Klarinet Archive - Posting 000683.txt from 1997/07

From: Sherman Friedland <sherman@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: A clarinet needed
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 22:34:02 -0400

You need not apologise to anyonme for your thoughts. You are certainly
entitled to them. I also respect Dr. Lacey comments which come from a
different space but should be considered, certainly , why not.
But as a professional who has both played principal in a major symphony and
just retired from 20 years of university/conservatory teaching, frankly ,
well here is something else that you may all wish to consider:

The most important thing for an aspiring clarinetist to learn is the
quality of the competition. Are you as good as or better than the others?
Can you HOLD for an audition? Can you play the Tchaikovsky 4-6 in concert
and hold your head up after? Can you keep out of the gossip mills and the
clics and just play beautifully if you get the job? Are you willing to play
the Capriccio Espagnol at 8 in the morning at a high school convocation?
And can you do it? Can you play Peter and the Wolf for 4 childrens concerts
in a row on a Saturday ? And miss? or not

You need to find these things out if you want to play in an orchestra. The
best place to do this is in a large city where there are plently of
players, and you go to concerts every night, and you keep playing all the
time, playing and thinking.

I think that many people can play the clarinet or learn to play it well
enough, I think that I had this ability and certainly knew all the
orchestra parts when I entered conservatory, but the rest was quite
difficult to learn.

The above is what you need to do. You may feel that a suburban department
might do it, or you may not. Since I know Boston very well, and did it
there, it is certainly a good choice, but the Boston Conservatory may not
be the best choice. How good is the orchestra? Do they play regularly ,
good standard rep. At the NEconservatory we played the Miraculous Mandarin
, and it was damned good. But there is good competition in that town
because it has long had a tradition of clarinet excellence, Now Stoltsman
is the best there is, but he is not an orchestral player and is not
respected by the usual orchestra hippy. When Wright was alive I would think
that NEC would be the best choice....just to hear that sound, but maybe it
has changed now. Do you want to play Strauss Tone Poems in a big orchestra,
then don't go to a small town where the clarinet teacher may be be
absolutely superb but does not know what it is to play in a big good
orchestra. But then again, music is what it is about

All of the above you need to consider. Best of luck, sherman Friedland