Posted by defunct on November 08, 2001 at 13:52:19:
In Reply to: Brass Quintet Dealings posted by Jason Arnold on November 08, 2001 at 12:53:23:
In my now-defunct BQT, the trombone player was just a dark cloud type of person. He didn't like _anything_ the rest of us liked, always showed up late for rehearsals, and was grumpy, not a good ensemble player, etc etc. He got us a very high-paying gig that was six months ahead, so we had to keep him until we played the gig. After that, it sort of fell apart because we'd had enough, so to speak. I did all the organizing and rehearsal scheduling. Rehearsals were difficult because this same person did not want to actually rehearse anything; after a few go-throughs of a difficult spot, he would protest that he was bored, even though he was the problem.
Guess you hit one of my buttons....getting and keeping a group together is difficult. If everyone is equally committed, you can work things out. If that problem doesn't exist, then the next one down the line is to agree on how well, and how, music is rehearsed. Next after that is musical differences. It is truly amazing that groups exist at all. I think the best structure is for one or two people to "own" the group and be the boss. Consensus is a great idea but often doesn't work all that well. Maybe that's why orchestras have conductors.