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Re: Should I Quit?

Author: Donald Casadonte
Date: 2012-08-16 20:02

Not everyone is an Einstein. Does that mean only he should do physics? You are getting the degree to give your art to people, right? There are many ways to do that. You can teach privately. You may be the teacher of the next Marcellus. You can do it by forming ensembles. Keep kids off the street. You can write clarinet music. If you have the temperament and the training and the talent, you might become a professional player, but road tours and marriage sometimes don't mix. You might become a high school band director or even a college teacher. The point is that you are to give what you have. If you really love to play the clarinet, then play the clarinet, whether it pays or not. I have degrees in both the arts and the sciences and even with a doctorate in clarinet performance, I have no desire to play in a professional orchestra day-in-and-day-out. I would love to play in a professional ensemble, but not if that is how I had to make a living. I love to play, so it doesn't matter where I do it as long as everyone in the ensemble can play the music properly.

There is a difference between a job and a vocation. If playing the clarinet is really your calling in life, the you can't not play. You may have to take other jobs to pay the rent, but playing is something you must do. Given the sorry state of regional orchestras these days, the odds of almost anyone finding work is slim. Be creative. Do what you love. Leave the rest in God's hands.

Red Chair wrote:

"2) being put on bass and particularly alto is an insult, from audition panels. When do you ever see the best players on alto?"

Well, I was principle clarinetist for the Ohio State University Concert Band for a time when I was a graduate musicologist and myself and two other now famous clarinetists who were at OSU at the time essentially tied in our Wind Ensemble auditions. Do you know what I did for most of my graduate clarinet studies? I played bass and contra-alto clarinet. Many really fine players specialized in bass clarinet (I played whatever part they needed). Sometimes, really good players are assigned the parts because they need good players there.

Donald Casadonte

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Clarinetero

2012-08-16 03:47