Robert Levine has a blog entry titled Notes to Young Conductors that is worth reading. But it also got me thinking about some of the notes I might like to write.

• Notes to new orchestra members
• Notes to old orchestra members
• Notes to old conductors

Yeah, I guess I have a lot I’d like to say. But will I? I dunno. I’ve already written things about ettiquette and maybe that’s enough.

At the same time, I suspect some conductors might want to respond to Robert’s note.

Not that Robert would do anything like the things that I find irksome, but I’ve grown quite weary of orchestra members who try to teach conductors lessons. I hate it when musicians stop listening. It can be really clear when an orchestra has pretty much dismissed a conductor. I hate the snide remarks some orchestra members make, and I’m especially upset when a musician deliberately plays crassly just because he or she feels the need to express some anger, or teach a conductor a lesson..

We musicians can be a tough crowd. I’ve seen it far too often. It gets very tiring.

Not that you’d ever see anything like that in an orchestra I work with. 😉