The New Haven Symphony Orchestra surely has never had a curtain call quite like this. The soloist took his bows, thanked the audience, and gestured back toward the 20 string players. “Now give it up for the band,” he urged. The audience howled, and the orchestra sat stone-faced.
I read it here.
We’ve played with Robert Bonfiglio a few times. He’s a good entertainer and good at that harmonica playing. Truly. Go ahead and roll your eyes, but he really impressed me and I think you’d be blown away too.
I’ve had musicians scoff at the “it matters how we look” thing. But it does. Live performance is … well … LIVE. We should, I think, look as if we care. Heck, we could even look as if we like what we do sometimes, right? That’s not to say I’m going to break into a huge grin before or after something like, say, the Ravel Piano Concerto second movement, when I’m on English horn. But you can bet that I’ll look like I’m involved. I try to look as if I want to be there (since most of the time I do!). And I try to look as if I’m glad that the audience is there (because I most certainly am).
Now it could be that the New Haven Symphony was looking glum because they are suffering financially. But still … the audience is watching. And we want them to have a good time and to love attending. Part of that is looking as if we are having a good time and love playing.
