I have to choose between playing principal oboe and English horn for next week’s Symphony Silicon Valley concerts. Now if i had a ton of time to work on the music, I’d probably not hesitate to take the principal position. But it’s Tuesday. The rehearsals begin a week from tomorrow. Between now and then I start teaching at SCU, I have three opera performances, and of course my regular private students. In addition I’m just a wee bit stressed for personal reasons.

So what to do, what to do?

Not choosing principal … will it make me appear to be a wimp? Maybe I am a wimp anyway? The English horn parts—the David Amram world premiere (with a nice, expressive English horn solo, or at least it’s marked solo) and Jancek’s Sinfonietta—look like fun and non-stressful. The oboe parts? Well, the Janacek oboe part has a passage that’s quite technical and is going to take some time to learn. The Amram looks like fun, while there are a few challenging parts. But challenging is good, yes? And then there’s Beethoven’s 6th. So a lot of good music.

And a difficult choice. I’d gladly let someone else tell me what I have to do. But of course that’s not how this works!