Well, it’s D-Day, now I’m just anxiously awaiting H-Hour: 7:30 tonight. It’s a difficult thing, to do a recital as an orchestral musician. Especially after 11 years of doing the orchestra thing. The span of concentration required, and the awareness that no one’s got your back for the difficult bits (which are every note of every piece to me right now!) makes it a real stretch.<\/p>\n
Which is precisely why I’m doing it (aside from hoping to raise a little money for the Community Music Center) – it’s so easy to sit back, learn the notes for each concert, and never play in public by yourself again. It’s very tempting, let me say.<\/p>\n
Most of the nerves in one’s body scream “you’ve gotten to the place you wanted, just slack off and enjoy life” – but some of us have those nagging neurons which hold out for something better, for not letting things slide. Maybe I’m one of those people who believes that personal growth should only stop with when life does.<\/p>\n
Part of this is the teachers that I’ve had: they’ve all instilled in me the need to keep searching for something better in myself and in my performances. My friends and colleagues in the OSO also push me: they’re doing so many musical activities outside of the orchestra, and exposing themselves to new type of music and performance, including solo recitals, chamber music, new music ensembles, etc. I’d rather be part of that crowd than sit back and watch my skills decline.<\/p>\n
If you’re looking through the arts listings for a concert to attend, and you see some symphony musicians have put together a concert – make it a point to attend, and tell your friends. These musicians are going above and beyond the call to challenge themselves and to fight off symphonic atrophy – they deserve your support and encouragement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, it’s D-Day, now I’m just anxiously awaiting H-Hour: 7:30 tonight. It’s a difficult thing, to do a recital as an orchestral musician. Especially after 11 years of doing the orchestra thing. The span of concentration required, and the awareness that no one’s got your back for the difficult bits (which are every note of […]<\/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":[2],"tags":[55,93,62,3656],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-orchestra","tag-soloists","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-4f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/22\/auditioning-for-middle-farts\/","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":0},"title":"auditioning for middle-farts","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Many of you may not have been aware that over the past two weeks I've been preparing for an audition for the Seattle Symphony this past weekend (April 19-21). The orchestra had two vacancies, for Assistant principal (2nd chair) and section. As a relatively young person (38) but also a\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":16440,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2019\/11\/13\/gaining-momentum\/","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":1},"title":"gaining momentum","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I just passed my 72nd day of my physical therapy regimen, and my stamina on the instrument is increasing. I'm playing the first half of this week's Mahler concert, and hope to be back full time the following week. It finally feels like I can safely look forward to what\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0066-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0066-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0066-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0066-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0066-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0066-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":257,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/01\/april-fool\/","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":2},"title":"april fool","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy April Fool's Day! As a violist, I take special pride in what is, along with bassoonists, our special day. It's been a busy week. I've been in rehearsals for the two different concerts that we're doing with the OSO this week: the subscription classical series which involves Leonard Bernstein's\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":5725,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/16\/appreciation\/","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":3},"title":"appreciation","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On my mind over the past couple weeks has been the dual concepts of appreciation and recognition. 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