PART 1
Now I remember……… I began playing because I loved music ! Isn’t it time that we orchestral musicians dusted the cobwebs off ouselves and began to scrape a few beautiful notes for our audiences rather than disgruntled ones ? When I look into an audience and the orchestra is filling the majority of seats in the hall, even as a viola player, I can see that something’s terribly wrong. Audiences will begin to enjoy coming to concerts when we begin to enjoy playing them again. The vibrancy and passion of your concerts is catching. It’s a joy to feel how much I love music and I’m reminded of that when I watch your videos. If we all take a leaf out of your book, audiences might even prefer to come to a concert than to sit in front of Big Brother. Now that the dogs dribbling on my computer, I’ll finish . The music world owes a lot to you guys. I hope we can all learn something from your wonderful work. I certainly have. Many thanks
PART 2
OK, I was tired last night and was writing with a snoring, dribbly doggy on my lap and a teething baby next to me. The good thing about babies keeping me up all night is that I get alot of thinking time. I wonder how many times I come away from a concert and think to myself ” wow, that went well “. More often than not, it’s “Lets open a bottle of beer and drown our sorrows”. We can’t go blaming dwindling audiences on the pop industry, composers being out of date or Big Brother. Why is it that we orchestral musicians need great soloists like yourselves to give us a kick up the bum. How often do you go along to a rehearsal with an orchestra and your energy seems to wake them all up from hibernation? I remember a note on my teachers door to all his students. It said “If you’re going to give 100% enter. 98% isn’t enough”. You always give your audiences 100%. Most orchestras don’t and over the years that last 2% adds up. We have meetings and discuss adding fancy lighting or flowers on stage to make our concerts more attractive but it doesn’t matter how many roses you put around an old ash tray, it still smells. Our audiences aren’t stupid. They know quality when they hear it and they want more. You guys have proved that. The music world really does have much to thank you for. I could go on with this but I’m getting boring now and my little babsy’s waking up and my bread’s crawling out of it’s mixing bowl. Thanks again.
OUR RESPONSE:
thanks so much for your powerful words.
we abviously speak the same language!
i must say, we can not agree with you more.
although we are all lonely fighters, there is and always will be hope. lets get rid of the flowers from stage (looks horribly kitch anyway!) and get some power into our performances instead – the difference will be apparent, but not only will we bring audiences in, all musicians will feel better and prouder.
it is strange, but people tend to switch off during playing in order to save energy and because they are bored. but just the opposite is the effect! when you play with passion, the concert goes by in a minute and you feel envigorated rather then bummed out. this counts just as much for playing in orchestra.
one always has the choice in life. if we want to enjoy something, we can – and that will always be the better choice! nobody likes or sympethizes with the sulking kids in the corner of the party and why should they?
lets turn music and concerts back into what it is intended to be – a celebration of life!
love
aleksey