November 2, 2004 at 9:20 PM

Sunday night, I arrive at my orchestra practice, intentionally early, and walk around listening to people sight read in their chamber music groups. Weeks before, I had told the assistant conductor (who is a passionate Romanian violinist) that being the concert mistress, I expected (not just would like to) hold sectionals at times--namely, before our concert now in two weeks. I want to be a teacher, and I need as much experience as possible. Plus, I thought, It'd be all the less stress dumped on him and the other coaches. So, the board that night showed sectionals in their respective rooms, 1st violins, 2nd violins, viola, cello. Brass and woodwinds in our main room. I ask, so who is doing the sectional for the 1sts? Well... you? HAHA alright, sounds great, I'm up to it. So I take charge. In the wrong room. yay me! so we move to the right room so the rest of the section doesn't get mixed up, and begin setting up again. I face the lovely dilemma of taking a teacher position or fellow student; in front of class or beside class, talking from my seat? Well, the correct position became very obvious as I realized I would have absolutely no control if I sat with them, because they were already hoping for an easy night - having a sectional with their concert mistress leading. No such luck for them. I had specific things in mind that needed to be worked on. So, time passed, there was laughter, not in a good way, some students who respected me enough not to and some who didn't--but a couple stood up for me (which was ever so nice of them to go easy on me, I appreciated that), saying hey guys we should be quiet. Now, see, I didn't know quite what to expect. I'm very glad I did it, and I think I did relatively well. I TA a fifth grade string orchestra. And you know, they're not so different from fifth graders. A couple attitude adjustments on my part, and we're good to go.

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November 2, 2004 at 9:20 PM

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