Rosalind, the Prodigy, in Black, with a Tissue

When I came to Brown, one of the things I wanted to do was join the orchestra. I was really really excited about it because I thought it would be just like concert band in high school, except with kids who were probably more devoted and more skilled - they are older, after all.

During some of the first days that I was here, I went to find the Orwig Music Building, which is quite a hike away from the rest of the life on campus. It's on, I think, Hope St. and Young Orchard St., which is not really a fun place to go because it's very removed. I remember, the first times I went, I didn't take my bike and that made it take even longer. The first few times I went, it was also closed, and I was very upset.

Eventually, perhaps the first day of class, I made it to the music building, walked in, and asked to talk to the director of the orchestra. The secretary told me his name was Paul and to check his office upstairs. So I went the spiral stairs in the Orwig Music Building - which looks like a very old, very nice house - and looked a Paul Someone or P. Someone. I didn't find any, but while I was up there I just happened to knock on a random door - even though it was dark behind the door - to see if I could talk to someone upstairs and see if they could help me.

I walked in and asked, "Hey, do you know where the conductor of the orchestra is?" And he said, "That would be me." He seemed really nice and really outgoing, and I said something to the effect of oh, you're Paul? And he said, No, I'm actually Eric Culver, I'm the guest conductor. Paul, it turns out, has been on vacation for the past few months and would be out most of this semester too, so Eric is taking his place.

I asked him if there was room for percussionists in the orchestra, and he said that there was, and I should just go put my name on the audition sheet. Auditions! I was very excited, except I had nothing to audition on... oh well. I remember I put my name on the audition sheet, missed my audition, then tried again, missed it again, and then finally got it on a Sunday. I just kind of played some scales and hoped for the best. I suppose it was actually good enough to get me in.

At one point I talked to Eric Culver about himself a little bit because it seemed like there was a lot to learn from him. I think he has a doctorate in Conducting... at first I couldn't believe there was such a program/accredation system, so I asked him to explain it to me. And he talked to me about all the different parts of conducting - first of all, the actual act of doing it, but also how to pick songs, work with your musicians, find the best musicians, train them, how to organize the mechanics of the orchestra, and of course mountains of music theory. I walked away agreeing that it was definitely a legitimate degree program, and pretty confident in his abilities.

That was at the social/introductory meeting for the orchestra... there wasn't a whole lot I remember about that day, other than it was kind of awkward and I didn't really like it a whole lot. I could barely even rem.... actually, I don't think there is a single name I remember from that meeting.

So anyway, I was in the percussion section. There are, I think, five people in the percussion section. The first one that I knew was Viday, whose name I'm still not sure I'm spelling correctly. He's Indian, and a friend of Abhay, who is my Meiklejohn [peer] Advisor. He's hoping to go to school for percussion performance, so I'm pretty sure he's amazing, but I've never really seen him rock out. Apparently last year he performed a timpani concerto which was pretty incredible, but again, I missed that. In either case, he's really nice and extremely modest about his abilities. Pretty much everyone in the band seems to adore him as soon as they meet him. The very first day he offered me a timpani part on Zampa, which I played once and then decided I didn't really like, so I think he took over. He also memorized exactly where I should be playing in the Rachmaninoff piece before I had ever even looked at my music.

The next one that I came to know was Nat Seleen, the president of the orchestra. He's a pretty big white male with black hair, senior year, who smiles all the time. He is always smiling. It's incredible. He's really very nice, and very agreeable, and I think people generally like him and think he does a good job of managing the orchestra. It's very interesting, though, to see him be so smiling and agreeable all the time and then talk to him in private and hear him - still smiling and being agreeable - say a word like "fuck" or "shit."

The next guy I knew Ojus - not sure I'm spelling correctly - an Indian guy from Pennsylvania who knows Liz DiCocco (my chem TA from PGSS). He said he always wanted to do drum corps, but he either didn't think he was good enough, or started to think he didn't have enough time. I thought it was really sad, and even sadder that he never knew about All-Age Corps like the Buccaneers... I suppose they'll still be around when he's older though, so he can probably do one when he'd like to if he's still into it.

The last guy - other than me - is Aaron, a junior in a topology class that's killing him, with a large afro-like haircut, glasses, and he's very nice. He's also in Wind Symphony and percussion ensemble and introduced me to their meetings, but I didn't really dig what they were doing so I backed out...

Anyway, as far as orchestra goes, my part sucked. I didn't like it. I had 867 measures of rest in a 25 minute-long song. I'm going to quit this Tuesday. I actually tried to quit the second week, but they asked me to play in this Rachmaninoff song [Rhapsodie, Variations on a Theme of Paganini], and I couldn't say no to Eric.

I think the most interesting part of my orchestra experience was Rosalind Rhee, then the concerts...

So for Rachmaninoff, the piece is really a 25-minute piano solo with an orchestra playing somewhere in the back. The soloist we have is Rosalind Rhee. I can't explain to you how good she is. I really can't even compare her to someone like myself or Nicki or Susan Lin because she's so good that it's not even worth the comparison. It's... she's simply not on the same level. I don't even care if I like what she's playing, I just like listening to her play. I did end up liking Rachmaninoff, though.

So yeah... the other day as we were getting ready for the concert, I saw Rosalind walk by. She always wears black - I don't think I've ever seen her wearing anything but black - and she's Asian and has black hair, so all my memories and pictures of her in my mind are very, very dark. Like I said, she walked past me before the concert as I was sitting in the percussion cabinet txting or talking to someone, and I don't know why, but I was kind of in awe. I think it's because she was wearing a trenchcoat - black, as always - combined with her piano awesomness, of course. It was like something out of The Matrix. She looks kind of like the girl in The Grudge, only scared instead of scary. I can still see in her face how she must have looked when she was little.

Her mom was also there with her, which I thought was adorable. Rosalind must be 21 years old by now, a senior, ready to go into the world on her own, and her mother - dressed totally in white - still came to see both of her shows. She sat with her before the show for a long time in a somewhat private room. I guess I just thought that was interesting. I wonder if many other parents would have come.

The other thing that I've noticed about Rosalind is that when she plays, she doesn't look at the music. Ever. This is a 25 minute song - I know, that's not that impressive - but this is so difficult that I could... wow, I don't think I could ever memorize it. I do not think I am capable. But she did. The first night, she showed up and didn't even look at the music except to give measure numbers to other people.

She also always has a tissue with her when she plays. I don't know what it's for. It could be for sweat or tears, I could never tell. After her first concert, I'm pretty sure she was crying. After her second, I think she was sweating. Maybe it's both. I don't know. I don't think I'll ever see her again.

I think she also made the only mistake I've ever seen her make at the end of her piece during the second concert. Thankfully we all recovered.

The one thing that I think I will miss about orchestra - other than Rosalind, the prodigy, in black, with a tissue - is the orchestra warming up. I know that sounds really stupid, but it's really something to be experienced. When I was cleaning up from the second/last concert, I stood in the back of the room before going behind doors so I could listen to them warm up. They tune on an A instead of a Bb.

It's hard to describe, but when the leader gives the signal and the high instruments come in and then it goes down further and further and the basses sweep in and it just fills the room like you've never heard before, god... you'd swear a tidal wave was rising up somewhere just outside the building and you're convinced that if only the orchestra would play loud enough and hard enough those strings could move time backwards if they wanted to.

Peace out.