Klarinet Archive - Posting 000043.txt from 1995/09

From: Donald Yungkurth <DYungkurth@-----.COM>
Subj: The Gig From Hell
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 00:06:22 -0400

My gig from hell fortunately turned out to be only a rehearsal from hell. At
the age of 60, after playing the clarinet for about 48 years, I retired from
my engineering job and started to pay more attention to the clarinet. Among
other things, I took lessons from a clarinetist in the Rochester
Philharmonic. During one of the lessons, he asked if I would like to play a
job with him. My initial reaction was shock, but I figured, "why not", if he
thinks I can do it.

The job was to play in a 20 - 25 piece orchestra in a church on Palm Sunday,
with one rehearsal the day before. At the end of my lesson the week before
Palm Sunday, my teacher said, "It should be a nice orchestra, it's mostly
Philharmonic people". More shock!

I got to the rehearsal and decided in about two minutes that I was the only
non-professional present and *all* the rest were "Philharmonic people"! At
this point serious self-doubt took over and panic set in. A short while into
the rehearsal I had fairly long rest and, out of nervousness, swabbed out the
clarinet. For the first time since high school I got the swab stuck in the
clarinet.

While removing the swab, I damaged two tone holes, rendering the instrument
unplayable. My technique for removing the swab worked fine years ago on my
metal clarinet, but wood didn't withstand the violence.

During my teacher's next rest, I confessed what had happened. He calmly
reached into his pocket and gave me his keys and said to go to his studio,
about five minutes away, and get his "teaching" horn. I finished the
rehearsal and the gig on that clarinet (and eventually bought it from him)!

I guess that got me through the panic and shock - things went just fine after
that.

Don Yungkurth (DYungkurth@-----.com)