{"id":3406,"date":"2009-11-25T16:53:16","date_gmt":"2009-11-26T00:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=3406"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:01:23","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:01:23","slug":"giving-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/25\/giving-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"giving thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the day before Thanksgiving Day (the US version, Canada’s was last month), and it’s time to reflect upon what has happened up to this point and to find things for which to be thankful and glad.<\/p>\n

I’m mostly thankful for the fact that, in addition to being relatively healthy and happy, I have a job in my chosen field – playing in an orchestra.\u00a0 Not just an orchestra, but a kick-ass orchestra.\u00a0 People who have never heard the OSO play live before are going to have their socks knocked off by what they hear from us day in and day out.\u00a0 The orchestra has superb artistic leadership in Carlos Kalmar, a steady hand at the tiller in Elaine Calder, and a highly-capable staff of people who make it possible for us musicians to just go in and play without being totally consumed by worry every single day.\u00a0 We couldn’t do it without all of them, and our many, many volunteers around Portland and the state of Oregon.\u00a0 We also have our amazing pops conductor Jeff Tyzik, and our indefatigable resident conductor Gregory Vajda, who is long overdue for landing a “big job”.\u00a0 I’m surrounded by many musicians who are truly inspiring to come to work with and make music with every day – the recent stellar performances by the wind quartet for the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante<\/em> is a great reminder of the depth and breadth of musical greatness that we’re privileged to have in our orchestra!\u00a0 I’m also thankful that I live in Portland.\u00a0 I was recently sitting in a coffee shop in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles when I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me.\u00a0 She was a designer<\/a> of fine, lightweight woolen wear for women, and when I mentioned that I was from Portland, her face lit up, and she said (she was from the UK) “oh! Portland is the best city in the United States!”\u00a0 I couldn’t agree more – it’s a wonderful city, with many advantages intrinsic to it, I just hope that fully supporting its many arts organizations becomes even more of a core value for Portlanders in the coming years.<\/p>\n

So, count your blessings, and enjoy a warm, wonderful, and festive Thanksgiving Day!<\/p>\n

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It’s the day before Thanksgiving Day (the US version, Canada’s was last month), and it’s time to reflect upon what has happened up to this point and to find things for which to be thankful and glad. I’m mostly thankful for the fact that, in addition to being relatively healthy and happy, I have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-SW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4118,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/26\/a-proud-and-thankful-orchestra\/","url_meta":{"origin":3406,"position":0},"title":"a proud and thankful orchestra","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I just got back from the post-concert drinks after our annual Evelyn Nagel Donor Appreciation Concert (ENDAC) at the Newmark Theater.\u00a0 For years, ENDAC was an orchestra concert by the full orchestra, with most all of the orchestra's donors invited.\u00a0 Last year, Elaine Calder suggested (I believe) that the concert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":973,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/16\/for-the-love-of-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":3406,"position":1},"title":"for the love of it","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's easy to have a well-developed sense of ennui by the end of a symphonic season, at least if you're a member of the ensemble. But, occasionally, it's nice to have a gut check provided by one of your brothers or sisters in the orchestra world. Mine came this morning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/08\/26\/lucky-to-be-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":3406,"position":2},"title":"lucky to be me","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I know that I'm lucky to have the job that I do - I'm playing in a major (according to the American Symphony Orchestra League) orchestra that pays a living wage in a great city. I'm doing what I trained for almost 20 years to do. I get that. So\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":24428,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/18\/celebrating-30-years-my-oregon-symphony-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":3406,"position":3},"title":"Celebrating 30 Years: My Oregon Symphony Experience","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Thirty years is no mean feat in any profession. The gilded corporations of old would give a retiring company man a gold watch (and back then it most certainly was a man). If you serve in the military, you qualify for full retirement (regardless of age) after 20 years of\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\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7458,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/03\/29\/progress-in-louisville-lockout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3406,"position":4},"title":"progress in louisville lockout?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 29, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"This press release was issued today from the Louisville Orchestra Musicians' Association: Louisville Orchestra Musicians Association Proposes End to the Lockout LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, March 29, 2012 \u2013 The Louisville Orchestra Musicians Association is pleased to announce that they have taken a very positive step in ending their lockout, and returning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1985,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/26\/inside-the-orchestra\/","url_meta":{"origin":3406,"position":5},"title":"inside the orchestra","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Violist Sam Bergman has a great illustration of how different it is to hear an orchestra from the audience's point of view than from a seat in the orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 Sam's a violist with the Minnesota Orchestra, which is on a European tour right now.\u00c2\u00a0 Their first stop was the Barbican\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "acoustics"","block_context":{"text":"acoustics","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/acoustics-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3406","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=3406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}