Friday, October 10, 2008

O.M.G...

This was the most bizarre rehearsal - I guess the music was all ok - things are coming together as they should. But drama! OMG one of the second players (who feels he should be playing first) had a complete cow (including swearing and yelling, with our guest artist on stage - nice touch). The principle usually never says anything to him because he is volatile, but tonight she asked him to put more space after some notes, in a place where the conductor has repeatedly asked them to put space, but the second player is hard of hearing and inattentive, so he never got that direction. Anyway, he yelled at the principle, and she tried to defuse the situation, but after he escalated she said "THIS is why I never make any comments to you, or offer feedback! Because of this!" She actually left the stage (which I don't blame her for at all) and he just kept loudly proclaiming his innocence, and how he should just quit because he obviously was ALWAYS wrong, blah blah blah. This went on for a good 3-4 minutes. While DD is still trying to talk to the strings. This is so terrible - and I'm afraid no one is going to talk to him still.

One of the issues is that he is married to one of the principles, and she obviously takes his side. I think people are worried to make waves, because they don't want her to quit - but actually for the health of the orchestra it might be better if they both left! I hope he can come to terms with this and accept that he is playing second in this group, and if the principle has some comments he should do his best to work with her. He is an older guy and I think the younger woman over him is hard, and I think he used to be a much better player than he is now, not that he is bad now, but you can tell he thinks he is better than he is. I really hope DD points out that this is unacceptable behavior, the longer this goes on - people see this and think it is ok. Kind of like dealing with children. SOMEbody has to have the guts to do something!

Should be an interesting concert!

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