Orchestra Concert!!!

Last Friday I played in the only real orchestral concert that I will be playing during my time here. The system for the orchestra performances here is completely different than at Eastman. Here, there are 3 main orchestra projects each year. They rehearse intensely for a week or two before the performance, but other than that, never meet. There is usually a different conductor for each concert, and generally at least one of them is quite well-known, for example, Pierre Boulez last year, or Riccardo Muti this coming spring. Naturally, I will be back home when Muti comes.... I also play in a reading orchestra that meets once a week, but that is a completely separate endeavor. Overall, a very different approach from at Eastman, where we have 3-4 rehearsals a week and 8 concerts per year. At Eastman, the curriculum seems to revolve around the orchestra, whereas here, it resolves around....well...practicing your ass off... There are definitely pros and cons to both of these approaches.

Here are a couple of pics from before the concert during our 'team-warm-up:'

Stimmführer Johannes leads us in some warmups.


And Eric, what amazing Viennese style bow grip you have adopted...and if I'm not mistaken, that appears to be a brand new Dölling bow...


The program was very appropriate for me. An American theme:
Copeland: Appalachian Spring
(which nobody here had heard before, haha)
David: Trombone Concerto
Dvorak: 9th Symphony "New World"

Our section leader and my stand partner, Johannes, also of the Posch studio, leads us do victory.

We were quite the international double bass section, with EVERY ONE of us coming from a different country, including, Austria, Germany, America, Hungary, India, andCoasta Rica. We were also an assimilation of 4 different bass studios here in Vienna.