Here at Stand Partner HQ, we get this question a lot! And that should tell you something without even knowing the answer. Nobody asks what a pilot does, or if we really need one for our airplanes. But the conductor’s role isn’t nearly so obvious, to our audiences and even, at times, to us! Do […]
037: Orchestra Players Anonymous
Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a “higher power” rub some people the wrong way. As orchestral musicians, we only know one “higher power”: the conductor, who rules every aspect of our musical lives! Here are some slightly rewritten twelve steps toward embracing musical […]
036 – Johnny Lee wasn’t meant to be a Harvard MD
Violinist Johnny Lee is Akiko’s mirror image on stage at Disney Hall: he sits fourth chair second violin, while she’s fourth chair first violin. But they have something else in common too. Both went to Harvard, where there is no music performance major. Akiko thought she’d be a lawyer, Johnny a doctor (or was he […]
035: Playing by numbers, or Advanced Orchestra Stats
How many times have you been jealous of the box scores for baseball and basketball, or the advanced statistics for football? Don’t you wish that you too could be measured by notes attempted, notes played in tune, entrances successfully counted? If we got our wish, orchestra concerts would have their own advanced metrics! Here are […]
034: The spirit is willing, but the Flesch is weak
This week, we’re talking scales and etudes. Are they the foundational blocks on which your entire technique is built? Or more like raw vegetables that you have to choke down if you want to stay healthy? Akiko actually had a scale class as a kid, while I got a crash course in scales from my […]
033: The audience experience, with superfan Roderick Branch
Chicago Symphony cellist Brant Taylor may have been our very first special guest here at the Stand Partners, but so far we’ve been missing the perspective of his partner Roderick Branch. Roderick is a musician, though his day job (and sometimes into the night job) is as a partner at a giant law firm. Roderick […]