A Sacrifice of Horns

Doesn't that sound like a collective noun? A colony of ants; a covey of quail; a murder of crows; a sacrifice of horns.

Still riding on a high after Sunday evening's Cleveland Orchestra Joint Choruses concert, today I'm thinking about music and musicians, and the sacrifices we make to create the music that is so important to us.

During one of the holiday concerts in December, I was heading down the Severance Hall backstage stairs at intermission and heard a horn player on his cell phone, telling his children goodnight. I thought of the sacrifice these musicians make for the privilege of performing with this incredible symphony orchestra. That horn player probably has many other skills. He probably could have gotten a 9-to-5 job as an accountant or a computer programmer or a manager in some business, but he chose to pursue his passion. He chose to feel joy each time he picks up the instrument of his vocation.

Cleveland Orchestra Chorus conductor Robert Porco, in his remarks to the audience on Sunday evening, stated that the COC is one of the few all-volunteer symphonic choruses in the nation. I did not know that fact. I know that Chicago has a paid core in their chorus, and Tucson, with which I sang for five years, follows that model. I thought that model was the anomaly, not the rule.

When you sit in the audience listening to the beautiful music emanating from the chorus, you don't think about the sacrifices those singers make.

We give our time: We give three hours every Monday night for rehearsal. At the beginning of the season, we give from four to seven hours on several Sundays to quickly get up to speed on the season's repertoire. During concert weeks, we give three to four hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for rehearsals with the conductor and the orchestra at Severance Hall, and then on Thursday, Friday and Saturday or Sunday afternoon, we give four hours for warm-up and performance. And we practice on our own outside of rehearsals; all Cleveland Orchestra Chorus members are expected to know all the music for each series before the first rehearsal.

But beyond just the hours for rehearsal and performance, we give commuting time, gas money, and wear and tear on our vehicles*. Many, if not most, of us work full-time jobs in addition to our music-making.

On Mondays, I leave home at 7:00 a.m. to drive to Akron for work. After work I drive to Beachwood for rehearsal. At 10:00 p.m. I leave Beachwood and drive home, arriving at 11:30 p.m. On weekend performance days, I drive 75 miles from my home, an hour-and-a-half, to reach Severance Hall. I always allow at least an extra half hour in case there are problems on the roads. That's an extra 4+ hours added onto the time I listed above. For example, last Sunday I left home at 11:00 a.m., and returned home at 9:30 p.m. During the December snows, I rented a hotel room several nights rather than risk not being able to get home, or not being able to get back to Severance for the next day's matinee.

Many have young children at home and must depend on others to help shoulder those responsibilities so they can follow their passion.

But I, for one, wouldn't trade it for anything. I auditioned two years in a row to get into this chorus. I was out of my mind with nerves for the first audition, and sang the worst I had ever sung in my life. But I wanted in so badly that, a year later, I walked into the audition room and sang for Maestro Porco a second time. And I'm lucky that he could hear through my nerves to recognize that I would be an asset to his stellar organization.

My teacher, Nadia Boulanger, was quoted as having said, "Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so." For me and many of the musicians who have become my friends through the years, and those who sit before me on the stage at Severance Hall, I can't imagine living without making music.

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(*Yes, the Federal Government gives us a little help. We can deduct our mileage, tolls, and gas on our Schedule A. But the mileage allowance is $0.14, not the $0.55 allowed for business travel.)