Work in progress At 4:30AM on the 17th January my lofted bed rocked back and forth so violently that I was nearly thrown out of it. During the next eight seconds I scrambled under the sturdy frame, dragging my viola case with me. The deep rumbling was loud and alien. The crashing of dishes out of the kitchen cupboards onto the floor added to the racket. When it subsided, I got dressed, alone in the house, and went out the back door to see if the neighbour and her kid were ok. She was freaked out, but we were happy to see each other. I don't remember going back to bed, but I must have after cleaning up the shards of glass that used to be my shelves and the crockery on the kitchen floor. I suppose I called Australia to tell them I was fine and went to sleep. It had been a 6.7 magnitude, which is high.
Next morning, Dr. Relax rolled into the driveway, unannounced, with his bong packed and ready to go.
"Let's go for a drive around town."
Turned out it was a great idea. There was not a single car out on the road. The epicenter had been 30km away, but the highways had been affected. Corrugation everywhere. The Northridge 'Blind Thrust Fault' had also ruptured.
The aftershocks kept scaring us for three weeks after that. It was almost worth leaving town, but it was the beginning of 2nd semester and we had things to do. It was the beginning of an important year.
Simon Oswell, a fellow Aussie viola player and a good friend for many years after, passed my name on to one of the Hollywood contractors who would call me when she got to the end of her list, which put me in the unique position of being able to ask for double.
"Sure, but don't tell the other musicians."
So easy it makes one wonder if they could have afforded to pay all the musicians more... but it's the way of the world.
During a January recording session there was a sizable aftershock during a take. The reactions of the musicians was telling. Fifty percent of them packed up and left. I stayed and had the engineer play back the last take. Interesting to hear an earthquake without feeling it. It's like ten bass drums playing ffff at the same time. Frightening, sinister somehow.
There was a small amount of baroque work in LA, but very few players to do it, so as a result I had plenty of high quality early music making with some well trained people, in the process getting to know the highways in the sporty little Fiat which was gradually becoming difficult to get out of 1st gear, so I was using 2nd gear from stationary. Just a matter of time...
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| 26 y/o with Medici Strad |
The Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra asked me to put on a Hawaiian shirt and play a Guillermo Gómez-Peña production of Purcell's "Indian Queen." There was a wrestling ring, skateboarders on a ramp, full nudity, blue-skinned Carmen Mirandas... Great entertainment conceived by exquisitely creative people.
Orchestral Repertoire Class:
I'd never had any help learning orchestral viola parts until I started at USC. The goals of the Orchestral Rep class were to prepare us for orchestral auditions and to give us knowledge to pass on to our own students in the future. Transforming the repertoire's difficult passages into 'old friends' to be revisited when needed. We had to play this stuff alone in front of the class - an invaluable weekly practice- to rid you of nerves. Later in my third semester Prof Alan Deveritch took a sabbatical and was replaced by someone from the LA Philharmonic's viola section. We played a few of the difficult solo excerpts in his first class and he was like:
"Oh.... you're preparing stuff for principal viola auditions"
and we all looked at each other thinking: Well duh.
I played the Telemann Concerto with the Early Music Ensemble. Two performances, on at te University and one was in some hall in LA somewhere.
As the second semester neared its end McInnes recommended me to fill in for a chamber music project of Faure piano quartet and Mozart flute quartet. Seasoned professionals from LA, which was a huge relief for me. In Australia I had been playing with the upper echelon, but here I was mostly with younger students, talented, sure they were, but it was hard work getting things done. The pro's only had three rehearsals and you were ready to perform, which was the case with this gig.
I paid my $900 tuition for the Music Academy of the West for the approaching summer, and gave notice to George that I'd be moving out in July.
During the summer of '94 I returned to Santa Barbara for more Music Academy. The Fiat barely made it, the gearbox almost entirely seized. It would remain parked for the summer except for one 1st gear burnout around the Cate School, amusing my Hungarian friend, Barnabas Kelemen, but alarming the adult residents, whom I didn't realize were living in those buildings so far back on the property.
Later, I took off the number plates and left Ernie the X-19 on the side of the main road with the key in it, and told someone at the gas station that they could have it. No paperwork. You would think you could get into trouble doing that.
The music academy went smoothly. More principal viola, more lessons, I met a girl, I played high quality chamber music. I had a Brahms Piano Quintet going with cello champion Zuill Bailey and three other equally strong personalities. I had a stroke of genius in the first rehearsal and suggested that we use the names: shnookums, honey-bunch, cutie-pie, pumpkin and dear when talking to each other. It worked miracles. Not a single disagreement, and a very coherent and exciting ensemble who put all their inner tension into the music.
The Brahms turned out to be one of those works that would pop up again later, in the Danel Quartet and I would kick some French ass without having to practice.
My dear Hungarian friend Barnabas Kelemen appeared that same year, being only 16y/o but already a phenomenon on the violin. Baszd meg. He taught us all some Hungarian which I would later use when I stayed with his family in Budapest a couple of times.
Barnabas and I played lots of duets. We infuriated his teacher, Kathryn Winkler by performing our Handel/Halvorsen duet in one of the evening student concerts. She was planning for him to play something bigger, but we wanted to do it so I forged her signature or something like that. Nobody was going to stand in our way. Massive applause.
That kid taught me how to have fun again playing music. It was a valuable part of my experience there. He's very famous now and I'm sure he's a wonderful teacher. Fun
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| Music Academy of the West 1994 |
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| Santa Barbara: John Secondini, Jeremy Geffen Peter Bucknell and Don McInnes |
At the end of summer, McInnes gave my name and my buddy Shawn Mann's to the Los Angeles Opera. $150 for performances $100 for rehearsals = $1400 total. Useful for both of us.
They were recruiting for their Elektra (Strauss) production. The difficulty of the string parts would raise an eyebrow on any professional. In act IV the first three stands of violas all reached forward and picked up violins that were hanging on the stands. Apparently we all looked funny with these little instruments under our chins.
I spent quite some time on the score, which came in useful again, six years later in Sydney with Simone Young on the podium and the Sydney Symphony - in the pit for the first time since 1960 -. I would be extremely thankful to have a project in Australia at the close of 1999 for the arrival of the millennium because the Sydney Opera House would be the best new year's eve party on earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philharmonie_der_Nationen
quartet, BAROQUE, orchestra
Bought a mountain $48 bike to get to uni
LA , Baroque, solo Telemann
LA Opera
LA Baroque Orch
"You've got a lot of people out there, Peter."
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| McInnes: "My work here is done" |
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| Simple but effective advertising |
and the Schumann piano quintet I played in front of a collection of France's best quartets at the time, in Deauville. Our car broke down in Lille and there was a train strike. Kind of a big problem when you have to perform that day.
The following week the mother of the two brothers in the Danel Quartet apologized to her cab driver for taking such a short cab ride, and he replied: "Don't worry, last week I took four boys all the way to Deauville."
The Schumann I got to record on period instruments outside Detroit in Ann Harbor with Jaap Schröder and friends. There's a beautifully written solo for viola in the slow movement which does well at the lower tension of A430.
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If you are lucky, you get three great teachers during your life. If you are really lucky, you get them in the right order.
Anonymous