I was looking forward to being inthe orchestra this year. I couldn’t wait to play with a bunch of people who were around my level and better. I was excited because there might be some interesting new music. I wanted to challenge myself and play the first violin part and not hide in the back of the second section. I should have known it couldn’t live up to my expectations. I was just really, really hoping it would be like some of the previous year. It wasn’t. The first thing that got to me was the assigned seating. I ended up near the front of the firsts. “That’s okay,” I thought, ” I wanted to be closer to the front and I am…” But so many people were missing, I ended up being the only person in my row. This nice guy bravely moved up from the back to sit next to me though, so it wasn’t all bad.
The teacher on the other hand ( yeah, not conductor, teacher) was a complete ditz. I’m not sure how else I can describe her. She would not stop telling us what to do and how to do them. She made us tune string by string, together, reminded us how to put our instruments away during break and gave us a step by step of how to pack our instruments away. Needless to say, there was more talking then playing.
The music itself is also a disappointment so far. We are playing some tunes from Hercules and some other pieces to help fit the “around the world” theme. They weren’t even all that challenging, like it has been in past years. Maybe the full orchestra pieces will be better? I’m not hoping for much, there seems to be significantly less people then last year as well.
