Classical Music Performers

[fortyfeetunder]

Just wondering if you play or just a listening fan!
Also note what types of groups you play in

[MuseRider]

1. I was thinking earlier

about starting a thread like this. I am curious. I do know several people on DU who perform but would like to know more about everyone else.

I play the clarinet in my cities Symphony. I have for around 30 years. We are a professional group but not a full time orchestra. We were a civic organization until about 15 years ago when we got a new conductor and started paying and recruiting from outside the city. We have musicians from Kansas City and all the surrounding areas. We are continually trying to achieve more and we are. Our conductor is wonderful and programs really great concerts. He is trying to drag our local audience (hardly many) into the next century. Somehow if they do not already know the piece and it can't be hummed easily it is not worth listening to. We are trying but in a city more interested in racing and tractor pulls it is difficult. I just hope we can last economically. Support is small, local companies have pulled way back on donations and nobody wants to pay for this kind of music after they had it for free for so long. We struggle but it is something I could not live without.

You? Do you play or are you a listener?

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. I'm a strings fan...

I've been playing the guitar for nearly 10 years and I've been trying to teach myself how to play but it's not easy. I guess you could say I'm a bit biased for sting music

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. If choral singers count as vocalists, then I'm in

I've sung in choirs since age eight, and I'm currently in a high-powered cathedral choir that sings two to three anthems every Sunday as well as special concerts throughout the year.

[2sheds]

4. Performer and listener

I've had years and years of piano lessons, and took up the harpsichord in college. I also took up several other instruments for our early music ensemble (recorders, psaltery, even the hurdy gurdy!), and have had some classical violin and old-time and Irish fiddle lessons. I did a lot of singing in various choirs in school, but I don't really have any natural vocal talent. (It's frustrating having a trained ear but an uncooperative voice!)

I'm a Baroque and early music fanatic, but I'm pretty picky about what I like from the other musical eras.