I have worked with all sorts of wonderful students over the years - young students, college age conservatory students, adult amateurs as well as adult professionals still working on carving out a career for themselves.
What to do as a professional? An orchestral career - well, auditions can be very competitive and there's no guarantee of employment upon graduation. A music educator -there is quite a demand for teachers, especially private teaching of high school level students. But with too much teaching, we risk losing contact with our perfoming.
What about playing weddings? Since I happen to be getting married in two weeks and two days (but who's counting anyway?!) I have some special thoughts regarding music as part of a wedding. Indeed, our wedding is going to be a concert with a little matrimony on the side!!
A few years back, my big brother Eric got married and asked me if I would play at his wedding. It was an outdoor affair and I would just be playing by myself with no accompaniment. I, of course, happily agreed to play and asked "What would you like me to play?" This was my first mistake. "Well" he replied "how about Pachelbel's Canon?" The silence was so big you would have thought we had entered a black hole. "Uh, er…" I sputtered. My dear brother had felt his suggestion was original and clever, as though the Pachelbel had not been played at over 10,000 weddings in Houston alone.
Look, I have nothing against the Canon. It's a lovely piece. I actually had the great privilege of singing on the soundtrack for "Ordinary People" in 1980 when the Pachelbel was reintroduced to popular culture with words. Eric finally did come to his senses and later he even mailed me a classic New Yorker cartoon called "Prisoner of Pachelbel".
The flute sounds great alone, or with strings, with organ, with harp, with guitar - the list goes on. We can be creative in finding works that add a freshness to the service, keeping the couple happy as well as keeping ourselves from dying of boredom! I have played the third movement of Bach's e minor with a variety of accompanimental instruments as the bride walked up the aisle. Vivaldi concerti work well as recessionals. I have played Faure, Godard, Mozart, Telemann, even a little Jethro Tull! So my tip for this month is not to ask what to play but to offer something to play and bask in the couple's excitement at your musical sophistication.
One of my many projects is to publish a book of all of the ornamenting and variations I have composed on well-known hymns, carols and baroque pieces. You can do this too and create some lush and original music from the most basic familiar songs, and leave Pachelbel for another century to"discover"!!!
