Weekend Adventures

On Saturday evening I played the harp for a local symphony gala event. This is where people come all gussied up in their finest and eat and drink and bid and spend money and all that jazz. Quite an elegant affair. I sat near the entrance in my flowing black formal and played away. Right near me the photographers would have couples pose for pictures. At one point a photographer didn't have anything to do, so he started snapping away at me. It's so disconcerting to try to play naturally while someone has a camera in your face, so to speak! Click, click, click. He discovered that shooting me through the strings would be a cool angle, so he snapped away there. Everyone thinks they're SO original and artsy when they do that! I suddenly had to fight the urge to laugh or make a silly face or something. But anyway, as I wrapped up an hour and a half of playing, there was hardly anyone around because they'd all moved off to another room for dinner. I decided to finish with "As Time Goes By." This man who had just complimented me suddenly stopped, came back, and listened intently as I played. When I was done, he came up and thanked me for playing his favorite song so beautifully, handing me a $10 bill! I've never been tipped before, so it was quite a pleasant surprise! Maybe I should put out a hat or something when I play. :-)

Yesterday was my symphony concert. The dress rehearsal was in the afternoon, and this was only my second and final chance to play the bells right in the 1812 Overture. The harp part in the other pieces was no sweat, but tackling a new, very loud instrument was jacking my blood pressure up! I had gotten a recording and listened to it a number of times, so I was pretty sure of my entrances and exits. One of the percussion players gave me a brief lesson on Wednesday, pointing out which bells to hit (Eb arpeggio, basically), where to hit them, and then to "hit the
h--- out of them." Ah. That's nothing I ever heard in harp lessons! If you've never seen them, these bells look like huge wind chimes, arranged like a keyboard in sets of 2's and 3's, and standing about 6 feet tall. You press down a pedal for a sustained sound, then strike the bell at the top with a mallet.

I also got appointed to play a little triangle part -- fun! Basically I just had to pretend I was ringing the dinner bell. So during the rehearsal I stood there for a good nervous ten minutes, counting away. The music crescendoed, the other percussionists were banging and crashing away, and finally it's my turn! I took those mallets and banged those bells as if my life depended on it. I couldn't watch the music, which is why I had to listen to recordings to know when to stop. And guess what? I nailed it! Woohoo! You'd never know it was my first time! Other orchestra members said nice things about me being the best bell ringer ever, which was silly of course, but made up for the headache I had developed. There was a terrific amount of noise back there, especially with the cymbals right next to me, so I feared for my hearing. For the evening concert, I was sure to put an ear plug in one ear, which helped, though the other ear was ringing from the clanging bells! The concert went well, too, and one percussionist said something like I should put this on my resume so orchestras will know I can play! Ha ha! I've always admired the percussionists, but never actually pictured myself one of them. Not sure it will happen again, but it was fun while it lasted!