Orchestra 101: Lighting

There must be light! This seems obvious to me, but it seems that this is not always obvious to students and non-professional groups.

In the old Nashville Master Agreement I have referenced in this series it states “There shall be proper lighting in the performance area during all services.” This includes requirements for stand lights if needed. Further,

Prior to the start of the service, the Orchestra Committee, the Personnel Manager and or the senior Management representative at the service may confer on conditions which may cause discomfort to Musicians or may otherwise impair their ability to perform their duties…. The Orchestra Committee shall designate a Musician who shall be allowed to leave the performance area at the conclusion of any selection in the event the conditions vary in excess of established limits. Said Designee and the Personnel Manager shall confer on the nature of the problem and determine appropriate remedies, which may include an emergency break or the termination of the service.

With that I have a story of a rehearsal and a concert at the Brevard Music Center when I was on their faculty. The conclusion of this post is from the original HTML Horn Notes Blog, dated 7/15/06 and titled “Playing through adversity.”Students at the time asked me why I walked out on that rehearsal as it started and with the context of the quotes above it is I think pretty clear why.

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There will be adverse elements at practically every rehearsal or concert you will ever play. Often, you just have to play on in spite of them.

The student orchestra concert last night (high-school aged) was an excellent example of playing through adversity successfully. Highlights on the concert were Brahms Academic Festival Overture and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. The adversity of the concert situation was that lightning hit near the music center and took out something in the power grid to the concert hall, so they were running the lights from a generator. Which would not be so bad except that the lights flickered at least every two minutes through the entire concert (often flickering several times just seconds apart). And the concert was delayed over a half hour while they set up stand lights and such. But the horns kept with it and did a good job!

Bravo also to ASU flute colleague Elizabeth Buck, who was soloist on the Chaminade Concertino on the same program and did a great job, especially in playing on through the “light show.”

On a more serious note, if it were up to me this concert would have been canceled or postponed. I know, the show must go on and all that, it was a student concert, ticket holders were there, and people were working on the situation. For me, though, the light situation was in fact intolerable; it was extremely distracting even in the audience. I don’t know how the performers kept it together.

The same lighting issues were not adequately resolved until the middle of our BMCO orchestra rehearsal the next day (!), with several faculty having to make a stand as it began, our music was not adequately lit, we had to have stand lights before we could play. Even then the situation was less than ideal. There are reasons why professional orchestras have lighting clauses in their contracts that require adequate lighting before a service can begin. Insist on a comfortable work environment in your rehearsals and performances, no matter if it is paid or unpaid, it is the right thing.

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