Orchestra Members Enjoy Poking Fun at Themselves
Insider jokes are not just for White House Correspondents’ Assn. Dinners or ESPN kibitzers or Academy Awards emcees. They also crop up in discussions about symphony orchestra musicians — a society unto itself. There are jibes and even sober-minded studies that characterize personality types according to the instruments they play.
Who are the string players? The divas.
What do you call oboists? The orchestra neurotics.
And the brass? Drunken bullies.
Concert hall audiences tend to believe that those hundred or so musicians onstage — all of them remarkable virtuosos — are never less than unified in their pursuit of artistic perfection. Or at least always appreciative of one another’s sections and manner of playing, even tolerant of a blasting decibel or vague pitch from nearby.
But instrumentalists easily affirm or puncture the stereotypes. Or laugh them off, with qualifications.
Consider Ariana Ghez, one of the most visible members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic because cameras at Hollywood Bowl concerts often fix on her, who says, “Yes, we oboists are neurotic — but legitimately so.
“Our instruments are more finicky. We need to sound awesome despite all the things that are going on beneath the surface.”
It’s those concerns, explains principal timpanist Joe Pereira, that lead to the characterization.
“Oboists are commonly said to be neurotic because they’re always making reeds, always worried about the atmospheric conditions affecting those reeds, and because they wear earplugs and use black shields behind their heads,” he says, to guard against hearing damage from nearby, loud timpani.
“Of course,” Ghez responds, “other musicians have no idea how much time we spend making those reeds. Hours consumed doing just that — me at home at my reed desk — for, I can’t say how long. That’s why we’re high-strung.”