season twenty, coming up

I had no idea that I would be in Portland twenty years after I first arrived. I figured that my career would progress, I might win a job in a higher paying orchestra, a more prestigious orchestra, in the first several years that I was in Oregon. That never happened – I came close a few times – and that is entirely ok with me. In fact, it’s more than ok. It’s fantastic.

I won a job in an orchestra that was about a decade out of being a nighttime rehearsing orchestra – a part time gig. James DePreist came in the 80’s and moved the orchestra into the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, got the pay raised to a living wage, and moved rehearsals to the daytime hours of a full time orchestra job. Pretty amazing. That’s his legacy to Portland, Oregon, and the world. But, tangents aside, I won a job in an orchestra that was good, but had a lot of room to grow.

With the arrival of Carlos Kalmar twelve years ago, it was as though an artistic bomb had been detonated underneath the ensemble. It’s hard to describe just how terrifying and exhilarating those first couple of seasons were for those of us in the orchestra. I felt as though I were re-auditioning for my seat – there were no phoned in performances. Music was learned thoroughly before the first rehearsal, and concentration meters were pegged at ’11’ for the entire two and a half hour rehearsal. Thus, I find myself in an orchestra that is the equal, artistically, of many of the ensembles that I’d tried to win jobs in during my first years with the OSO. I’m a better player now than when I arrived, and I have a much better job, artistically, too.

1995

2005

2014

So, here’s the music on my stand for the first couple of weeks of programs with the OSO. It kinda starts with a bang, as you’ll see…

• Richard Wagner – Flying Dutchman Overture
• Claude Debussy – Danse
• Georges Bizet – Toreador Song from Carmen
• Beethoven – Symphony No. 5, 1st mvt.
• Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No. 9, 4th mvt.
• George Gershwin – Cuban Overture
• Peter Tchaikovsky – Pas de deux from The Nutcracker
• Aaron Copland – Corral Nocturne from Rodeo
• Peter Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture (with Oregon Army National Guard 218th Field Artillery)

Then…

• Béla Fleck – Concerto for Banjo
• S. Coleridge-Taylor – Danse Nègre
• George Gershwin – Porgy & Bess Suite

And…

• Tchaikovsky – March Slav
• Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1
• Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4