Garth Knox<\/a>. I asked him how he’d managed to have such a varied career by that point (he’d been violist in the Ensemble Intercontemperain, the Arditti Quartet, and played period viola and composed) and he said that every four years he’d quit what he was doing currently and move on to something new. That was flabbergasting to an orchestral violist (who at that point was five years into my now 29 year tenure). Just up and quit and go to something else?? <\/p>\n\n\n\nThat ethos, however, has stuck in my mind consistently over the years. I’ve sort of made it a mantra of mine. I’ve definitely make changes over longer periods that seven years, but I’ve been pretty good about making changes as needed. Generally, if I’m bored with something, and it’s not giving me pleasure to do it (and I can afford to drop it), I’ll make a change with one of my outside of the orchestra regular activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most important thing to me is playing chamber music with new people, especially people that I don’t get to play with in my day-to-day life. I never say never to going back to things that I’ve dropped, but so far I’ve left things in the rear view mirror and been happy with the change (and no doubt they’ve been happy to bring in someone who is happier and fresher as well!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moral of the story? If you’re finding that you’re on an endless treadmill of gigs and responsibilities with burnout staring you in the face, it might be good to take a hard look at what you’re doing and see if something can at least be changed. A sabbatical from a festival (if they allow it) or a lightening of a teaching load (if you can afford it) might make a huge difference in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you’re a musician, it’s hard to say no. From the first time you’re offered actual cash money (not food or booze) in return for performing, that dopamine rush of “they like me, they really, really like me” compels one to say YES! Then you have to deal with all of the real world stuff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":23956,"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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[44,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freelancing","category-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-6en","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13782,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/22\/rip-joseph-de-pasquale-1920-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":23955,"position":0},"title":"RIP – Joseph de Pasquale (1920-2015)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A great titan of the viola world has died today. Joseph de Pasquale \u00a0was principal violist of first the Boston Symphony and then the Philadelphia Orchestra, and teacher of dozens great orchestral players (including two-thirds of the Philadelphia Orchestra viola section). I had the great honor of studying with him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "viola"","block_context":{"text":"viola","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/viola\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joseph de Pasquale. Photo: Curtis Archives","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/600_pasquale-500x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13934,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/09\/one-violist-in-manhattan\/","url_meta":{"origin":23955,"position":1},"title":"one violist in manhattan","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Viola shaming. When will the madness end? #endviolajokes https:\/\/youtu.be\/g2lZPPhbHZY ;-)","rel":"","context":"In "video"","block_context":{"text":"video","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/video\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/g2lZPPhbHZY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14102,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/24\/viola-jokes-ftw\/","url_meta":{"origin":23955,"position":2},"title":"viola jokes, ftw","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a big fan of viola jokes. I don't find them in the least bit offensive. Why? They're mostly made up by violists, for one. They're also based in a rather checkered early history of the instrument and its proponents. They have a basic sense of truth to them, and\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":"IMG_6812","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6812.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6812.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6812.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6812.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6812.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6812.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21103,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/02\/16\/john-oliver-is-a-violist\/","url_meta":{"origin":23955,"position":3},"title":"john oliver is a violist!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"[Go to 1:35 in the video if you don't care which Muppet John Oliver is.] https:\/\/youtu.be\/LRk7WR4MjUA?t=95 We take our heroes where we find them. \"do you have the sexual confidence to play the viola?\"\u2013 Stephen Colbert \"for those of you who don't know, the viola is like the violin, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "television"","block_context":{"text":"television","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/television\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/LRk7WR4MjUA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5702,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/06\/great-violist-passes-portland-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":23955,"position":4},"title":"great violist passes – portland connection","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The great Raphael Hillyer, founding violist of the Juilliard Quartet, has passed away at the age of 97.\u00a0 This titan of the viola (and string quartet) world has a Portland connection: one of his children, from his second marriage, Reiko Hillyer, lives here.\u00a0 I had no idea! NY Times obituary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "viola"","block_context":{"text":"viola","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/viola\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/raphael_hillyer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":657,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/11\/carrie-dennis-plays-paganini-and-schumann\/","url_meta":{"origin":23955,"position":5},"title":"carrie dennis plays paganini and schumann","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Carrie Dennis, the phenomenal violist who has (by the anything but grizzled age of 30!) already been Assistant principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and was just named as Principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has a couple videos up on youtube. See\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/05iUOXkzvM8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/RlFxRsV.gif?fit=480%2C270&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}