I love New York
Well, I figured continue my habit of posting about stuff one to two months after the fact. I'm going to keep exact dates and names out of this as there was some drama.
About two months ago my friend Overman and I were invited to play two concerts at Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, this was a very exciting opportunity. For two LA violinists to be invited to play in NY is pretty rare. It's usually the other way around as NY has the reputation for being the hub of great classical players in the US. Plus, Carnegie is one of the most famous halls in the world, not something to pass up, and it's a true honor to be invited to play there.
So, Overman and I show up the day before our rehersals are set to begin. Now as special as it was to be invited, we're not exactly celebrities. We're professional gigging violinists, which doesn't really qualify us for the red carpet treatment. We fly into La Guardia, and from there we take a bus down to the Port Authority. Now the airport (and airport bus) were pretty cool. Like most any airport I've ever been to, it was reasonably easy to figure out where to go and what line to take. The Port Authority however was a completely different story.
When we arrived there, I was immediately hit by how many people were on the streets. It was 11 o'clock at night and the press of pedestrians was unbelievable. Anyhow, once we had made our way through this mess with our bags and instruments we got inside. The place was huge, kindof a mall mixed with a massive bus/subway hub. Bottom line, it's one of the most confusing places to find your way around. I have a pretty damn good sense for directions and figuring out arcane maps/routes and even I was completely confused. None of the bus numbers corresponded to thier gates, there were no bus schedule screens, or booklets, no signs to the ticket counter, nothing. Just a bunch of random gate numbers with long lines of bored looking people. Fortunately, for us, there are people in the port authority looking for people like us. I very soft spoken skinny hispanic guy, noted our consternation and offered to help us out (obviously expecting us to tip him, which we did). We took him up on the offer, and after a 5 minute walk up and down numerous levels and around and about many turns we ended up at the ticket counter (initially I thought he might have been purposfully taking us on a scenic route, but after much experience in the place over the next week, it turned out he was not). Anyhow, we got our tickets and hopped our bus.
We ended up at a Hampton Inn in in Jersey. That night we slept pretty soundly, determined to get up early to walk about the city and get a feel for things before our evening rehersal, which is exactly what we did.
I must say, over the course of the day I was very happy with my expereince there. NY is a fascinating place. I decided early on that I wasn't going to do the classice tourist thing (i.e. Empire State, etc.) I was going to walk the streets, ride the subway, sample the bars and the pizza and the people. It was great. Everybody there was very friendly, especially in the Irish Pubs where they plyed us with beers and questions and in general treated us like old freinds. The pizza was great, as were the street hotdogs. I think I walked about 10 miles that day.
Anyhow, after that little adventure we showed up at our evening rehersal. Overman was sitting concertmaster, and myself Assosiate Concertmaster (3rd chair). To say the least, the rehersal was rough, we were playing the Mozart Requiem along with a couple of other pieces that I cannot recall now. The Mozart was an extremely difficult piece which did contribute to some of the problems, but frankly the conductor was completely incompetant. Still, I've been under my fair share of crappy conductors so it didn't bother me so much. This was not true of a number of people in the orchestra and unfortunately how this discontentment played out ended up being one of the big problems on the trip.
After the rehersal Overman and I decided we needed more beers before we hopped the bus back to Jersey. So we hit a couple of bars and walked around taking in the unique energy and nightlife. We walked through Times Square and wandered about the many garishly lit streets. At some point in the evening Overman got a phonecall and stepped outside the bar we were at. Upon his return he looked quite agitated, I asked him what was wrong.
The short version was this; several people were upset with the rehersal that night, one person in particular (an anonymous violinist) took that annoyance a step further. He called one of the people in charge and basically laid the blame for the whole problem on Overman "and his friends" (which of course was me). This anonymous individual basically said that the rehersal was terrible due to bad section leading and some weak playing in the 1st violins.
Now, I've been around the block a few times. I've seen my share of backstabbing, and politicking and bullshit, but this was as blatant as I'd ever seen. First of all, from where I was sitting, the 1st violins weren't the only section having problems, secondly, I didn't notice a single problem with Overmans performance as concertmaster, and thirdly the conductor (as I noted earlir) was absolute crap. Add to that the fact that most of the NY players were sight reading the piece it made for some messy playing. As for myself, I've played the Mozart Requiem about 15 times. Yes it's difficult, but I know the goddamned thing backwards and forwards and I sure as hell wasn't the cause for any problems.
Overman was very upset, they were talking about removing him from the concertmaster position. They would still allow him (and myself) to play in the section, but of course such a slap in the face pretty much meant he would just quit (which also meant that I would quit as well).
I decided I needed to talk to these people. So I went outside and called my mentor and teacher (whome I shall refer to as Belstrad) of the last 20 years. Partly to calm myself down, and partly to talk it over with someone with experience before I started making any other calls. After discussing it with him at length we cleared up as best we could what was actually going on and he made some suggestions on how I might best go about allieviating the problem. I'm not gonna go into exaustive details as it would make this allready long post even longer.
After my conversation with Belstrad, I called the lady that hired us for the job in the first place. I made the case (which happened to be true) that most of the problem came from an incompetant conductor, which just exacerbated the normal difficulties of a first rehersal to a higher point than some people were obviously used to in the group. She made it clear to me that she had no problem with Overman or my performance (she had been sitting in the section) and that the only person with a real problem was the New York string contractor (who hadn't even been at the rehersal BTW) that had gotten a negative report from this anonymous violinist. That bit of information pretty much firmed up in my mind what I suspected. We were a couple of out of town players taking up NY jobs. Not only that, we were put in front of local players. Someone had gotten bent out of shape by this and decided to take advantage of a poor rehersal to get us thrown out.
I gently suggested this possiblity to the person I was speaking with, and she agreed. She said she would do whatever she could to keep things the way they were. Later that night Overman recieved a phone call that he would remain as concertmaster but that they would re-organize the section and add some more NY players.
So the next day we showed up for rehersal, we had a new conductor, and a few new people in the section. Overman led the section easily, I did great, the rehersal went very well, and two of the NY players they brought in to "help" the section fucked up consistantly throughout. Needless to say, we came out of it smelling like roses, and the people that were making the problems (whomever they were) looked like a bunch of assholes.
Anyhow, the rest of the trip went by quickly and I had alot of fun. The concerts were awesome, we got paid, went out and did more drinking, I did a little more touring around (including a quick ferry ride to Staten Island), then we hopped our plane flew home. Overall the trip was great politics aside. However, knowing how these things work we'll probably never get hired to work with that orchestra again.
Oh well, I got to play in Carnegie, had a great time, and I got paid. So fuck em!
About two months ago my friend Overman and I were invited to play two concerts at Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, this was a very exciting opportunity. For two LA violinists to be invited to play in NY is pretty rare. It's usually the other way around as NY has the reputation for being the hub of great classical players in the US. Plus, Carnegie is one of the most famous halls in the world, not something to pass up, and it's a true honor to be invited to play there.
So, Overman and I show up the day before our rehersals are set to begin. Now as special as it was to be invited, we're not exactly celebrities. We're professional gigging violinists, which doesn't really qualify us for the red carpet treatment. We fly into La Guardia, and from there we take a bus down to the Port Authority. Now the airport (and airport bus) were pretty cool. Like most any airport I've ever been to, it was reasonably easy to figure out where to go and what line to take. The Port Authority however was a completely different story.
When we arrived there, I was immediately hit by how many people were on the streets. It was 11 o'clock at night and the press of pedestrians was unbelievable. Anyhow, once we had made our way through this mess with our bags and instruments we got inside. The place was huge, kindof a mall mixed with a massive bus/subway hub. Bottom line, it's one of the most confusing places to find your way around. I have a pretty damn good sense for directions and figuring out arcane maps/routes and even I was completely confused. None of the bus numbers corresponded to thier gates, there were no bus schedule screens, or booklets, no signs to the ticket counter, nothing. Just a bunch of random gate numbers with long lines of bored looking people. Fortunately, for us, there are people in the port authority looking for people like us. I very soft spoken skinny hispanic guy, noted our consternation and offered to help us out (obviously expecting us to tip him, which we did). We took him up on the offer, and after a 5 minute walk up and down numerous levels and around and about many turns we ended up at the ticket counter (initially I thought he might have been purposfully taking us on a scenic route, but after much experience in the place over the next week, it turned out he was not). Anyhow, we got our tickets and hopped our bus.
We ended up at a Hampton Inn in in Jersey. That night we slept pretty soundly, determined to get up early to walk about the city and get a feel for things before our evening rehersal, which is exactly what we did.
I must say, over the course of the day I was very happy with my expereince there. NY is a fascinating place. I decided early on that I wasn't going to do the classice tourist thing (i.e. Empire State, etc.) I was going to walk the streets, ride the subway, sample the bars and the pizza and the people. It was great. Everybody there was very friendly, especially in the Irish Pubs where they plyed us with beers and questions and in general treated us like old freinds. The pizza was great, as were the street hotdogs. I think I walked about 10 miles that day.
Anyhow, after that little adventure we showed up at our evening rehersal. Overman was sitting concertmaster, and myself Assosiate Concertmaster (3rd chair). To say the least, the rehersal was rough, we were playing the Mozart Requiem along with a couple of other pieces that I cannot recall now. The Mozart was an extremely difficult piece which did contribute to some of the problems, but frankly the conductor was completely incompetant. Still, I've been under my fair share of crappy conductors so it didn't bother me so much. This was not true of a number of people in the orchestra and unfortunately how this discontentment played out ended up being one of the big problems on the trip.
After the rehersal Overman and I decided we needed more beers before we hopped the bus back to Jersey. So we hit a couple of bars and walked around taking in the unique energy and nightlife. We walked through Times Square and wandered about the many garishly lit streets. At some point in the evening Overman got a phonecall and stepped outside the bar we were at. Upon his return he looked quite agitated, I asked him what was wrong.
The short version was this; several people were upset with the rehersal that night, one person in particular (an anonymous violinist) took that annoyance a step further. He called one of the people in charge and basically laid the blame for the whole problem on Overman "and his friends" (which of course was me). This anonymous individual basically said that the rehersal was terrible due to bad section leading and some weak playing in the 1st violins.
Now, I've been around the block a few times. I've seen my share of backstabbing, and politicking and bullshit, but this was as blatant as I'd ever seen. First of all, from where I was sitting, the 1st violins weren't the only section having problems, secondly, I didn't notice a single problem with Overmans performance as concertmaster, and thirdly the conductor (as I noted earlir) was absolute crap. Add to that the fact that most of the NY players were sight reading the piece it made for some messy playing. As for myself, I've played the Mozart Requiem about 15 times. Yes it's difficult, but I know the goddamned thing backwards and forwards and I sure as hell wasn't the cause for any problems.
Overman was very upset, they were talking about removing him from the concertmaster position. They would still allow him (and myself) to play in the section, but of course such a slap in the face pretty much meant he would just quit (which also meant that I would quit as well).
I decided I needed to talk to these people. So I went outside and called my mentor and teacher (whome I shall refer to as Belstrad) of the last 20 years. Partly to calm myself down, and partly to talk it over with someone with experience before I started making any other calls. After discussing it with him at length we cleared up as best we could what was actually going on and he made some suggestions on how I might best go about allieviating the problem. I'm not gonna go into exaustive details as it would make this allready long post even longer.
After my conversation with Belstrad, I called the lady that hired us for the job in the first place. I made the case (which happened to be true) that most of the problem came from an incompetant conductor, which just exacerbated the normal difficulties of a first rehersal to a higher point than some people were obviously used to in the group. She made it clear to me that she had no problem with Overman or my performance (she had been sitting in the section) and that the only person with a real problem was the New York string contractor (who hadn't even been at the rehersal BTW) that had gotten a negative report from this anonymous violinist. That bit of information pretty much firmed up in my mind what I suspected. We were a couple of out of town players taking up NY jobs. Not only that, we were put in front of local players. Someone had gotten bent out of shape by this and decided to take advantage of a poor rehersal to get us thrown out.
I gently suggested this possiblity to the person I was speaking with, and she agreed. She said she would do whatever she could to keep things the way they were. Later that night Overman recieved a phone call that he would remain as concertmaster but that they would re-organize the section and add some more NY players.
So the next day we showed up for rehersal, we had a new conductor, and a few new people in the section. Overman led the section easily, I did great, the rehersal went very well, and two of the NY players they brought in to "help" the section fucked up consistantly throughout. Needless to say, we came out of it smelling like roses, and the people that were making the problems (whomever they were) looked like a bunch of assholes.
Anyhow, the rest of the trip went by quickly and I had alot of fun. The concerts were awesome, we got paid, went out and did more drinking, I did a little more touring around (including a quick ferry ride to Staten Island), then we hopped our plane flew home. Overall the trip was great politics aside. However, knowing how these things work we'll probably never get hired to work with that orchestra again.
Oh well, I got to play in Carnegie, had a great time, and I got paid. So fuck em!