Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a "higher power" rub some people the wrong way.



As orchestral musicians, we only know one "higher power": the conductor, who rules every aspect of our musical lives! Here are some slightly rewritten twelve steps toward embracing musical anonymity in the orchestra of your choice.



The Twelve Orchestral Steps



Admit you are powerless over your musical decisions and life has become unmanageable.Surrender those decisions to a higher power to reclaim musical sanity.Turn your musical life over to that higher power (the conductor).Make a searching and fearless inventory of your audition self.Admit the nature of your wrongs to yourself and a practice buddy.Be ready to have the conductor remove your defects of character.Actually ask the conductor to humbly remove those defects.Make a list of colleagues you have musically harmed, and seek to make amends.Make direct amends to these colleagues, especially if you must sit near them.Continue taking inventory and promptly admit wrong accidentals.Through meditation and score study, improve conscious contact with the conductor.After your musical awakening, carry this message to other musicians in the orchestra.



Quotes



“If you join an orchestra, you’re just a shareholder, but you’re still receiving dividends.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:08:47]



“Getting a job is truth time.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:11:12]



“There is that hope that joining this group, it’s like there’s a power greater than yourself. There’s power in experience.” — @natesviolin [0:17:57]



“It’s okay to be wrong a lot as long you admit it.” — @natesviolin [0:24:20]



“You could follow these steps and actually be a great orchestral player.” — @natesviolin [0:27:46]



“There’s just no way around the anonymity being an orchestral player, but there are positive things about being in an orchestra nevertheless.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:27:52]



Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:



ColburnSir Laurence OlivierLA PhilChris Still



Transcript



EPISODE 37



[INTRODUCTION]



[00:00:00] NC: Hello and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. This is Orchestra Players Anonymous. I’m Nathan Cole.



[00:00:08] AT: We’re supposed to be anonymous.



[00:00:10] NC: Oh! I already broke the rule. All right.



[INTERVIEW]



[00:00:27] NC: Well, I have to figure you already know who we are. That’s Akiko Tarumoto over there. Welcome back. If you haven’t seen the website in a little while, head on over to standpartnersforlife.com. We got a bit of a new look and as it befits the new year, 2020 episodes of Stand Partners for Life. There you can make sure you’re subscribed on iTunes, on Google Podcasts, however you get your podcasts.



Today we are talking about the anonymous nature of orchestra playing, and this actually came up recently. I teach the violin orchestral rep class at Colburn now, and I got a really good question just today actually.



[00:01:10] AT: What was that question?



[00:01:13] NC: That’s for that prompt. They asked, they said, “Well, we have a friend,” who that’s always kind of a tipoff, but they said, “We have a friend who says that he would never play in orchestra because you would lose your artistic identity. You’d become anonymous.”



First of all, I love how you can’t really talk about orchestra. It’s kind of like how kids learn about the birds and the bees on the playground. It’s like playground wisdom.



[00:01:43] AT: You can’t talk about –



[00:01:44] NC: Well, I just feel like there’s not a constant dialogue about orchestra playing. You have to kind of ask in secret like, “I have a friend who says this is how it works.”



[00:01:53] AT: Right. Well, sure. I mean, we all know why that is. It’s like the vast majority of working musicians, working – Not pianists obviously, but that were out there and orchestra is not being soloists or chamber musicians necessarily,