In remote work everyone on calls brings the sound of their household into the workplace: Kids screaming, alarms chirping, dishes clanking, horns honking. You wonder how anyone can concentrate enough to do quality work in an environment like that, then you realize, they can't.

Got into Juilliard pre-college but opted for Manhattan School of Music pre-college for one reason: Manhattan's orchestra seated players by merit, not seniority like they did at Juilliard, so Manhattan's orchestra was better. Didn't care about name recognition then. Still don't.

Very good baby announcement by musician friend of mine

Love to share bread, bon appétit! Emily Zanotti 🦝 James Skyles KCHS

Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" Symphony No. 6, quietest excerpt on the list. Delicate and sweet and dripping with emotion, it's a thrilling moment from the symphony's opening movement. It's never the loudest player who wins the audition, it's the softest who takes the cake.

Tchaikovsky wasn’t kidding around with the dynamics here, writes quintuple-pianissimo at the end of the solo (it’s all relative of course). Also indicates “dolce possible” (as sweetly as possible), that’s what I’m aiming for. Notice the end of the line dips below the clarinet’s

“I passed off the line and everyone knew you”

Gm daily bread Rare situation where this bread has already appeared online, is this ok?

He sing Pines of Rome

Windows-open weather today, serenading the neighborhood with my sound. Reminds me of this note in my mailbox years ago addressed to "Clarinet Player", encouraging me to "keep it up". I have a folder full of stuff like this I've saved over the years, this is one of my favorites.

After a failed audition you'll often read conflicting comments from the committee. Doesn't mean they're dumb, means you weren't convincing. A great auditioner leaves the committee speechless, forgiving your flaws, wanting to hear more. This is the goal.

Longing for a world where what's written here is known intimately by all and a mere glance at the manuscript is reverential

I never work on my reeds but I do give them the “Reed Test” if they’re not vibrating properly, if it passes I keep it in my rotation, otherwise I chuck it (none of these passed)

Gm daily bread Traded this for drugs (beta blockers for the audition)

For aspiring classical musicians it’s less important to work hard than it is to understand how good you have to be to make it. Without a concept of the excellence you need to attain, your practicing will lack the necessary urgency. It’s like the Olympics, few have a chance.

It’s fine to disagree with the opinion that “You do not need a whole week for the same three melodies that Haydn be writing”. It’s fine if you think opinions like the ones espoused here have no place in a serious music institution. You can say it out loud, even. It’s fine.

Feels sometimes like everything in my life is a placeholder for something else Hard sensation to shake since my brief stint as a widower a decade ago Like everything I own or do is distant, a stand-in for something that was or will eventually be What is the antidote to this

“I will invade England, and defeat the English on their own ground.”

A passage from Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” that changed how I think of emotion in music, not necessarily for the better: