Orchestral Chamber Musicians

So there they are … our tutti players in our string sections, minding their own business, blending in with their fellow section players and living the life of zero responsibility until … the management of the orchestra announces this new fabulous, great plan: a Chamber Music Festival with ensembles made up of orchestra members! 😃

“Ok” they think,  “it’ll be at least 2 players per part” they hope … until they see the list made up with Quartets, Quintets, Sextets … 1 player per part … One.Player.Per.Part?!?  😳

The reactions to this news vary:

• the panic reaction: “ nonononono … 😵‍💫 nonononono”.
• The upset reaction: “ this is not in my contract! I am not obligated to do this! You can’t make me!” 😤
• The evasive reaction : “ If I hide here they might not see me and it will all go away 🫣”.
• The relaxed reaction: “ Ok cool 🤙🏻”.
• The :” What’s in it for me 🫴🏻” reaction.
• The exited reaction: “yay yay yay, I’m like soooo excited!! (High pitch voice!) 🤗 🤩 🥳
• And that person that thinks: “I’ll  finally show them that it should be I on the concertmaster/principal chair!” (hair flip) 😏

Reactions of the principal and solo players : 

• “…. Oh dear, I really don’t want to play this again, 
• and I’d rather play with these people, 
• and the times … let me sort this out!”   

Ok … that would be just me probably 😉 🤣.         

So after the initial shock and/or excitement we all got to work. 

Normally with playing chamber music you get to choose who you play with, what pieces and you already have a sort of shared idea about the music. For a festival like this you are paired with fellow orchestra members who you might have never even spoken too! This mostly because they normally sit on the other side of the stage and you go different places during break time, sometimes because you’re just not bothered (let’s be real here people 😬). So understandingly it is quite the challenge to get these different personalities to agree, compromise and make music together. You get to know your colleagues from a whole different side. 

For me it made me think of all the different characters in the world of Winnie the Pooh and how they’re described in the books The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff. 😉

Pooh: always agreeable one, never fussy, keeps the positive vibes going

Piglet: the shy insecure one

Tigger: the overly excited one

Rabbit: the 526.378 ideas on phrasing

Eeyore: the negative and stubborn one, but in the end agrees

Owl: the one with all the facts and back ground stories about the piece and is never shy to tell everyone!

And, like in Winnie the Pooh stories, in the end all these different characters work together and have the most wonderful adventures and that’s exactly how I feel about our recent Franschhoek Chamber Music Festival. With all our different talents and personalities the members of the Cape Town Philharmonic brought spectacular moments in music into the world and brought many audience members (including myself) to tears, 🥹 happy tears!

I just love how ‘my’ orchestra just keeps on adding different disciplines to the mix of music we produce and we keep on doing it at top level! 

To be continued … 🙂

NB: these are just my thoughts … with no one specific in mind but myself 🤗