{"id":69,"date":"2006-08-26T10:06:35","date_gmt":"2006-08-26T18:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=69"},"modified":"2013-02-07T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T01:49:11","slug":"lucky-to-be-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/08\/26\/lucky-to-be-me\/","title":{"rendered":"lucky to be me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 are a lot of other people: lawyers, doctors, CEO’s, dog-sitters, etc. But do they get the “but it must be so great to be living your dream<\/strong>” line every time, like I do, and most musicians do? I’m sure it goes back to the fact that music is seen as a recreational activity (but why don’t professional athletes get the same query, or do they?), as an avocation rather than a vocation. And why don’t people realize that we’re doing a job, like those other folks? You don’t ask your doctor friend, after she’s seen 60 patients in one day, trying to meet an HMO quota, how it is to be a doctor, to be “living her dream”, and why is she burned out and grouchy after a long day “living her dream”? No, because you realize that she is doing a difficult job, making less money than she would have 15 years ago due to the health care mess in this country, and that even though she loves it, it makes her crazy, too. Just like your accountant, wine steward, or organic farmer. Yes, I’m “living my dream”, but I’m also working my job, and I’m thankful that I’m doing both, but please leave the Disney fantasy about the “Wonderful World of Music” at home.<\/p>\n

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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 are a lot of other […]<\/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":[55,62,3656],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-orchestra","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-17","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3294,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/26\/a-new-way-to-look-at-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":69,"position":0},"title":"a new way to look at the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"After our last classical series concert, the orchestra stayed for an extra 30 minutes to get an important job done: it was orchestra photo night.\u00a0 Every few years, a new portrait of the orchestra and its music director is taken.\u00a0 In virtually every other year, the photo is a standard,\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":"RCO001_VanBoxteljpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/RCO001_VanBoxteljpg-400x322.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13539,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/22\/season-twenty-coming-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":69,"position":1},"title":"season twenty, coming up","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I had no idea that I would be in Portland twenty years after I first arrived. I figured that my career would progress, I might win a job in a higher paying orchestra, a more prestigious orchestra, in the first several years that I was in Oregon. That never happened\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\/2014\/08\/charles_publicity-e1408736073140.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/26\/adventurous-programming-and-why-you-should-care-about-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":69,"position":2},"title":"adventurous programming and why you should care about it","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has recently named those orchestras and organizations which were selected to be honored for \"Adventurous Programming\" during the 2006-2007 season. I also have a connection to a couple of those groups honored, which I'll talk about after the jump.Here are the\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":1197,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/01\/orchestral-blogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":69,"position":3},"title":"orchestral blogs","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I write one of the few blogs independently-penned by an orchestra member, and I'm not sure why it's such a lonely job description.\u00c2\u00a0 However, a rapidly expanding area of classical music blogs are blogs that are written as part of a symphony orchestra's public relations and\/or artistic arms.\u00c2\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ssoblog-400x105.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":138,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/12\/11\/congrats\/","url_meta":{"origin":69,"position":4},"title":"congrats","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"To a dear friend and fabulous musician and person - congratulations! It makes me have faith in the system once again. OSO cellist Una O'Riordan has won a job with the Detroit Symphony!","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":1453,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/19\/worlds-top-orchestras\/","url_meta":{"origin":69,"position":5},"title":"world’s top orchestras?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know how one could actually come up with a list like this and keep a straight face, but I guess it's akin to the coaches\/journalists polls that determine college football\/basketball rankings.\u00c2\u00a0 At least orchestras don't have to navigate the inanities of the BCS system... UPDATE: Robert Levine skewers\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","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=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}