Lately I’ve been picking through old clippings of mine as well as albums of photographs and the like. It is an interesting time, to be on the cusp of 40 as a classical musician. You are neither the new young hotshot nor the seasoned veteran. You have neither the allure of being the unknown nor the breadth of experience that puts presenters at ease. And the classical music business is increasingly (although it’s really always been this way, hasn’t it?) preoccupied with youth. Prodigies titillate us with their precocity, by their daring, by their simultaneous (and cognitively dissonant) worldliness and innocence. Schools, competitions and festivals all cater to the young – the up-and-comers. I often dream of a competition for musicians aged 30 and up. Perhaps sponsored by One-a-Day vitamins, I think. There must be a place for us, we middle-farts. We’ve paid some of our dues, are in the process of paying most of the rest, and yet we won’t really attract anyone’s attention again until we’re put out to pasture. We don’t face the pressure to produce like the young turks that are coming up and into the world’s orchestras, our orchestra. Yet we aren’t expected (yet) to coast our way into blissful retirement. In my first five years with the OSO, I played as soloist with the orchestra five times (maybe it was four, my memory is already fading!), and had a great time doing it. In the intervening six years, I’ve played with the orchestra not once. I’ve done solo appearances elsewhere, with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, the Sunriver Festival Orchestra, and at the Cascade Festival of Music. My four years playing with the Ethos Quartet came to an end in 2004. The Arnica Quartet is in its second year, but the momentum is slow in coming, and I think it’s just a different animal with different aims than we had set out to accomplish six years ago. I’ve been lucky enough to be featured at three of the International Viola Congresses (2002, 2004, 2006), and they were all very good and very different experiences. Now I’m left with the nagging question: what comes next? I’m honestly at a loss to say. Needless to say, it will be an interesting journey, and as long as I love playing the viola (and I most certainly do) then life will be good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately I’ve been picking through old clippings of mine as well as albums of photographs and the like. It is an interesting time, to be on the cusp of 40 as a classical musician. You are neither the new young hotshot nor the seasoned veteran. You have neither the allure of being the unknown nor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[67,3655,55,3660],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-classical","tag-news","tag-orchestra","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-2T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2707,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/15\/all-classical-fm-program-director-resigns-post\/","url_meta":{"origin":179,"position":0},"title":"all-classical FM program director resigns post","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"John Dodge, the Program Director of All Classical FM (Portland's 24 hour classical radio station), has announced his resignation in an email to staff members, volunteers, and board.\u00c2\u00a0 He is the latest casualty of the de\/recession that has hit Oregon so hard.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is the email in its entirety: Dear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "radio"","block_context":{"text":"radio","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/28\/audiences-pendulum-keeps-swinging\/","url_meta":{"origin":179,"position":1},"title":"audiences pendulum keeps swinging","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"John Terauds, the classical music critic for the Toronto Star, writes in a recent column that younger audiences are turned off by crossover efforts, and just want the \"straight stuff\". 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It is a project of the American Youth Symphony's Plight of American Music Initiative. While it seems largely to be aimed at the efforts of youth orchestras and other youth ensembles, some of the points made could be applicable to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7490,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/10\/young-artists-debut-concert-live-on-allclassical-radio-tonight\/","url_meta":{"origin":179,"position":4},"title":"young artists debut concert live on allclassical radio tonight!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"For the first time, All Classical broadcasts Metro Arts Inc. annual Young Artists Debut Concert LIVE from the Newmark Theatre. 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