Carnegie Hall in Trichotomy

So I played in yet another of the amateur group’s Carnegie Hall concert two weeks ago. By this time it was no longer a big deal - I was not nervous, I was not excited - it was more like a chore, a favor I was doing for my friends the Dramatic soprano and the tenor friend. At backstage everybody was buzzing with nervous energy, but I just looked bored. And I was.

The performance itself went fine. Just fine. Nothing great, nothing disastrous, just fine. I felt a bit mechanical, actually. I was more excited about other people’s performances though - I was happy that the Japanese pianist finally got her solo debut, and there was a counter tenor from Argentina who joined our group. And a TV presenter who joined last year (and got the group some press) got to play here again.

Afterwards we hung out with the Shepherdess and her pianist friend (who managed to convince Shepherdess to attend the amateur group’s concerts now) at the Brooklyn diner. It was a fun time. A large group of the people from our group came to the diner too but we didn’t get to hang out with them. I prefer this way a lot better; last year I was seated in a table of 12 people I think, and I don’t really function that well in that setting.

I’ve always believed that if you are not nervous before a performance, you shouldn’t perform in it. So I was going to sit out next year’s carnegie hall concert. Especially with the requirement that all ensembles have to have 3 people, which rules out solos. So, there is nothing I wanted to present - everything I am working on are solos. And it’s a hassle for me to come into the city to rehearse for something that I’m not passionate about.

But a few days after the concert, the organizer of the amateur group called me and said he wanted to revive his idea of presenting a concerto at the next Carnegie Hall concert. This time however he’s going to use what he calls a “human orchestra” (what what I’d call a choir)- having singers sing the orchestra parts. That way it’d be easier to recruit singers (there are more singers than orchestra instrumentalists in the group) and get more people on stage to perform, so that’s a great idea. But that would limit what pieces he could choose. He ended up picking Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto; apparently there’s a string-quartet arrangement of it that would fit the voice range. And he asked me to be the soloist. I was flattered because the TV presenter’s pianist (who teaches at Lucy Moses) is arguably as good, if not better, pianists than me. Anyway, Rach 2 is on my bucket list of pieces to do, so I said yes. It’s much easier than the Chopin 1st, and I’d already perform excerpts from it for Content to Be Behind Me. And I’d performed the Rachmaninov copycat the Warsaw Concerto. So it should present less of a challenge for me than the Chopin. The plan is to audition with a ‘preliminary choir’, consisting of only the organizer himself, the counter tenor, Dramatic Sop’s tenor friend, and a baritone who performed with us at Zankel Hall 4 years ago and have not heard a whiff of since (I remember him because I accompanied his Germont’s aria from sight-reading during the audition when his pianist couldn’t show). So it’s going to be 5 dudes auditioning.

Assuming it all goes well (that he manages to form a choir and that our piece would get selected), it’ll be my solo debut at Zankel Hall.

I had written in the previous entry that there was a lot of anxiety surrounding the 3-performer-minimum requirements for the concert. Apparently there was enough complaint about it that, yesterday, the organizer changed the requirements, so now there is no minimum - you can audition as a soloist now too. I’d like to think that the fact that he’s building a choir means he knows there will be enough people on stage that the need for 3-performer-minimum isn’t there anymore. However, I feel bad for the groups that have already formed with the 3-performer requirement in mind. My understanding is that people are making transcriptions and arrangements to make pieces that they want to play be played by 3 people. In fact La Professeure suggested just that - she suggested I find two singers to do Erlkonig with. I got an email from the church soprano asking if I would accompany her on three songs, and also if I know any violinist who would be able to write his own part into the score. So basically people are tagging on performers just to meet the requirement. There is already a preference gave to ensembles (soloists will a hard 3-performance slot quota), so maybe there can be a preference given to 3+ ensembles by having a quota for duos too.

Anyway, in case the choir orchestra concerto thing does not work out, I’m going to audition with some of the Schuber/Liszt song transcriptions. That would be something I am passionate about in doing, and I am pretty sure I will be nervous for it when the time comes.

There is a regular amateur musician concert next week, so I am looking forward to seeing everyone to finding out what they think.