Tromboning

I was playing a lot when I lived in the UK. I’ll admit that it wasn’t high-quality playing, but it was regular and diverse, playing for orchestras local to where I was living at the time, sometimes paid choral society gigs when I showed up on the day and rehearsed, then played the concert in the evenings. Others, like the opera, were paid gigs, but just to keep myself playing, I performed with amateur orchestras, although I tried to keep limits on that.

When I returned to the US, I tried to do the same, but quickly in Syracuse, I was only playing professionally, and eventually I became more in demand as a conductor of new music. When I moved to Cincinnati, there was nothing – no interest in me as a performer. I conducted one rehearsal of my own music for a concert of my own music that I had arranged.

I now find myself freed of the yoke of CCM, and have started looking for playing opportunities, and I decided to limit them to York again, since we are spending much of the year there now. So far, it’s the York Symphony Orchestra, but we’ll see if that expands. My trombones are there, so my playing in Chicago is limited to euphonium, although there is a band that is interested in me playing trombone for them. I’m really an orchestral player, so that is my priority – I’m not going to be carrying my trombones back and forth. (It’s expensive when you are doing it just to keep your hand in with no fees flowing in.)

I’m must admit that I’m enjoying music again, but I’m still not doing enough of it.