Sonoma Valley Chorale, May 2016

The gig:

Performing a brand new piece for Chamber Orchestra (Strings + Fl,Ob,Perc,Pno,Hrp) and Chorus

What I learned: 

1. If you are polite, nice, respectful, easy to get along with and come prepared, certain people will move mountains for you. Being a decent person these days goes so much farther then talent in the freelance world. In this competitive field there are a million of every instrumentalist, especially here in San Francisco. So if you can play AND are a good person then you will gain great connections and continue to work. 

2. Once you don't enjoy making reeds, don't....This information was such a shocker for me to hear. I know that I have heard of more seasoned oboist having younger players make the majority of their reeds for them but I wasn't expecting a flute player to give me this advice. This flute player said, "This will save years off your life". Reeds are easily the most stressful part of being an oboist, especially during the first 10 or so years of learning to make reeds.