“You’re not too good for this”
Tonight I had my first rehearsal with Blacksburg Community Strings in preparation for the Bach Concerto I’m performing with them next month! It’s a concerto I learned last summer for the competition and I’ve spent the past few months relearning it.Â
A few notes/observations from rehearsal:
1) I have a lot more practicing to do, especially the third movement (I completely botched one of my cadenzas and am very thankful for another shot in 2 weeks).Â
2) No one was perfect, mistakes were made all around: missed entrances, tuning issues, I rushed in the first movement, etc. etc.Â
3) BCS is not a professional orchestra; it is made up of volunteers and community members, so we are obviously not going to sound like the Berlin Philharmonic.Â
4) Tonight was the most fun I’ve had making music in weeks.Â
After my portion of the rehearsal, a member of the group spoke to me saying that they were thrilled to have me playing and were surprised when I agreed to perform with them. They said it was so exciting to work with a soloist and play a keyboard concerto and that they loved playing this piece. Everyone in the room was genuinely excited about the music and eager to rehearse. They were all there tonight out of love for the music- no “professional” musicians, no one getting paid. Â
This made me think as I was leaving rehearsal, how often do I adopt that mentality? Definitely not enough… How often do we as “trained” musicians begrudgingly drag ourselves to a rehearsal, suffer through it, not enjoy the music at all, not focus and then say “thank God” when it’s over? I’m not pointing fingers- I’m SO guilty of this, too!Â
This also made me think: how often do these same musicians (read: me included) look down on “amateur” musicians, or think certain methods of music making are “beneath” them. I hate to say that I’ve been guilty of this as well. We all have at one point or another, maybe not even in relation to music, which leads me to my main point:
We as classical musicians are not “above” certain types of music. You’re not too good for this.Â
At rehearsal tonight, I got to play a really cool Bach concerto with people who genuinely wanted to be there, who are as excited about this process as I am and who just love to play their instrument. This is not going to be a historically accurate period-performance. This will not result in a new, definitive recording that students will listen to for years to come in order to gather ideas for interpreting Bach. This collaboration will comprise of an undergraduate pianist who still has a lot to learn and about 25 amateur string players getting a chance to play some of the best music ever written. And isn’t that exciting?? It’s at least as exciting as a performance from a handful of musicians who are only thinking about what they get to do after it’s over. Sure, a professional orchestra and pianist would sound better, more in tune, perfectly even. But why waste all that time, put in all that effort, do all that hard work, if you don’t even care? Trust me, your audience can tell.Â
I consider myself fortunate to be pursuing a career doing something I genuinely love to do, but I have to be honest: sometimes, practicing is the last thing I want to be doing. Sometimes, I would rather be anywhere but a rehearsal. Sometimes, I have to learn music I really just don’t like. But I’m starting to see that there can be so much joy in the process of learning.
There’s a lot I can glean from my rehearsal tonight, but most importantly: who are we as “classical musicians” to look down on anyone who loves music? We may be more trained, we may understand the theory behind the music, but why does that make us better? If we have an opportunity to contribute, shouldn’t we take it? Don’t we want to reach a wider audience and keep this amazing art tradition alive? How is limiting classical music to our super-secret, pretentious little club going to accomplish any of that?  Â
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