It's almost two in the morning. I'm lying in bed at one of my many homes-away-from-home. I've just finished a set of rehearsals with the Des Moines Symphony for our opening concert with Christopher Parkening and Jubilant Sykes tomorrow night. This starts my third season with the DMS, and thanks to a couple of successful late summer auditions (for this group and this group) and lots of sub-work (with this group, this group and this group) it is shaping up to be a busy year. I also squeeze in playing principal horn in my hometown orchestra for a few concert sets a year. I get to see my folks and eat some home cooked meals. Can't beat that.
The only problem with a busy playing schedule is that auditions become hard to fit in. Not preparing for them, mind you. There's plenty of time to practice. Actually having a day or two free to fly to another part of the country (or world); that's the hard part. It becomes a balance between taking the per-service gig to pay rent now, or taking an audition for a real gig (full-time with benefits) which might let you pay a mortgage later. A really good economics lesson in opportunity cost. Of course if auditions are investments in the future, their performance is terribly unreliable (even when my performance goes well). Of course, you may only have to win once in your life.
And that's my goal. To finish paying my dues in the regional, per service orchestras and move up to The Show. Don't get me wrong, for the time being I'm enjoying myself immensely; traveling from town to town, spending a week here and a week there playing great music with many fine musicians. But if I wake up one morning and find myself doing this at 40, with a bad back and an even worse attitude... Well, let's just say that won't be a good morning. And speaking of good mornings I had better leave it at that and hit the hay. I want to be up in time for checkout. (And to catch some of the WGC from Ireland before I am once again not only cable-less but TV-less!)
So hello blogosphere. Anyone out there listening?...
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