Cristina Spinei
@cristinaspinei
How many classical musicians on here? 🎶
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matthewb
@matthewb
former orchestral clarinetist back in my late teens and early 20s, performed with a few canadian orchestras (winnipeg, nova scotia, montreal) and conductors (kent nagano among others).
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Cristina Spinei
@cristinaspinei
How cool! Clarinetists are good people. What was it like playing for Nagano?
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matthewb
@matthewb
really interesting. he conducts like a choral director, so no baton typically and just his hands which takes some getting used to. otherwise soft spoken yet intense, quite picky. I don’t remember the whole program but I was playing principal on Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and there’s a passage where the clarinet peaks out of the texture with a high E. I played it perfectly in rehearsal and he acknowledged me which was quite rewarding at the time. I would have been 18-19 y/o or so at the time.
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Cristina Spinei
@cristinaspinei
I like those picky types. It makes the compliments all the more special. What a great experience! You still play?
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matthewb
@matthewb
not anymore sadly. I played between 2-8hr/day pretty religiously between ages 13-21, devoted my whole life to it. got frustrated in my early 20s as I entered the audition circuit and foresaw the 10-20yr struggle ahead of me before I’d land a position in an orchestra. I was also too stubborn to compromise and pursue teaching full-time instead, even though I did some on the side. so, ultimately decided to leave it behind because it was infeasible as a career and quite difficult to casually pursue as a hobby without time to practice a few hours daily. also simple pragmatic concerns like not being able to play at home in an apartment due to the noise. music is still a part of my life, mostly through /hifi which lets me listen to music (including classical) at home in a very satisfying way. not sure if I will end up picking up an instrument again, wouldn’t surprise me. more likely during retirement than my working years though.
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