Professionals and the Proletariat

If one is going to be a musician, I would advise being a wicked good one so you can get paid for the two and a half hour long rehearsal where you have lots of space. Otherwise, if you are a mere college-choir member for instance, you will not only be there during capital homework doing time without being paid, but you will have to be squished into a 30 person choir loft with 49 other college students.

If, however, the only way you will be able to be there at all is via the choir loft, then by all means, grab the squishedness. To be able to hear members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the RI Philharmonic is well worth any discomfort. There is a reason they are being paid to be there. Those guys are good! They can whip out that completely unpredictable Stravinsky like it was "Teaching Little Fingers how to Play." And the brass on "Homeland" practically blew us out of the choir loft. Fortunately we were too wedged to fall to the ground floor.

But best of all was Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms." The entire piece is incredible - I sang for all I was worth. But I was silent for the moment when the little ten-year-old boy stood on the stage and sang the 23rd Psalm, in Hebrew, with harp accompaniment. It was one of the most stunning things I have ever experienced. In fact, I missed my entrance at the end of his solo.

Now for Sunday's concert!