Ever find something like this on your stand?

I was doing some blog maintenance the other day when I found this post from four years ago about a performance I was playing at Symphony Center downtown. In it, I had posted a scan of a piece of paper that we had all found on our stands when we got to the concert that...

A Tax Form for the Marginally Employed – NYTimes.com

Jeremy Baguyos, the double bass professor at the University of Nabraska-Omaha, sent me a link to the following story that the NY Times put out back in April. It (somewhat depressingly) sums up my former career: A Tax Form for the Marginally Employed –...

A look back: A Week in the Life

You’ve just gotta love this profession. No matter how many roadblocks get tossed in their path, musicians always seem to find a way around them, taking things in stride and laughing about it later with each other over either coffee or beer (depending on the hour!)....

Tails Man

There are always a few moments (usually in the spring) when the stark contrast between “normal life” and the wacky life of a freelance musician rear their heads. A few examples from a recent warm and sunny Saturday: I was breathing in the wonderful...

You! Peon! Work for Free!

Here’s an exchange I was forwarded (on condition of anonymity) that, while being both aggravating and darkly amusing, reminds me how easily non-musician administrators forget that we performers are actually trying to make a living from this kind of work....