 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-09-11 15:05
I got a call from our community orchestra director last night. We're suspending our group due to a lack of fiddlers!
Last spring, we had a weak group of 8 violinists (one viola, 5 celli) augmented by three more from the next good sized community to our south. For the fall season, our violin section is decimated --only 3 players are available.
So, we're breaking the orchestra down into a handful of chamber groups in anticipation of our winter concert.
What a bummer. Our small town is one of those with no orchestra program in the high schools --if a youngster wants to play something other than a band instrument, s/he is on his/er own for instruction and support.
For my part, I'm buying that CD with the string quartet part of the Mozart A-major clarinet quintet. Maybe I can find it in Bb.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Eileen
Date: 2006-09-12 22:53
For the last year or so, I have been responsible for the recruiting efforts of a community orchestra. In that time, we have gone from 15 players to 25 to 30 players.
If your group does not already do so, put one person in charge of recruiting. Many directors lack the organizational/personal skills to be effective.
Use the Internet. Make sure your group has a webpage so random strangers can stumble across it. Make sure you have an email account. Make sure someone is responsible for checking the email at least several times a week. Post an ad on Craigslist. List the specific instruments in the ad so someone running a search engine for "viola" or "trombone" will hit the ad. Set up a MySpace page with photos and information about the orchestra.
Several string players have told me that they were turned off in school by the overly serious/stuffy atmosphere of the orchestra. Wind players tend to have more positive fun memories, possibly due to having been in band. Make your group social. Invite new members out for a beer/coffee/whatever. Have a wine and cheese reception after your concert. Organize a group outing to a musical performance. Think up a fun theme concert (e.g. Halloween with costumes).
Consider dispensing with auditions for applicants who have prior concert band, orchestra or similar ensemble playing experience. Perfectly acceptable players may freak out at the prospect of an audition, particularly if they are a little rusty and just getting back into playing.
Hope the suggestions help! Good luck.
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-09-13 13:15
"if a youngster wants to play something other than a band instrument, s/he is on his/er own for instruction and support."
Is that a threat or an opportunity? In England, brass bands often run training bands so youngsters can learn to play. Can you not try to do the same for string players - assuming you still have someone in the orchestra who is competent to teach. Maybe you can't start violinists from scratch, but you might be able to help them improve.
Eileen is right about using the net. Is your orchestra based in Sandpoint? Google doesn't find it. Wikipedia's article on Sandpoint makes no mention of it, neither does the community site so far as I can see. The modest local bands I play in all have websites, and Google will find them with no difficulty.
You don't say why all these string players have become unavailable simultaneously. Is it coincidence, or is there something about the orchestra that's putting them off?
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-09-13 14:09
I've found that getting sufficient numbers of good string players (and keeping them!) is the #1 problem with staffing community orchestras. There are always more than enough competent wind players to go around (except sometimes in the bassoon section), but it's tough to find enough good string players to build a big enough section to balance the winds. Personally, I couldn't stand sitting in the middle of a bunch of other players of the same instrument, playing the same notes as them all the time with no solo opportunities, and even being forced to bow the same way! They have my sympathy.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-09-13 15:10
We are in Sandpoint, Idaho.
We had 8 players last season, and managed to recruit 3 more from Couer d'Alene --about 45-miles south. One fellow, a good fiddler, also plays guitar and sings professionally. He's too busy. Another's husband is having his knee replaced, so she's dedicating herself to her family's driving duties. Two high school players have developed conflicts with the orchestra's schedule. One mature player feels that she's come to the end of her playing life. Another has a nursing infant.
...so 3 players.
Its a great idea to get a link to the orchestra and chorus on the city's promotional web site. I'll take that on.
One of our violinists teaches. I'm not sure that she'd take to doing section clinics.
And, Dave, I'm with you on your view of life in the string sections.
Bob Phillips
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Author: awm34
Date: 2006-09-13 17:09
I moved to Toledo at the end of 2004 and joined the Maumee Community Band a few months later (a few miles away immediately south).
Now the University of Toledo has just last week started another community band -- with rehearsals on a different night.
Oh joy!
Alan Messer
http://maumeecommunityband.org/public/default.aspx
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Author: Eileen
Date: 2006-09-13 22:48
Perhaps the attitude that orchestra is all about the winds and their solos with the strings just there for the grunt work is a major part of the problem community orchestras face in recruiting players. To keep a community group going, you need to focus on teamwork and esprit de corps rather than on the prima donnas.
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Author: diz
Date: 2006-09-13 22:56
Eileen ... well said.
Dave Spiegelthal ... I can believe you made the remark:
Personally, I couldn't stand sitting in the middle of a bunch of other players of the same instrument, playing the same notes as them all the time with no solo opportunities, and even being forced to bow the same way!
One of the thrilling things about being a string player is the esprit de corps (as Eileen eloquently put it) and the ability to fit in perfectly to your neighbours.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-09-14 03:07
Eileen and diz -- to each his/her own! I've never been a "joiner" and I've rarely enjoyed playing in a large section -- which is one of the main reasons I play bass clarinet more than soprano, and also a reason I prefer playing in orchestra to concert band, and why I prefer playing lead tenor in jazz bands to second tenor or second alto (I like soloing). Some people prefer the camaraderie of section work, while some of us (call us egotists if you like) prefer to have our individual sounds heard.
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Author: Mike Clarinet
Date: 2006-09-14 07:56
Like David Peacham, I play in a modest community band. We do not have a training band, hold no auditions, but take the time to help the less advanced players. This year we are hoping for a gold medal at the BASBWE festival in November. Most of our recruits come from Internet inquiries, followed by word of mouth, followed by random poster sightings in the local libraries or other public notice boards. All these methods work, as in the last year we have increased from approx 25 to approx 35 members, including most if the instruments that we had to 'borrow' for concerts.
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Author: Clarinet Geek
Date: 2006-09-14 10:51
I joined a county church orchestra (made up of members of local churches) after seeing a write-up about it in the "bigger city" newspaper to the north of my town. I don't know how that came about--maybe a reporter went to a concert, or had a friend in the orchestra. Or maybe the person in the orchestra in charge of adverstising (there is one) went to the newspaper and told them about the orchestra. This might work for other orchestras.
Like other posters here, this orchestra has no auditions and no training groups. Posters and leaflets are made up in the spring, and the members give them to family, friends, and ask businesses to display them in their windows. At the concerts, the director tells a bit about the orchestra, and when practices and concerts are held. An offering is taking, usually with "special music" by different members of the orchestra (for example--one time the clarinets all played "The Entertainer"). OFten a "blurb" about the recent concert will be in the local paper afterwards.
A lot of families play together, and members will often bring friends who they think might want to join.
We are getting bigger. We shrink a bit in the school year (most of our concerts are during the summer and holiday season).
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Author: marzi
Date: 2006-09-14 13:34
Sometimes its Feast, sometimes its Famine...
up until this year even wind players were hard to come by for the past few years, we have a simple website which did bring us in 2 more clarinets this year, very good ones, that moved into the area and no family responsiblities. there goes my "job". but seriously, we are in an area that has lots of string and music programs, near a major city with lots of major ensembles and teachers and so forth, along with professional orchestras right here in the area, there has to be plenty of amateur people around that can play orchestral instuments, so it must be a time issue(commuting ?) for most people. we even have 3 oboes, ! It would not be good if we ended up with 7 clarinets however, that was the first time I tried out the orchestra many yeares ago and some parts were "written" to make work for the extra clarinets, as in nothing but whole notes,
it was terrible ,some of the players were terrible (and rude) and I left until some years later.
Lucky you Alan,!
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Author: claclaws
Date: 2006-09-15 00:15
The above postings are all great. I'll bear in mind especially the advice from Eileen.
Joining a music group, be it an orchestra or band, is a valuable source for motivating us amateurs and a very good reason why we should practice. Having said that, I have to admit I may never open the clarinet box if I don't attend the two groups I'm involved with.
One thing that hasn't been said, it seems: How about the role of the conductor?
One of the two groups that I'm involved with recently hired a new conductor. He's a (retired?) violinst, and gives lessons to various amateur players. So after he had the practice sessions with us several times, he naturally brought in some of his students, and that gives an additional batch of violin players we desperately needed.
Good luck to you, Bob. As a former resident in Moscow, ID (2001-2002), I feel sympathy for you.
Lucy Lee Jang
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