Playing Horn
in the Big Apple
by
Jeffrey Lang
New York City is home to
some of the fiinest orchestral, operatic, chamber, solo, studio, jazz and
natural horn players. The Musicians Local 802 American Federation of
Musicians membership directory lists approximately 120 professional horn
players currently working in the city and the numbers seem to increase
every month. Most are freelancers, but the full-time members of the New
York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera sections take outside work as
well. At this time there are 16 Broadway shows running, with a total of 33
full-time horn chairs. In meeting horn players over the years from all
around the USA and the world, I am often asked, "What is it like to play
in New York City?" or "How does the freelance scene really work?" I
studied in the city, then after seven years as a member of the Israel
Philharmonic, I returned to freelancing in 1991. I will attempt to
unravel some of the mysteries of the Broadway horn scene, based on my
experiences, and explain the system that keeps New York horn players
running from gig to gig.
The centerpieces of musical life in New York are, of course, the New York
Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and the world famous orchestras and
soloists appearing regularly at Carnegie Hall. The other major musical
organizations here, the New York City Ballet and New York City Opera,
perform six-month seasons at the New York State Theater. The American
Ballet Theater performs at the Metropolitan Opera House for two months in
the spring, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is across the river in
their fabulous new hall, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. With these
six major ensembles alone there is always a generous amount of extra work
offered to freelance horn players. Each orchestra has an organized
substitute list and players get onto the list by either past audition
record, merit, experience, availability, or most likely a combination of
the above.
There are, however, several other excellent ensembles in the metropolitan
area that perform, record and tour regularly. This is all union work and
the personnel in these groups come from the vast pool of New York
freelance musicians. There are attendance requirements in all these
orchestras for core members and also specific substitute lists. Some of
the major freelance orchestras in town are the American Symphony
Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long
Island Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's and the New York Pops.
Chamber Orchestras include the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, New York Chamber
Symphony and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, American Brass Quintet and the New York Woodwind Quintet
are a few of the many chamber groups based in New York. These lists could
go on and on, but one thing is sure, a call for a record date, jingle, or
movie session is cause for anyone to juggle one's date book and accept the
work. It's nice to collect TV re-use payments while the horn is in the
case. The days of making a living on studio work alone are long gone, and
the pool of studio musicians is large. Recording sessions are often booked
at the last minute and it may take several calls to fill out a section.
Despite the fact that there is so much orchestral work available to horn
players as well as an active but unpredictable recording industry, the
single largest employer for us is Broadway.
Years ago, subbing out your Broadway chair in order to take outside horn
work was very difficult due to a show policy that did not allow frequent
substitutes. As a result, a person was generally committed to being a show
player, a studio player, or a classical player. Today, thanks to the
fifty-percent takeoff policy in the current Broadway contract, musicians
are able to keep up attendance requirements in their orchestra jobs,
perform with major ensembles, play chamber music, accept solo engagements,
take studio dates, go on vacations, raise kids, and even make a good
living.
When a new show comes to Broadway, the producers hire a contractor to put
together an orchestra for the production. Calls go out, sections are set,
and soon you are sitting in the first rehearsal at the main rehearsal
venue in New York City, Carroll Studios. Hopefully the show will get great
reviews, win some Tony awards, make a lot of money, and run forever. Of
course some become instant hits, but many go down within months or even
weeks of opening. A Chorus Line ran for fiifteen years and Cats
is in its sixteenth season, but the great masterpiece Carrie (a
nice horn book!) ran for only five performances. Hopefully, the show you
get called for will run ad infiniturn, even though veterans often joke,
"The two happiest days in your life are when you get the call, and when
the show closes!" Sometimes the greatest challenge of a long-running
show is staying awake while you are playing. With new shows opening
all the time and tourism in Times Square at an all-time high,
Broadway is alive and well in 1999.
Each show performs eight times a week, fiifty-two weeks a year, for a
total of four hundred and sixteen performances per year. The exceptions to
this are seasonal long-running shows such as the Radio City Christmas
Spectacular, A Christmas Carol, and The Wizard of Oz. These
shows perform more than eight times a week, sometimes four or five a day.
However, they receive special consideration because they don't run all
year and are less than two hours long. In a normal run, the regular
contracted player(s) must play at least fifty percent of the shows in each
thirteen-week cycle, a minimum of fifty-two shows per quarter. At the
beginning of a new production, there is a "lock-in" period in which
no taking off is allowed. A typical lock-in period may last four to eight
weeks. After the lock-in period, taking off is allowed and subbing
commences. There are also twenty-four vacation shows that must be taken
every year. These shows count as a show played, so we can in fact play
less than fifty percent of the shows. Now if, after taking your mandatory
vacation days, you cannot reach your quarterly fifty percent, you may
request a leave of absence. Leaves are granted by the music director,
approved by the union, and rarely denied. A leave may be for a few days or
for several months. While on a leave of absence, you are not permitted to
play the show and conductors prefer that one sub covers the leave. If all
else fails and you still cannot make your fifty percent minimum, you can
take a sick day. Sound confusing? Well, at times it is. But meeting your
quota is not difficult, it just takes some planning, and it all adds up to
a lot of loyal and busy subs.
Being a sub in a show is in many ways more difficult then being a regular
contracted player. First, the sub comes in to watch the book, and can
record the show if he or she wants. A date is set and the sub plays their
first show, hopefully to rave reviews from the conductor and the other
players. This is usually the case, but some Broadway conductors can be
quite difficult and some subs can be unprepared. The outcome of the latter
can result in not being approved to play the show. A player might find
that during the first show they are just trying to make page turns without
dropping the mute, while sitting next to someone playing and reading the
latest model train magazine! Unfortunately, a missed note here and there
from a sub is often met with scowls from the podium, whereas a similar
miss from a regular is rarely noticed. On the other hand, the regular
players take the responsibility for the overall quality of the section and
are accountable if a sub doesn't come to work. An empty seat in the horn
section is akin to the crashing of the Hindenburg! E-mail is also starting
to play an important role in contracting orchestra jobs and hiring
Broadway subs. On any given day in New York City the date books of every
horn player fiit together, the puzzle is complete, and all of the seats
are miraculously fiilled. I have played in the city many years and it
still amazes me that the system works with few mishaps.
As far as equipment is concerned, the Conn 8D is still the most common
professional hom in New York City. However, many players have recently
switched to other makers, or play the Conn in addition to some other type
of horn. The Met section is predominantly a Conn 8D section, and most
players in the New York Philharmonic now play on Engelbert Schmid
instruments. The new generation of excellent triple horns has also made a
big impact on New York players. Many players who used to bring a high hom
and a double hom to a recording session or a contemporary music rehearsal
now take a triple horn. I use a Yamaha triple hom and a Conn 8D.
We work in a melting pot of musical styles, schooling, and approaches to
horn playing here in New York City, and sections of different players and
equipment are thrown together to great results daily. Sometimes the
variety of music played in one day is not only challenging but also cause
to sit back and really laugh. I remember sitting in my show, Beauty and
the Beast, after a sleepless night with our newborn son Markus.
Hundreds of children were laughing and screaming in the theater, and I
thought back to an ASO rehearsal of Sinfonia Domestica and a
Huggies TM diaper jingle I had earlier in the day. After the panic of kids
and diapers subsided, I got the message!
My advice to players just getting into the freelance business in New York,
or any other city, is as follows. First, join the union, then get
acquainted with as many working horn players as possible. Most work comes
from recommendations from other hom players, so you should try to be aware
of the subtle difference between communicating your availability and
annoying established players for work. Next, always be prepared to play
your best and try not to underestimate the high quality necessary to make
a good impression on your colleagues. A new player is always listened to
closely despite the fact that everyone may be joking around and having a
great time. And finally, showing up on time and getting along with the
other players, regardless of circumstances, is essential to being hired
again. Of course, there are some darker sides to freelancing, e.g.,
politics, competition, unfairness, etc., which are realities that players
have to learn for themselves. My own experience has been, however, that it
is rewarding 99% of the time.
I hope I have shed a little light on our horn scene here, so that the next
time you take a musical tour of our city you may want to stop by the Met
and hear Howard Howard and Julie Landsman sing the Ring Cycle, or walk
across the plaza and hear Phil Myers paste Ein Heldenleben. If you
like the ballet, go over to the New York State Theater and hear the
artistry of Paul Ingraham or check out Dave Jolley peeling off a
concerto nearby. Next, you may want to witness R.J. Kelley and his natural
horn unearth some gem from the eighteenth century. Want more opera?
Stewart Rose is waiting for you over at the New York City Opera. If
you still have time, stop by a recording session and see Bob Carlisle lay
down some horn lines for a major motion picture, then definitely head down
to the Village to see John Clark testify in some jazz club. But before you
leave, be sure to stop by the orchestra pit of Beauty and the Beast
and say hello to me. I should be there, well, at least fiifty percent of the time.
A TYPICAL WORK
WEEK
Freelancing, at times, can be very hectic. Juggling different playing
jobs, as well as other types of employment, can mean occasional hysterical
phone calls and sleepless nights. We have compiled a cross section of what
each of us was doing within a particularly busy week last fall. Of course,
this does not mean that it can't be very slow at times, when nothing seems
to be going on! Here are our tallies:
Work Week of
November 16th to 22nd, 1998
Kathy Canfield
Full-time employment as Design Associate with Pegasus Internet -
including 2 office retreat evenings
3 Shows - Les Miserables
1 rehearsal & 1 concert - New York Pops
Tony Cecere
1 Jingle - Burger King
3 Rehearsals & 3 Performances of Alpine Symphony - New York
Philharmonic
4 Opera Rehearsals
1 Show - Beauty and the Beast
Pat Hackbarth
4 Rehearsals & 2 Concerts - Long Island Philharmonic
3 Shows - Les Miserables
2 Christmas Shows - Radio City Music Hall
R.J. Kelley
5 Performances - Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Natural Horn, in
San Francisco)
Jeff Lang
2 Jingles - Blockbuster Video, - Bell Atlantic
4 Rehearsals & 2 Concerts - Long Island Philharmonic
1 Union Meeting
2 Shows- Beauty and the Beast
1 Movie session - You've Got Mail
Jean Martin
Conducted horn choir concert
3 Rehearsals & 3 Performances of Alpine Symphony - New York
Philharmonic
1 Show - Ragtime
2 Christmas Shows - Radio City Music Hall
Lisa Pike
4 Rehearsals & 2 Concerts - Long Island Philharmonic
4 Christmas Shows - Radio City Music Hall
5 Shows - Ragtime
1 Educational Program - Ragtime
Taught 3 Private Lessons
Allen Spanjer
Rehearsals & Concerts all week - New York Philharmonic
|
Osmun
Music, Inc. & Robert
J. Osmun
