First orchestra experience|Rehearsal
I was freaking out. I arrived with my mum for the first rehearsal, on the 12th March, only to find myself the only person with a cello who had turned up for the evening.
Six weeks ago my cello tutor Lucy recommended me to Mariah who was looking for a cellist for a show celebrating Easter. It is an Easter cantata put together by Mariah and her friend.
By then I had only been learning cello for 5 months. I was keen because my primary driver for learning cello is to play in an orchestra. But is it too soon for me to take up such an adventure? Well, Lucy encouraged me, plus Mariah was also looking for a violist and I knew my mum would be delighted by this opportunity. So I decided to have a try.
I contacted Mariah expressing our interest in her show and got an audition for both of us. My mother was confident, I wasn’t. I decide to play by ear. I would be happy to be my mother’s chauffeur if I failed the audition.
The audition went very well for my mother, but was a disaster for me. I got terrible stage fright. I couldn't play the required audition piece smoothly, I couldn’t even play the piece from my lesson with Lucy normally. I left the audition believing that I would only be my mother’s chauffeur for this show.
A week later, Mariah emailed us and offered my mother second violin in her orchestra, and to my surprise, she also offered me a place in the cello section. Mariah said she would find three more experienced cellists, so that I could play along with them and skip the hard parts. After all, Easter is about participation. I smiled and thought about a famous Chinese idiom which described my situation perfectly: “滥竽充数“.
滥竽充数 ( lànyúchōngshù) means “pretend to play the Yu ( a wind instument) in order to make the number for an orchestra.” Here is the story behind this idiom:
During the Warring States Period (475-221BC), the King of the State of Qi was very fond of listening to yu ensembles. He often got together 300 yu players to form grand music. The king treated his musicians very well. A man named Nanguo heard about that and he managed to become a member of the band, even though he was not good at playing the instrument at all. Whenever the band played for the king, Nanguo just stood in the line and pretended to play. Nobody realized he was making no sound at all. As a result, he enjoyed his treatment just as the other musicians did. When the king died, his son became the new ruler who also liked the music played on the yu. However, he preferred solos so he ordered the musicians to play the yu one by one. Therefore, Nanguo had to run out of the palace. The idiom "Be there just to make up the numbers" is used to mock someone who passes for a specialist. You can also hear people saying it about themselves to show their modesty.
I certainly hope I would be the latter case, but there is still a long way for me to go. Anyway, I was happy to be part of the orchestra. In order not to be Mr Nanguo, I put together a plan with Lucy to go through all 35 pieces of music that constitutes the whole Easter Cantata show. I extended my lesson with Lucy from 30 minutes to one hour; I also increased everyday practice time from half an hour to almost 2 hours except for the weekends.
By 12th March, the first formal rehearsal, I had practiced all pieces, identified the most difficult parts that I would like to skip and marked up the parts where I would like to follow another cellist. In other words, I was ready to be Mr Nanguo and I went to the rehearsal with my mother with eager anticipation.
However, to my great dismay I found out Mariah had yet to secure any other cellist for the show, so for tonight’s first rehearsal, I was the only one sitting in the cello section.
Surrounded by three empty chairs. I was utterly freaking out. I thought about Mr Nanguo again. I felt like I was being called to play solo in front of the king; I was horrified.
Ok, I am not too bad playing the notes, partly because the cello part is mostly accompaniment. My biggest problem was counting the beats. Playing accurately on beat for each bar was still pretty much a challenge for me. I was hoping to follower the other cellist’s lead to relocate myself if I got lost. And it was my first time playing with an orchestra and following a conductor, when I still had no idea of what the conductor’s hand movement meant.
So, unsurprisingly, I got lost in almost every piece. I failed to start at the right position and I finished at the wrong place. One time, I was still playing when all the others had stopped. Another time I finished my parts way ahead of others. The worst of all were those pieces that started with the cello. I was put on the spot to produce a sound when I wasn’t sure about either the accuracy nor the pitch or the length of the beat.
I can’t remember how I managed to pull myself through that night, it was a nightmare to me. All I could feel was disappointment; disappointment in Mariah's eye, disappointment in other players’ eyes. This was not going to work for me. I had to something if I still wanted to be the Nanguo for this show.
So at the end of that night when Mariah asked the group to reach out to their network and help to fill the empty chairs. I was determined to dig out some cellists for Mariah, and more for myself.
Easier said than done. Ever since I moved out to New Zealand, networking is not what I am good at any more. The only two cellists I know are my tutor Lucy and Leah*. Both of them are not available. How could I find another cellist? I sat in front of my computer staring at my contact list. Suddenly my eye fell upon an old flyer from last year, it was the Christmas concert performed by the Hutt Orchestra. On the back of that flyer, there was a full list of all the players including the whole section of the cellist. Wow, I was lucky that I have some hoarding habits.
I wrote down all the names and sent an email to Mariah. I also contacted a violinist from my mother’s old string group, Hannah, who was keen to join.
Two day’s later, Mariah sent me an email with good news. She had managed to secure 2 cellists from the name list I gave her. I was hugely relieved.
On the 19th of March, at our second rehearsal, I was thrilled to see that two cellists filled the seats beside me. I heaved a big sigh of relief! They looked so confident; they looked so professional. I can now be Mr Nanguo.
That night I played with these two experienced cellists, feeling relaxed.
Finally, I started enjoying this experience.
