Valerie touches on an important issue regarding the seating in amateur
orchestras. There is a natural tension between the re-seating of musicians
based on performance as against maintaining the "old guard" in their tenured
positions. Those of you in the "old guard" of an ensemble (Hans! are you
there?) of course enjoy your vested and favored position. Do you think about
how those sitting in lower seats, who may play better, how they feel, or how
better the ensemble would sound with a better principal? Sometimes I have
worked my way up to a principal position, but I maintained the attitude that I
will only hold that seat as long as I am the best horn player, and when a new
horn player shows up that can play better and has established loyalty and
demonstrates reliability, then I will volunteer my seat to him. I know this
isn't the way amateur groups generally run, but they would perform better if
more amateur musicians had my attitude. Yes, maybe it
was awkward for Valerie from a tenure-vulnerable position to ask to share in
the prinicipal role. But if she is the better player, the ensemble will
benefit from her request. I was in an ensemble recently where I told the
director in strong terms that he needed to replace the principal horn; the
director took my advice and did so, (and no, I didn't ask to be principal since
we had another horn capable of doing the job). Now the horn section sounds
much better.
Regards,
Larry
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