Life in the Pit

Most orchestra musicians have had enough experience of pit work to know that it’s very different from playing the standard orchestral repertoire on stage. To help us understand just how different it is, and why, we’ve assembled a knowledgeable and experienced group of musicians who’ve spent most of their careers out of the view of the audience.

During the course of this week, we plan to explore the joys and unique concerns of our colleagues who play for opera and ballet companies; of course most of these issues pertain to musicians performing in musical theater as well.

To start the discussion, we’ve asked each of the panelists how they got started specializing in pit work, and what it is about that work that has kept them there.

About the author

Ann Drinan
Ann Drinan

Ann Drinan, Senior Editor, has been a member of the Hartford Symphony viola section for over 30 years. She is a former Chair of the Orchestra Committee, former member of the HSO Board, and has served on many HSO committees. She is also the Executive Director of CONCORA (CT Choral Artists), a professional chorus based in Hartford and New Britain, founded by Artistic Director Richard Coffey. Ann was a member of the Advisory Board of the Symphony Orchestra Institute (SOI), and was the HSO ROPA delegate for 14 years, serving as both Vice President and President of ROPA. In addition to playing the viola and running CONCORA, Ann is a professional writer and editor, and has worked as a consultant and technical writer for software companies in a wide variety of industries for over 3 decades. (She worked for the Yale Computer Science Department in the late 70s, and thus has been on the Internet, then called the DARPAnet, since 1977!) She is married to Algis Kaupas, a sound recordist, and lives a block from Long Island Sound in Branford CT. Together they create websites for musicians: shortbeachwebdesign.com.

Ann holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MA in International Relations from Yale University.

Read Ann Drinan's blog here. web.esm.rochester.edu/poly/author/ann-drinan

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