is campaigning for student council. Almost the entire movie was goofy so as to accentuate the transformation of the nerdy characters at the end.
It was a great MW4 week all in all. By the way, on the program was the “Sea Symphony” of Vaughn Williams - over an hour long, big chorus, two soloists - soprano and baritone from New York. Almost all our rehearsal time went into this very big and complicated work. It was wonderful! The first half of the concert was very light: : ”Victory at Sea” by Richard Rogers and “Titanic.” The last week of April is MW5, so I get to go back for the last time this season for another fun week at Kregg’s house.
It seems to me I’m in a unique position among members of the IL Symphony. Everyone there is very focused on the concert. This is a professional gig; we’re here to do a job and do it well. So in the dressing room and back stage there is a lot of talk about the music we’re playing, or other concerts, or instruments, or who got a new bow, or evaluations of this & that - all interesting stuff to us, and there’s a lot of material there to talk about. Of course that is why we all come together from far & wide. There are musicians from Chicago, St. Louis, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Peoria, Carbondale, Springfield (of course) - even from as far away as Arizona and Toronto sometimes. There is certainly a social element at this coming together. These are relationships built on music. Most of those who don’t live in Springfield are hosted by Symphony Guild members in their homes - some pretty fabulous places I hear. BUT…
I may be the only one who comes to Springfield for other reasons. I don’t stay in the housing provided by the Symphony. I always stay with my friend Kregg. I actually go HOME to Kregg’s house after rehearsals. I know him. I feel comfortable and at home. I don’t have to be polite or tip-toe around in Kregg’s house. We always do special things - try a new restaurant, hang out with other friends, play bluegrass music with Jim (a newer friend whom I met through Kregg,) visit Kregg’s parents’ home-on-the-golf-course, and really VISIT. I have a history with Kregg, which started when we were grad students at U of I and met at church. He was at our wedding. He visited Peggy and me in Korea in 1995. We visited the largest church in the world together - Yoido Full Gospel. He took a trip to Florida with us (total of 7 people I think) in an old conversion van in about 1997, when Zack (also on this trip) was just a baby. So even though I am in Springfield to play the orchestra concert, that is not the main reason for me. Or at least it is closely tied with being able to hang out with Kregg. For me this is like a working vacation. I do work hard on the music, but one can’t practice all day. I spend about 3 hours each morning and then I’m finished until the evening rehearsal. It is a most relaxing week. I love the music, and I love being able to get away from the ‘symphony sub-culture’ which can be rather superficial.
The orchestra was in shock last week over the death of one of the best violinists in the orchestra. Peter committed suicide the week before last. He was Romanian, a few years younger than me, married, very handsome and always well-dressed, very smart and outspoken. I think I only chatted with him once backstage, but his presence was impossible to overlook. He lived in Chicago. Details and reasons why this happened were not discussed. At the first rehearsal last week, the conductor, Karen Deal, announced ‘as you all know, we lost Peter.’ I didn’t know that. I had seen an email just a couple days earlier that the orchestra manager Kamen had gone to Chicago to say his final goodbyes to Peter. I just thought Peter was going back to Romania, and since Kamen is also Romanian, he went to see him off. Maybe I am just naïve, but no form of the word ’death‘ was used from the podium all week. I turned to my Romanian stand partner, Teodor, to ask what happened to Peter. He told me Peter had died. There was a collection taken for Peter’s wife. She still played violin in the concert, though she was obviously having a rough time emotionally. We played a special piece for Peter in the concert : ‘Nimrod’ from “Enigma Variations” of Elgar. I only knew Peter superficially. This is the 2nd encounter in one week that I have had with someone’s untimely death. A young man near where we live who ran a gym out of his basement where I worked out for awhile, died of injuries from a car accident last week. I can only hope these two men had made peace with God and are standing in the presence of Jesus. I hope their lives served to bring others to Jesus. I hope mine does. Life is so fragile. No-one knows which day will be his last. What could possibly be more important in life than knowing God and accepting the free gift of salvation. Probably some will read this statement and think me simple-minded & childish for responding that way to these encounters with death. When I take the time to dwell on these lives that were cut short, it bewilders me. I don’t know what to think. By the grace of God we walk through each day. I know I could live each day more fully and could contribute much more to the lives around me. I pray that God will use my life! I am willing.
OK… During Master Works 4 week, on Thursday, I got to visit my grandson Zack’s violin lesson in Urbana for the first time since he started violin. And Zack’s mom brought him over to Normal the next day to hear our concert. Zack and I went to visit the Muirs, a very musical family I had known in Urbana but lost track of for the past 10 years. What a wonderful reunion. I took Zack to the Muirs house before the concert for dinner. I brought 5 comp tickets. Zack sat with them during the concert. Over dinner we resumed right where we left off 10 years ago, but so much has happened since we’d last met. There’s a whole lot I could say about that but won’t. Trying to close…
Peggy and I decided I should stay over till Monday to take care of business at the Secretary of State’s office - had to pay for another year of truck license - could not move the truck till this was taken care of. We had mailed a personal check, but they wanted a certified check. So I had an extra day with Kregg. We went to church at Hope Evangelical Free. It’s modeled after the big, famous Willow Creek Church in Barrington, IL - user friendly, very casual, contemporary, artsy. I could see the similarity immediately, having visited Willow Creek a couple times. Then it was confirmed to me later that ‘Hope’ was very much modeled after W.C. I really enjoyed the experience. The theme was about dancing to your own beat or something like that. So 8 youthful dancers did a very excellent routine to open the service. During the offering, a video was shown of a movie clip which neither Kregg nor I recognized. It showed a tall skinny guy going onto stage to do a really great solo dance. He had on a T-shirt which said “Vote for Pedro.” By now you may know what movie that was from. We were clueless. But it just so happened that evening I rented “Napoleon Dynamite,” which was recommended in a blog which Kregg and I both read. We thought it was very funny that we had just that morning in church unknowingly seen an excerpt of the movie we chose to watch that evening. We both agreed it was a very stupid film. But in just one day, I have been made aware of several people who seem to like that film. So…whatever… I thought that dance scene was excellent, and all the more because it comes as such a surprise, having been conditioned through the entire film to see Napoleon as a hard-core nerd, uncoordinated, clumsy, gangly, gawky, un-cool…but then he does the coolest possible, most graceful, highly coordinated, solo dance routine and gets a standing ovation for himself and his friend who is campaigning for student council. Almost the entire movie was goofy so as to accentuate the transformation of the nerdy characters at the end.
It was a great MW4 week all in all. By the way, on the program was the “Sea Symphony” of Vaughn Williams - over an hour long, big chorus, two soloists - soprano and baritone from New York. Almost all our rehearsal time went into this very big and complicated work. It was wonderful! The first half of the concert was very light: : ”Victory at Sea” by Richard Rogers and “Titanic.” The last week of April is MW5, so I get to go back for the last time this season for another fun week at Kregg’s house.
posted by Trucking Fiddler at 6:27 PM
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