Regarding Your Audience…
Some time ago I was at a concert in Los Angeles given by principles of the LA Phil. The playing was really quite good. Some of the stage presence was really quite not.
At the end of the performance the violist decided it was time to have a chit-chat with the cellist. Problem was, he was doing it all the while the audience was trying to express their appreciation for what they had just heard. It was one to the rudest displays I have ever seen on stage.
That player was in effect saying, ‘I don’t really care if you liked it or not.’ Hell of a way to treat a customer, don’t you think?
The point is, from the moment we walk on stage we are sending messages to the audience. You want yours to be ones of respect, intention, confidence, enthusiasm, and good will.
Aloofness, timidity, insensitivity, lack of interest – I see that at many orchestral performances – are all signs of self-centeredness. No one wants to put themselves to the trouble of attending a concert, much less paying money to enter one, in which they must suffer such behaviors.
If you don’t like your conductor, your stand partner, or your hair that night, get over it, NOW.
As musicians we are on stage to inform, inspire, and enliven.
I walk on stage in character. If it is a Mozart Concerto I will step lively, with a smile on my face that mirrors the affection I feel for the music. On the other hand, if I am walking out to perform the Bach A Minor Sonata Unacc., my countenance might be less exuberant but nonetheless focused, warm and purposeful.
I never shuffle, lope, amble, or plod. And that’s Equally true of bows.
In a past email I wrote on the value of visualization in banishing stage fright. You can also use that same power of visualization to establish the report you wish to have with your audience; from the first step you take from the wings of the stage.
If you haven’t already, come put this great expression of human potential into the very fabric of your playing, right now.
All the best,
Clayton Haslop
P.S. One last thing, just because you may be sitting in the back of the 2nd violin section don’t think what you do doesn’t matter.
My wife and I attended a performance of the Berlin Philharmonic in Costa Mesa, CA a few years ago. We sat near the front on the right as you face the stage. Claudio Abbado had sat the seconds on that side, opposite the firsts, and we could see the last stand QUITE well.
Let me tell you, they played like they were possessed – in a good way, naturally. At the end of the concert they stood and shook hands. Tania and I were really moved by this. And it is why that orchestra is finest large ensemble in the world, for our money.
