Author: oboi
Date: 2012-09-13 06:58
KJC,
Ha, you hit the nail on the head! I'm banging my head on the table trying to find string players. I also cannot seem to find any low brass (although I'm assuming band music is much more appealing to them rather than just playing a bunch of long tones or tacetting for most of the night). I know there are a TON of them (our city has like a 20-piece amateur sackbut consort). I'm scratching my head, though, since there has got to be more violinists out there, thinking about how many violin students are out there. It's funny how I ask a music teacher and she has probably many competent kids who can play the music in our orchestra yet has virtually no adults to suggest to me. We don't even do auditions, anyone can join and I still can't find people. The problem isn't only strings, though.
As a very advanced adult amateur, I want to play with people who are at my level, yet it is so difficult to find others. I'm old enough to not want to play with kids or very young adults. I want to play at the level of the university music students but of course they are busy doing their university stuff and obviously I can't keep up with people who live/breathe the instrument, nor work around a college rehearsal schedule. I've done it for a number of years, yet there is something that I love about the amateur orchestra, faults and all, compared to the college groups. I'm also amidst a potential big year of chamber music. We have big ideas, the only hurdle will be to plug up obvious holes in instrumentation. When there are people, there are no people at the appropriate level. Seriously, this is like Noah's Ark. This is chamber music. I more or less just need 2 of each instrument and I can't find them. :-P It very makes me want to just pick up a trombone or clarinet and just teach myself. I'm very tempted and I bet I could play a few good licks within a year. Too bad I can't do that on the violin (give me a decade).
Yup, I've been advertising at the university. Mixed success with that. Undergraduates have absolutely no time. I get interest and then a week later it's "I'm drowning in homework!" But definitely the academic/researcher crowd is a place to look.
Amateur orchestras are such precious things for us oboists. You'd have to pry my dead fingers from it before I relinquish my position. IMHO, band music isn't too oboe-friendly. It's either the solo or you're drowned out by a billion flutes. It's annoying being the sole oboe in a band of gazillion woodwinds and brass. So I'll end off this long post by saying I love my amateur orchestra (even if it could make do with a few more 4-stringed friends).
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