Klarinet Archive - Posting 000520.txt from 2000/12

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] San Francisco Opera
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 12:54:30 -0500

I went to see Rosenkavalier last week at the SF opera and noticed that
my friend (and occasional colleague) Phil Fath was not in his seat as
1st clarinet. Instead the part was ably handled by another member of
the section. Clark Fobes was playing second clarinet and did it
beautifully, too. The whole section was great and Tony Striplin, the
new permanent bass clarinet, wailed on the wonderful basset horn part.

Then yesterday I was informed that the SF Opera is now advertising for a
new first player with auditions scheduled for June 2000. I guess Phil
is retiring. Well, he had a long and magnificent career, holding 1st
clarinet with the SF Symphony for many, many years until it was decided
that a separate orchestra was needed for the growing schedules of what
eventually became two different professional orchestras.

I always enjoyed working with Phil. He told great jokes and, even
better, laughed like crazy when I would tell him a good one. I even
tried to marry off my son to his lovely younger daughter but I couldn't
get either one interested in the subject. The course of true love never
runs easy.

Which brings me to the subject of this note. The SF opera position is a
very prestigious one. The salary advertised is over $80,000 per year
and it's a fairly short season, too.

Should anyone on this list think that they would like to try out for
this spot, I'll be happy to speak with them off line on the politics of
San Francisco. That does not mean that I have dirty stuff to spread
around. Not at all. It is rather that one should understand the
political environment of any city that they might be interested in
living and working in, and I prefer not to speak of that publicly.
There are cliques and claques, and that is to be expected. And then,
there is the history of good clarinet opportunities that have opened up
in SF for the last 20 years.

It is a great town to live and work in, but you can get as bruised here
as in NY, and the sandwiches are not as big either.
--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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