I hope that everyone had a good summer. I, for one, had an excellent summer, and it was notable for the fact that I took the MONTH of July OFF! No playing whatsoever. I highly recommend it to anyone who reaches the end of a busy season and has the luxury of such a break. It actually felt good to come back to the viola after the break, and I was even feeling that tingle of anticipation for the new season, which had been lacking the last few years.

I joined my orchestra in 1995 - I was 26 years old then(!), and now, ten years later, I'm still here. Sure, I took a stab at quite a few auditions, especially in the first few years, and did quite well at a number of them, but was never quite able to pull the trigger. I think that may have been the best luck of all, in retrospect. My orchestra is relatively healthy for a major, despite the lack of a robust enough endowment. My city is one of the most livable in the U.S., and has been called the most European city in America by quite a few travel writers. I have many close and wonderful friends in the orchestra, and we have a terrific music director and a dedicated, hard-working management team.

So, what have I learned in my first decade of orchestral playing? Well, I certainly have a better idea of what I don't know! I don't know everything. I'm still discovering the possibilities of my instrument and new repertoire. I find that playing pops concerts is more fun and less of an affront to my dignity that when I first began, especially when Martin Short sits on my lap during Peter and the Wolf! I know that every one of my colleagues is a human being, not an instrument with sadly necessary biological material attached. Why didn't I learn that in school? Mostly, I've learned that a life in music is a life which is connected intimately with people - the audiences, the colleagues, and the composers, living and dead. Being in an orchestra is being a part of living history, carrying on traditions that are many hundreds of years old, assimilating them in the language of our time, and passing them on to the next generation. I've also learned that teaching is quite possibly the noblest of endeavors, and certainly the most humbling. Most of all, I'm glad that I chose to do music, and wasn't forced to, and that I still love my choice.

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