Klarinet Archive - Posting 000461.txt from 2001/03

From: "Jim Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Performance horror stories (was: embouchure woes)
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 15:24:14 -0500

The Ab key was probably my first SNAFU on stage, but not the worst. That
one goes to a time, several years later, I was playing 2nd/bass in the
Chattanooga Symphony. I was about half dead with a cold, felt like crap,
and trying to stay on my feet for the second of the concert pair, had taken
enough (different) cold medicines that I was drunk as a Lord.

Flutes, oboes, clarinets, & bassoons shared the first riser off stage level.
The stage hand had forgotten to attach the little bumper/stopper at the back
edge of the riser to keep chairs from going back too far. I went on stage,
climbed onto the riser, sat down in my chair, and went backwards, right in
front of the trumpets. Bb, A, and bass went straight up and came down,
luckily, landing on me, so no damage there. Neither the conductor nor the
manager twigged that I was buzzed on cold medicine, so they blamed the stage
hand. Worst part of the experience: The audience applauded! <g>

Jim

>From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>

>I'm sorry, but I had to laugh at the Ab key story, although there was
>certainly nothing funny about it at the time, I'm sure. The mental
>imagery, in combination with my enormous sympathy, made it humorous. I
>remember being in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, just about
>to walk on stage at Davies Symphony Hall for a concert, when the entire
>lower half of my bass clarinet literally disengaged and dropped to the
>floor.

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