I am writing this from a coffeeshop in downtown Lancaster, Ohio, where I am based performing with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra for the rest of this month. We have a few too many amazing concerts and events to list, but you can check out the details HERE.
We met for the first time yesterday and I am thrilled by the quality of the orchestra and conductor. This is going to be a great couple of weeks! Our first performance is tomorrow night – Roman Carnival Overture, Pines of Rome, and Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. We meet our piano soloist, Olga Kern, tonight, and I have high expectations.
What a treat to have a new orchestra to play with this summer! I know only a few of the musicians here, and so they don’t know me either. Coming in with no expectations gives me a chance to show myself the way I want to be – obviously I will play as well as I am able, but I also want to be a unitasker in rehearsal. No crosswords or sudoku for this girl – I am going to be the kind of professional who pays attention even when the conductor is talking to the strings. Even when I have a long rest. My iPhone will stay in my bag, and my pencil will be ready on my stand. Oh, and I am going to get militant about the Unfussy Oboist, my outside-the-practice-room persona. No whining about temperatures or sightlines or how little sleep I got last night. And NO messing around with reeds once the rehearsal begins. The reed I tune the orchestra with is the reed I use, period.