Posted by in disbelief.... on March 06, 2001 at 20:20:40:
Due to the sensitive nature of this post and the fact that I have not yet been granted tenure, I will change the names in this post to protect the "innocent."
What the heck are conductors thinking?
Some time over the past week and a half, I played a gig with an otherwise un-named "professional orchestral ensemble." The beginning of the concert went as usual: tune, out comes the meastro, play the first piece, applause, etc. In fact everything was going just as planned, until we got to the 5th movement of Beethoven's 13th Symphony. At which time I was getting ready to play the monsterous penny-whistle motif when all of the sudden, and approx. 60 measures in to this movement, the conductor stoppd conducting and asked the orchestra to stop playing. She then turned to the audience and announced that this was in fact "last call for alchohol" and a friendly reminder to "tip the bar-tender" on your way out. Immediately following her announcement the conductor turned back to the orchestra, told us to go back to the beginning of the movement, and we finished the gig.
Now, as you may suspect:
we weren't playing Beethoven's 13th (obviously),
I wasn't playing penny-whistle,
and the conductor's announcements had nothing to do with "last call."
Just change some of these details, and you will have a good idea of what happened.
This, however, was a professional orchestra and a fulltime music director.
As a performer, I was offended, angry, and embarrased.
Do any of you have a similar story?
What is the dumbest thing you have ever seen a conductor do in performance?