Valerie, I agree with you! The concert band in which I play Principal horn has a bassoonist that in her day was a pretty good player, but alas, the ravages of time has caught up with her and her skills have eroded greatly. She still hangs onto the Principal chair despite a very fine young colleague that recently finished his music ed. degree and works as fine young band director. Once I was invited by our Principal flute to play in a WW Quintet, and she was the bassoonist. We ended up playing a gig at the Flute player's church, and we were being paid. The bassoonist messed up her part so badly, we all were ashamed to accept a check for our work, she embarrassed all of us!
A Principal simply has to be the best player of the section, and our personnel manager is trying to appease her as she's entrenched as a member of the board of directors, it's almost like Marvin and his Clarinetist, only a bit different. I have told myself that when I no longer can play at a high level, I will step down and will retire gracefully. I had a colleague that was a great musician, he played professionally for years, was from a very musical family (his brother was a trombonist in the Detroit Symphony and was adjunct professor of Trombone at Wayne State University). One evening at the break, he walked up to the director of the band and simply told him that this was going to be his last rehearsal, that he could no longer play at the level he wanted to, and he was retiring. It was one of the classiest things I've ever seen as a musician, and when the time comes, I've told myself I'm not hanging on just to hang on... But on the other hand, how does one tactfully tell someone in a community group where everyone is playing for fun that you now have to re-audition to retain your chair. That can be embarrassing to the person involved and can just be plain mean. It's a slippery slope. I've been a personnel manager, and it's not fun to dismiss someone. My opinion, that and a couple of bucks can buy a cup of Starbucks... Walt Lewis --- On Mon, 4/4/11, valerie wells <[email protected]> wrote: From: valerie wells <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Amateur Ensemble worst peeve To: "horn list 2 memphis" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, April 4, 2011, 10:47 PM My worst peeve is similar to what John so elegantly referred to. My peeve is bands & orchestras who allow a section principal to maintain their position year in, year out by virtue of seniority alone rather than performance. -- Valerie Wells The Balanced Embouchure Method http://bebabe.wordpress.com/ http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/lewhorn9%40yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
