This is kind of a new experience to me - doing a job in an orchestra. I joined the 1st violins in a project orchestra for the Zauberflöte. It's a fine ensemble, some music teachers, some music academy students, some experienced amateurs and some pros. I have never played in a serious orchestra project before, having always played chamber music (or contemporary music with my own bands as a leader). That's why I'm used to choose (or write/arrange) the repertoire mostly by myself. I accepted the request to join the project at once, but I find it a bit hard to practice all the tutti stuff, where there are very few passages that sound or feel "violinistic". Stop and go all the time, no singing lines like in a romantic sonata or flowing lines like in a Bach piece.
Well, in the end it'll be a lot of fun. But I think being a fulltime orchestra musician wouldn't have been the right thing for me, having to play the choice of others most of the time (an opera??? Why no Brahms???). But who knows...
More entries: July 2010