 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: derf5585
Date: 2016-09-01 21:42
Have you been in a band where someone was dismissed and for what reason?
fsbsde@yahoo.com
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-09-01 23:41
In recreational bands only for non-attendance, and usually the person leaves on his own once he (or she) has been harassed about it enough.
I've certainly been in paid orchestras where a player was just not hired back if the conductor or his section leader wasn't happy with his playing.
Karl
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Author: gwie
Date: 2016-09-01 23:56
Back in my first few years of college, I was fired from an outside semi-professional ensemble after missing two rehearsals.
I sent them a colleague, who filled in for me. They were delighted with that person's performance and continued to hire them afterwards for a number of years. I didn't play for them again.
It really is just business. I don't hold anything against them for doing so, as their needs did not really leave any opening for extenuating circumstances. It was an important learning experience for me.
Post Edited (2016-09-01 23:58)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-09-02 00:54
I left a couple of bands I was playing in at the beginning of the year as I got fed up with band politics and all manner of poison running through the core of it all.
It seems some are dreaming the life rather than living the dream and think they're much better players than they actually are - they're weak musicians but strong political players and use pity and threaten to go over the heads of the instructors to get their way over everyone who doesn't tow the party line.
The band instructors of both bands in question said I'm free to come back at any point should I want to, but I've just lost interest with it. Seems the most gobby but least musical players seem to have a stranglehold and want to keep the standards down to their level (or lower) while they feel they have the right to criticise the stronger musicians.
And if you upset one, you upset the lot. So I decided to make it very public what I thought of certain people and don't regret it one bit. A passing comment I made was taken out of context and blown up out of all proportion, but I'm past caring if that's how sensitive and precious some people choose to be.
It's now given me more time to do what I enjoy doing again. Ten years I put up with that and I finally had enough, so now I'm back doing what I like doing best which is playing bari sax in Big Bands and working with real hard working musicians and especially with one of the country's top saxophonists.
So when one door closes, plenty more open.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: GeorgeL ★2017
Date: 2016-09-02 18:32
It is common for community bands to have by-laws which say that the music director serves at the pleasure of the band board, and that all musical decisions are the responsibility of the music director. The band board also usually has the authority to ask players to leave.
In 35 years of playing in community bands I have known of only a few musicians who were asked to leave the band because either their playing or their behavior towards other players was detrimental to the band.
I have also seen several conductors leave when their view of the band aggravated enough members to cause the board to pressure him to make changes that he refused to make.
I have seen several cases of long time members who kept attending even though severe medical problems (some aging; some disease) severely degraded their abilities. I don't believe any of them were forced out by the band, as every other player realizes that some day, that could be me. It was usually a family decision (such as 'no more transportation') that stopped them.
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Author: Burt
Date: 2016-09-02 19:00
I was once in a community band where the director was fired by the Board. The reason was absenteeism.
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