If you’re an assistant principal (as opposed to “assistant to the principal” for you UK Office fans), you’ve got a pretty cushy job.\u00a0 You don’t play any of the solos (unless there are solos for the second chair), you don’t do any of the bowings, and you basically try to help the principal do their job with as little hassle as possible.<\/p>\n
Every so often, however, circumstances push you over into the principal chair, and usually there isn’t much or any preparation for that change.<\/p>\n
This morning, at the dress rehearsal for this weekend’s classical program, my principal had to leave midway through the rehearsal for personal reasons.\u00a0 It took place during the middle of the first movement of the Mozart piano concerto, and I just had to slide over to the first chair, the on-call player moved up, and we seamlessly went on as though nothing had happened.\u00a0 On our stage, however, the difference in sitting three or four feet downstage makes a huge difference in what you can see and\/or hear.\u00a0 Suddenly I could see our concertmaster, but couldn’t hear the first stand of cellos very well, and I was suddenly face-to-face with our soloist (Angela Hewitt) down the length of the interior of the piano, which is always disconcerting to me.\u00a0 Then, in the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique<\/em>, there are quite a few divisi sections, where the inside player plays a separate line from the outside player, and it just might have been since I was in grad school that I had last played the top line in that piece!\u00a0 So, add in the fact that there is now a little bit of sight-reading put on my plate!\u00a0 And finally, there was the fact that I might have to play the treacherous solos in the Webern Passacaglia<\/em>, Op. 1, without even having played a rehearsal, which did not make for a fun afternoon of practicing.<\/p>\n I made it through the rehearsal with only a slightly elevated stress profile, but playing in the hot seat reminded me of just how different the demands are on a principal string player than even his stand partner, not to mention the rest of the section.\u00a0 They earn their extra pay, hands down.<\/p>\n I just got the call that Jo\u00ebl will be playing the concert tonight, so I can put the part away and watch some Olympic coverage before heading to the hall tonight.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’re an assistant principal (as opposed to “assistant to the principal” for you UK Office fans), you’ve got a pretty cushy job.\u00a0 You don’t play any of the solos (unless there are solos for the second chair), you don’t do any of the bowings, and you basically try to help the principal do their […]<\/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":[2,22],"tags":[1014,3668,2151],"class_list":["post-4091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","category-viola","tag-joel-belgique","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-principal-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-13Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":754,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/09\/eartha-kitt-rehearsal\/","url_meta":{"origin":4091,"position":0},"title":"eartha kitt rehearsal","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not a good idea to take photos while rehearsing (it's basically verboten), but taking a few before things get started are always fun. Here's the view from my chair: And here is principal viola Jo\u00c3\u00abl Belgique zoning out before the start of rehearsal, and a look at our lovely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fun"","block_context":{"text":"fun","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fun\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2254070534_5b70bf5c17_o.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/2254070534_5b70bf5c17_o.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":79,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/26\/musical-chairs\/","url_meta":{"origin":4091,"position":1},"title":"musical chairs","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Most of you are aware that there is a probation period for all new musicians who enter the orchestra. In our case, it's a two year process. It's all set out in our CBA (collective bargaining agreement), a timeline which governs the whole thing. There is a number of members\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":5503,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/30\/priceless-viola-moment\/","url_meta":{"origin":4091,"position":2},"title":"priceless viola moment","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight we had one of those rare moments that is hilarious and will love on in viola section lore for years to come.\u00a0 At the dress rehearsal this morning, Jo\u00ebl, our principal, decided to have some fun with a melody in the Tchaikovsky First Symphony that is played by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fun"","block_context":{"text":"fun","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fun\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12604,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/19\/bso-marathoners-honor-marathon-victims\/","url_meta":{"origin":4091,"position":3},"title":"bso marathoners honor marathon victims","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is just a cool story - and you'll note that three of the musicians are violists, naturally! \u00a0","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":" Photo: Stu Rosner\/Boston Symphony Orchestra","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/bso_musicians-500x282.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12969,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/04\/season-nineteen-begins\/","url_meta":{"origin":4091,"position":4},"title":"season nineteen begins","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Eighteen years ago (actually it's a couple weeks more than that now, since our season has shrunk by several weeks) I joined the Oregon Symphony for my first season with a major symphony orchestra. I had already been a member of the Maryland Symphony, but that was an orchestra that\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\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":657,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/11\/carrie-dennis-plays-paganini-and-schumann\/","url_meta":{"origin":4091,"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091","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=4091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}