Great feedback on ‘Where’s My Trumpet?’

My recent tale of a colleague who mistakenly left his instrument 250 miles south of his gig definitely struck a chord with many readers. Here are some of the great comments relating similar panicky tales: Darlene writes: I just played a concert yesterday that was held...

Bury the violas!

Here’s a fun little story that one of my more senior colleagues recently passed along to me: Many years ago, the conductor Hans Werner Henze was rehearsing Stauss’ tone poem “Till Eugenspiegel” with the Chicago Symphony. There is a particularly...

The tale of the white jacket

I think that all men in classical music look at the concert attire worn by our female colleagues with a little bit of envy from time to time. Not that we men all want to wear heels and make-up (though some of us probably do….not that there’s anything wrong...

Ripping Off Your Teachers

I’ve got story for you, and I promise it’s true! When I was getting started as a freelance musician at the tail end of my masters degree, I was quaking in my boots about my future prospects. After all, I was regularly buying CDs at Borders and Barnes and Noble from...

Instrumental Junkies Part 2: Musical Scavengers

Author note: One of my favorite things about summer is getting the chance to finally spend some time outside, and writing on my MacBook sitting under a tree with the birds chirping and the sun shining in the sky (which I’m doing right now) has to be one of...