Life in the Pit

My first experience in the pit was during my last year at NEC. We put on Marriage of Figaro, which is still one of my favorites. For the first time, I became aware that symphony orchestras are not all there is in classical music, and I decided that opera was a venue deserving of exploration. It was actually several years later, after I had moved back to Georgia where I grew up, that I took an audition for the Atlanta Ballet, mostly as a way to break into the Atlanta freelance scene. Only once I started playing in the orchestra, did I remember how much I had enjoyed my earlier experience in the pit. Now a member of the Atlanta Opera as well, I’m thrilled to have found a way to spend so much of my time in that role.

What I’ve always loved about playing in an orchestra is the feeling of being a part of something greater. In the pit, that feeling is magnified. Working in the pit is both easier and harder than playing in the symphony orchestra. On the one hand, you are less on display. The musicians of a pit orchestra support the show instead of being the show. On the other hand, there is a much greater responsibility to get things right. If a singer or dancer does something drastically differently from the night before, a pit musician has to be paying close enough attention to follow it exactly. The alternative is an unintentional solo and possible confusion on stage. They’re following us too. I enjoy being a vital cog in that huge musical machine. It’s exciting to see how all the pieces almost magically fit together, and it’s exciting to see how the audience reacts to that.