Driving for Dollars

I never meant to have this freeway philharmonic lifestyle, but am lucky in that most of the time, I enjoy what I’m doing! Right now I have contracts in nine orchestras (for which I can’t hope to satisfy all my requirements, there are far too many conflicts) and teach at two universities, Cal State East Bay and San Jose State. I also do a fair amount of school shows, which is hard because they are often EARLY, and I, like many musicians, am a night person! A “typical” week for me includes several double- and triple-service days, which leaves me feeling as if I’m shortchanging my practice schedule—sacrificing quality for quantity, always learning music at the last minute — and running my body down.

Lately I’ve felt this schedule problem weighing on me a lot more — I was rear-ended in my car last fall, got a whiplash injury, and am still going to physical therapy. If I don’t have to drive much and do my prescribed exercises, I can be relatively pain free, but driving REALLY aggravates it. Luckily, since my husband is in many of the same orchestras, I can often rely on him to drive — however, that’s not always possible, and gigs I used to enjoy can cause me a lot of pain. I’ve gotten out of some work but, well, we have to pay our bills. It’s shown me how fragile our position is — we all hope no catastrophic injuries will happen to us or our families, because we really don’t have a way to plan for that while living hand-to-mouth.

I was very happy to be in the Freeway Philharmonic movie and I think it came out well. One of the problems we have in communicating with our audiences is how the media portrays creative types—basically, that people who are successful are just “blessed” with a “gift” — a talent that comes naturally and easily. The movie shows how hard we work, both in the time we put in and in honing our skills on our instruments.