Klarinet Archive - Posting 000730.txt from 1997/11

From: SEAN TALBOT <talbotse12@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: professional wind ensembles
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 11:18:24 -0500

Yes I was stating a personal preference. I do see the beauty of the
standard orchestra repertoire, but I also understand as a person of the
so called X generation that the everyday Joe on the street doesn't
appreciate much of the standard orchestrial repertoire. So he doesn't
exactly rush into the concert hall and pay his good money. Yes, certain
pieces do attract huge audiences. Messiah is selling out concert halls
everywhere right now. I am alarmed by the fact though that many students
here have never heard of Handel's Messiah or any major orchestrial work.
sad....yes. Often I will have some major work like Holst - Planets or
Carmina Burana or Scheherezade and people stop in wondering what I'm
playing and they always ask me "why don't orchestras play this stuff?"
I tell them that they do play great music like this (Mozart is big on
this floor) but they also play alot of the "boring stuff" (thier term--not
mine).

This is all to the side of my original question about professional
playing opportunities of the wind ensamble medium outside of the
armed forces which everyone knows about. Please understand that this
is no way a trashing of orchestras or the armed forces ensambles, but
everyone hears about them.......what is the rest of the story of the world
of Wind Ensembles? Now I'm not saying for sure that the wind ensembles would
be any more successful than orchestras, but I'm looking at certain trends......
the huge audiences that Drum Corps attract......there are less high school
orchestras but almost every little school has a band......this is shown
at our college where it is hard to just find string players to recruit but
there is a wealth of wind players. At this school it is generally more
prestigious to get into our wind ensemble and the orchestra has to almost
beg to get wind players to join. It seems that most of our performance
majors are going for the military bands and don't feel that there is
many opportunities in orchestra playing and they really don't want to
get into an orchestra in all honesty. They would do it for the money
and the prestige but it isn't their favorite medium.

Sean Talbot
UW-Whitewater