Don't Call Me Rusty

Written by Karen Allendoerfer
Published: November 22, 2014 at 4:52 PM [UTC]

"The 2014-2015 season will see the launch of the BSO's Onstage at Symphony: a program convening amateur musicians of all backgrounds from across Massachusetts for a set of rehearsal and sectional experiences culminating in a performance on Symphony Hall's stage, celebrating their talent and continued commitment to music while also providing them access to the resources of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Hall. This opportunity is intended to build long-term ownership of orchestral music and the BSO."

These musicians will also be working with the BSO's Youth and Family Concerts Conductor, Thomas Wilkins.

I'd been reading about initiatives like this in other cities--Baltimore's "Rusty Musicians," for example (which I first read about here on violinist.com), or the San Francisco Symphony's "Community of Music Makers" workshops. Boston is an area with a rich, vibrant community of adult amateurs and semi-pros, music schools, concerts. I wondered why we didn't have something like this too. Well, apparently now we do. And we don't even have to be called "rusty" to participate ;-)

And, not only is this particular friend participating, a bunch of other people whom she tagged are too. Another friend from our orchestra mailed her application last week. "I'm dropping mine off in person today!" posted another. With all the time I spend on the internet, and playing music, why is this, less than an hour before the already extended deadline for receipt of applications, the first I've heard of it? Maybe I am rusty.

In the last couple of years, since I changed jobs, I'd been trying to make other changes too, such as doing fewer things at the last minute. Back then I saw myself as chronically late, always rushing to get things in under the wire. That was the way the office where I used to work had operated, and my natural tendency towards procrastination had fit right in. In my new job and new role, I had wanted to make a change, to be more intentional and less reactive about the things that I did, including music. I also had been practicing saying "no." I mean, you can't do everything cool-sounding that you read about on Facebook. Right?

My friend had their email address. And I had a printer and a scanner. I downloaded the application, filled it out by hand off the top of my head. Name, address, instrument. List your musical experiences. Why do you want to participate in this program? If I'd had a day, or a week, I would have agonized over these answers. Violin or viola? Should I include playing in church with my son? There's the old concertmaster/mistress thing. Should I mention that our string quartet has a name, or does that sound too pretentious to describe 4 players who get together a couple times a year to play at a Farmers' or Winter Market? Will they know what MITSPO is, or do I have to try to spell it out, and will that even fit in the space they give us? And then there's "being part of something larger than myself." How cornball is that? Well, if it is, too bad. That is really why I love playing in orchestras. Deadlines focus the mind. And they don't leave time for too much equivocation.

Back at my old job, another administrator and I used to trade war stories about grant submissions. He had an old one from the 1980's about driving to the airport on the last possible submission date for a big NIH grant to meet the very last Fedex pickup in the city. More recently we joked about pressing the submit button at 4:59:30. I emailed the Onstage at Symphony application at about 5:29, missing the deadline by almost a half hour.

A few weeks later, I got an email:

"Dear community musician,

On behalf of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, we are excited to announce that you have been chosen for the BSO's inaugural Onstage at Symphony program! We will be mailing parts for the pieces you will be performing directly to you in the coming weeks so that you will have ample time to practice and prepare for the event."

The program will be:
WEBER Overture to der Freischutz
VON SUPPE The Beautiful Galathea
DELIUS The Walk to the Paradise Garden
LISZT Les Preludes

I don't know, and haven't played, any of these pieces before. I suspect there will be a lot of listening and practicing needed--listening and practicing that I'm looking forward to and need in any number of ways. More intentional and less reactive.

I really have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. Lately it had been acting like a time sink, a drain down which my spare time (and not a little of my sanity and resolve) gurgle accompanied by a giant sucking sound.

But every once in a while, I find a gem that makes it all worthwhile.