Innocents Abroad

Like Philip, after 23 years in Europe, I’m pretty well integrated, so I’m trying to remember how it felt to be “fresh off the boat”. I think how you tackle being American in a foreign orchestra has alot to do with what kind of person you are to begin with. I have always wanted to discover new places and to travel. I went to a music boarding school (National Academy of the Arts) when I was 13 and was hardly homesick at all. It was such an adventure. For me, the whole point of coming to Europe was to experience something different than what I was used to and to try to assimilate. The first few years were terribly exciting (I first lived in Geneva, then London, then Bergen, then Salzburg, then Oslo) but when the novelty wore off I had a bit of an identity crisis. Was I trying to become Norwegian, did I want to be? It was then that I re-embraced my “inner American” and realized that I didn’t want to give it up- that was who I was.

Being an American in my orchestra is no problem at all. Musicians are, in general, an international bunch so I don’t think anyone thinks about it. The only time it comes up is with politics. As the representative American, I have felt that I have a responsibility to try to nuance the picture of what has been happening with the U.S. in the past few years.

Learning the language of the country is incredibly important, you can’t really understand the culture before you can speak the language. Everyone speaks English so it can be hard to get them to speak Norwegian to you to begin with. I started speaking to my section in Norwegian after about 6 months (it was our only common language because we had 2 Poles that didn’t speak English) and I could speak reasonably well after a year. It is a frustrating time but before you know it you are dreaming in that language. In my first job, we had a Norwegian conductor. It is surprising how little a conductor really says: learning numbers and a few key words was all I needed to understand! In the Philharmonic, 90% of the conductors are foreign so they use English.

In my orchestra, the Americans don’t really stick together, except for the occasional grumble about Norwegian life and our annual Thanksgiving dinner. I would say all the foreigners are very well integrated in the social fabric and are just as likely to be on the various committees as the Norwegians. I think the only time foreigners have a tough time is if they are single when they first come. First of all, it takes time to make friends with Norwegians- they all grew up and played in youth orchestra together so their friendships were established a long time ago. Secondly, Norway is a very family oriented country and there just aren’t many single people to hang out with. But then again, the single foreigners don’t tend to stay single terribly long…

Keeping in touch with home these days is no problem, with email and the cheap telephone rates. The time difference can be a problem, but at least my Mom has someone to call in the middle of the night when she has problems sleeping! My parents are getting up in years so I go back twice a year now.

Just a little story about conductors and language difficulties. One week we had Nello Santi, an Italian conductor who speaks almost nothing but italian. He tries his best to use the words he can in other languages (prego, wir spielen from bar vingt deux) but it isn’t always clear which language he is using. To appreciate the story you need to know that Italians like to use solfege when they talk about pitch and that in germanic languages ‘B’ is ‘H’ and ‘Bb ‘is ‘B’. So Nello Santi tells a clarinetist:”The note is ‘si'”. The clarinetist plays a ‘C’. Santi:”No, no, ‘B’!” The clarinetist plays a ‘Bb’. Santi:”No, no, ‘H’!’ The clarinetist plays a ‘B’. Nello Santi: “Si, si!!” And the clarinetist goes back to a ‘C’….