At some point, you end up in a mush of mediocrity.

Go read it

I got an interesting email recently. I’ve edited it heavily and fictionalized almost all the details, since I’m using it here without permission, but you’ll get the idea:

Dear Bret,

I found your web page through a Google search. My company is presenting a themed cruise for classical music lovers departing from Seattle in February, featuring performances by a full symphony orchestra.

I am looking to hire a woodwind doubler to serve as a sort of human insurance policy, should something happen to one of our woodwind players while we are out to sea. I’m wondering if you know anyone in the area who would be interested. We will rehearse in Seattle before departure. Compensation is room and board on the ship and travel to the Hawaiian islands, plus $50 per service to attend all rehearsals, and $100 per concert if called upon to perform. I need someone who can play flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, and the repertoire is standard symphonic fare: Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, etc.

Let me know if there’s anyone you could recommend for this. There’s a nearby university with a degree program in multiple woodwinds, so I figure there must be a number of students or graduates who are available. I would like to hire someone in the area, since unfortunately we can’t pay for travel to Seattle.

Thanks!

Eddie Skousen, President

Classical Cruises, Inc.

I’ll confess to being sort of fascinated by the idea of being hired as a kind of utility backup for an orchestral woodwind section. And I did put out a call for some potential hires, but didn’t get any nibbles. It’s a creative idea, but there are a number of practical obstacles:

• Only a small subset of doublers can cover all of those instruments at even semi-professional level. It seems that many doublers are primarily saxophonists, so even if you can find someone with good flute, clarinet, and double reeds skills, there’s a good possibility that you’re hiring someone to play everything but their strongest instrument!
• The pay scale indicated above hasn’t been altered from the original email. Though musicians’ fees vary widely based on location and a number of other factors, these numbers look quite low to me, especially considering there are no guaranteed performances. “Eddie” was looking for a relatively rare and highly skilled musician, but offering compensation that seemed rather amateurish. I expressed this opinion in a return email, and Eddie did indicate some willingness to work with a potential hire on this, since even substantially higher pay would be cheaper than bringing along a separate sub for each instrument.
• I also mentioned to Eddie that this seemed like potentially a very high-pressure gig, with the doubler needing to be prepared to cover any of four principal spots or four second parts at a moment’s notice. Playing one principal woodwind chair is pressure enough! Eddie clarified that the doubler would most likely cover second parts, and the regular second players would be prepared to take over the principal parts if needed. Still, it’s hard for me to imagine a satisfactory rehearsal situation: I would definitely want to rehearse each part I would be expected to cover, but would the regular orchestra members be willing to hand over their own rehearsal time?
• Even for departing from a fairly major city (not actually Seattle), I fear that Eddie may not be casting a wide enough net to find someone willing and able. The existence of a nearby multiple woodwinds degree program probably doesn’t guarantee as many local doublers as he is thinking. I graduated from two such programs; each of those programs reached a peak enrollment of two students while I was there, and each had had zero enrolled for several years within recent memory.

The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, like so many others, is facing a financial crisis that threatens its ability to continue making music. An opinion piece in Sunday’s Denver Post criticizes the Denver Musicians’ Association (AFM Local 20-623) for its unwillingness to budge on certain elements of its agreement with the orchestra.

The issues here are complex, and I hope that the DMA and the CSO will be able to come to a solution that is fair to all involved and that keeps the music alive. But this point in the authors’ list of complaints caught my eye:

Musicians performing on more than one instrument receive “doubling pay.”

I don’t have the full details of the doubling pay currently available to CSO members (though the amount doesn’t appear to be the issue here—it’s the fact that any doubling pay is offered that seems to offend). But a slightly-outdated agreement between the DMA and the Boulder Philharmonic, summarized below, shows a typical doubling pay structure, and it’s a reasonable guess that the CSO’s is identical or very similar:

• 25% bonus for first double
• 10% for each additional double
• B-flat and A clarinets count as one instrument
• Alto and tenor saxophones count as one instrument
• Alto and bass clarinets count as one instrument
• Piccolo, larger flutes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, contrabassoon, soprano saxophone, and saxophones larger than tenor each count as a double, even when used in common combinations (like flute plus piccolo)

What are the best instruments, mouthpieces, reeds, headjoints, method books, and other products for woodwind doublers?

I often see this question asked on online message boards (“I’m a saxophone player, so which clarinet mouthpiece should I buy?”) or answered in advertising copy (“The perfect flute headjoint for the woodwind doubler”).

When aspiring doublers ask this question, I think often what they are really asking is, “What product can I purchase that will save me having to really learn a new instrument?” If you’re serious about playing the flute, you’ll want to use the kind of flute that a good flutist would use. If you’re serious about the clarinet, you’ll seek out the kinds of reeds, mouthpieces, and instruments favored by fine clarinetists. In other words, the best clarinet for a woodwind doubler is… the best clarinet.

To double successfully, you have to abandon the idea that you can double on flute and clarinet (and so forth) without having to commit to being a flutist and a clarinetist. There are no shortcuts!

Check them out in this video:

For more about the Doublers Collective:

• visit their website
• follow them on Twitter
• “like” them on Facebook
• hear Monica talk about the group in a TWiP podcast interview
• donate to their commissioning/recording/performing project on IndieGoGo

I’m pleased to share some audio from my Delta State University faculty recital a few weeks ago.The big event of the evening was the premiere of Sy Brandon’s Divertissement for multiple woodwinds and piano, which seemed to be well received. It’s gratifying to be involved in the creation of a piece that fills a gap in the small multiple woodwinds repertoire—something than can be played by a woodwind doubler, without having to bring in a concert band, a truckload of electronics, or obscure instruments. The audience seemed to enjoy the derring-do of the final movement, which involves six instruments.

I’ve studied the Bonneau Caprice en forme de valse in the past and have had students perform it, but this was the first time I played it in public myself. Since I’m trying to balance a half-dozen or more instruments, I tend to shy away from pieces that seem too technical, and, in that respect, this was the riskiest piece on the program. I was mostly pleased with how it turned out.

All of Poulenc’s woodwind sonatas are on my short list of favorites. I learned the oboe sonata from scratch for this recital. The clarinet sonata I have performed in bits and pieces, and, having spent a good part of the summer focused on the clarinet, I wanted the clarinet sonata to be essentially the finale of the program (the Ray Pizzi piece being a sort of programmed encore). The clarinet sonata ended up being the performance that I was least satisfied with—there were a number of mistakes, several of which were total surprises, and my sound on that instrument still isn’t what I want it to be.

Ray Pizzi’s Ode to a Toad has been on my to-do list for a while now, and it was a hit with the audience. Finishing the program with an unaccompanied piece, and on the bassoon to boot—an instrument that is still in many ways outside my comfort zone—wasn’t a choice I made lightly. But after the recital I could hear people humming it in the lobby, so I’m calling it a success.

Time to starting thinking about next year’s program!

The piece is now available for purchase from the Co-op press website. It’s priced at an extraordinarily reasonable $6.95 for a PDF download (at the time of this writing), and U.S. customers can opt for a print copy for a still-affordable $16.95. The individual movements, any of which would make a charming short piece for a recital, are also available at just under two bucks apiece (PDF).

Among the few pieces in existence for multiple woodwinds soloist, this one has, in my opinion, the fewest logistical barriers to performance: it doesn’t require a large or unusual ensemble (just soloist and pianist), and it doesn’t require any unusual instruments, electronics, or other gear. There is also some flexibility in which instruments are used—movements may be selected from:

1. Intrada (flute)
2. Nocturne (alto saxophone)
3. Valse (bassoon)
4. Marche (clarinet)
5. Romanza (oboe)
6. Galop (piccolo/flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon/alto saxophone, OR just piccolo)

For flute/clarinet/saxophone doublers, the Intrada, Nocturne, Marche, and Galop (piccolo version) would make quite a nice combination.

I find the work to be challenging but not dauntingly so. I would say the individual movements would be quite playable by an undergraduate music major on each instrument. The piccolo version of the Galop calls for some level of confidence and finesse with that instrument. The multiple-woodwinds version has only two measures of optional piccolo, but it is at the very end of the piece, after a very fast switch from flute, and it goes to high G.

The language of the piece is modern, but with one foot planted in tonality; it’s stimulating enough for an audience of musicians, and accessible enough for lay audiences. The writing is witty, and there’s an extra element of visual humor, especially if you play the Valse (which calls for an optional low A extension tube) and if you play the mutiple-woodwinds version of the Galop (which has a few daringly fast instrument switches).

For a woodwind doubler, this is an appealing, playable piece for very little money.

I have added this piece to my list of works for multiple woodwinds. Please contact me if you know of other works, or can offer any additional details on the works already listed.

Gene Scholtens

One of the awesome things that has happened since I started my list of reed books in musicals is that great people from all over the world have contacted me to contribute to the list. These contacts are always a pleasure for me personally, and they serve to make the list more accurate, complete, and useful for others.

I have a number of regular contributors who contact me periodically with updates, and until recently the record was nearly twenty individual contributions from one much-appreciated person.

That record was shattered when, a few months ago, I started getting emails from Gene Scholtens. The first email was a small correction for one show, but then the floodgates opened. Gene revealed that he has been playing woodwinds in Broadway orchestras for over thirty years, and has been keeping his own very comprehensive log of who plays which doubles on which shows. Gene’s contributions to my list at the time of this writing number a staggering 72.

As it turns out, Gene is not only a talented musician and a prolific record keeper, but also a very nice, humble, and generous guy, and graciously agreed to talk to me on the phone about his career. Here’s what he had to say. [Note: edited for length.]

BP: How many shows have you played?

GS: I’ve been playing on Broadway since roughly 1980. The last count was somewhere in the neighborhood of 90-95 shows.

Wow.

Most of my career, quote-unquote, has been as a sub. I’ve had what they call “my own” show, but most of the time I’ve been subbing. That’s partly because I always had a full-time job at Baruch College. I was in administration in the technical part of the admissions department. I left that two, almost three years ago now. Decided enough is enough. I’m semi-retired, but still playing.

What shows are you playing now?

I’m subbing on Sister Act, Wicked, Anything Goes, and How to Succeed in Business. I’m also part of Chicago, but haven’t done it in a while.

On average, how many shows do you play in a week?

If you counted the whole year, three a week. This week I’m doing eight, last week I did two. Sometimes it’s a whole week of Sister Act, like this week. Sometimes it’s four different shows in a week. It’s always different.

How did you get started on woodwind doubling?

It goes way, way back to when I was a kid. I started on clarinet when I was in fourth grade or something. A year and a half or two years later the school bought a new bassoon. It was a newer, shinier instrument—that was what I wanted to play. They offered it to somebody else, but I talked him into turning it down so they would give it to me.

I’m a bassoonist, mostly. That’s the one I studied in college. Everything else I did study a little bit, but bassoon was a major and everything else was definitely secondary. But I’m pretty good on all or most of them. I don’t like to hear myself play flute much, but they still pay me for it. I call myself a reed five player, because I’m always playing bassoon, baritone sax, and bass clarinet, and rarely have to play any exposed clarinet or flute.

How did you end up where you are today?

Well, I went to college, and graduated with a masters in bassoon in 1972 from the Univeristy of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. And when I graduated I didn’t have any place to go or anything to do. But then I got a call from a friend with a lead on the college job. Basically I got hired over the phone to do the job, and so I moved to New York, the place I wanted to be anyway as a musician. I had a chance to come to New York with a job, and I had the job for thirty, almost forty years. And I started playing in New York. Originally I was mostly a bassoon player, playing in orchestras and chamber groups. Whatever paid at the time. And I always had liked playing shows.

I also liked doubling. I always said the reason I’m a doubler is because I have a very short attention span. I don’t like to play any instrument too long. Plus, it seemed to me there was more work for me as a doubler than as a straight bassoon player.

I was in New York for maybe seven years before I really got going on Broadway. Mostly just I don’t promote myself. I guess I didn’t know how to go about it, so I just kind of sat around. My first big break was on the original production of A Chorus Line. A friend of mine knew the assistant conductor there, and we both went down and sat in the pit for the fun of it, and watched a real Broadway orchestra play. I was introduced to Marvin Roth, the bassoonist. And maybe six months later I got a call from him, and he said, “Gene, I need you on Chorus Line. My sub died.” And I said, “Great!” I played the show for two weeks and decided I liked it, and liked all the guys, and they liked me. And I did a good job, I guess. And all of a sudden people started calling me. And I’ve been doing that for over thirty years.

What’s the worst part of playing on Broadway?

The worst part playing reed 5 is carrying the instruments. Showing up with a baritone saxophone, a bass clarinet, and a bassoon. And flute and piccolo and a clarinet or whatever the show takes. And the stands, too. You play one show or two shows, and you get on the subway with all those horns. It’s not much fun. I tell people I play the show for free—they pay me to carry all this stuff.

You probably get paid cartage, though, right?

No, no cartage for a sub. If you’re a regular, they will pay you cartage for a baritone saxophone for the rehearsal period. That’s it. And also if you’re playing two saxophones on a show, sometimes you play baritone and tenor, for instance, you only get paid for one saxophone. The other one is a freebie. It’s a strange thing in the union rules.

What’s the best part of playing on Broadway?

The best part is, at least for a sub, is playing different shows, and having lots of different people to be around. If you have your own show, probably the worst part of the show is boredom—playing the same show over and over and over. Never getting a chance to play anything else. Being around the same people. Everyone knows horror stories about sitting in the middle of two people who hate each other. And the longer the show runs, the more chance there’s going to be some bad blood. In fact, it’s almost like a given, the shows with the great people and the great attitudes and the great music are always the shows that close. The ones that are torture are the ones that last forever. Its not true, but sometimes it seems that way.

How is being a Broadway musician now different from when you started?

The people are much younger now. When I first started it seemed like everybody was older than me, in their fifties or sixties. Now I’m definitely one of the older people.

When I first started it was tough for musicians to take time off. The union has made many, many advances in that. In the contract you’re entitled to take off 50% of the shows if you want to, and send in a sub.

The money is a lot better than it was. The shows are a lot harder in general—there’s a lot more music. It used to be there was a song, then a book scene, then a song, then a book scene. Now a lot of shows have music for 90% of the show, so there’s a lot less downtime than there used to be.

There’s a lot more pressure. When I first started subbing, you would go in and watch a show, sit next to the guy you were subbing for and watch the conductor, and then play that night. You did as well as you could and everyone knew it wouldn’t be perfect. Now they give you a copy of the book to take home and practice for a month. Sometimes, they even give you DVDs of the conductor you can play along with. It makes it a lot easier to play a good show the first time, but the expectations of perfection are much higher.

Are there any characteristics, abilities, or habits that you should cultivate if you want to play on Broadway?

Well, I think the most important thing, and the thing I’m the least good at, is networking. A lot of it is a social thing. You have to be able to make people laugh, tell stories, get along, be a fun guy to go out with. Or girl—It’s not only men.

You have to be disciplined. You’ve got to go in and play eight shows a week, or at least most of them. And you’ve got to play the same thing over and over, the same way every time. You can’t ad lib. You can’t experiment.

You’ve got to know how to follow the conductor. Musicians come from all different directions. Some of us are classically trained, some are not. Some come from jazz or rock. For some of those guys, learning to really follow the conductor well is difficult.

Knowing what you do now, is there anything you would go back and do differently if you could?

I guess I would try to be more self-promoting. Almost every time I’ve said, let me call this guy and say “Hi, are you looking for anybody?” it has paid off. Know the contractor, call him every once in a while, and schmooze.

If I were new in town, I would call the people who are doing the shows, and say, “Can I take a couple lessons from you? I’m new in town, and I’d like to learn about the business. I’d like to hang out and talk to you, and see what suggestions you can make.”

Do you have any favorite woodwind-playing tips?

I’ve started using Legere reeds. Have you seen those?

Yes.

In the last couple of months I’ve started to use them a lot. Makes things a little easier if you’ve got five or six horns to worry about. And within the last couple of years I finally decided it’s smarter to buy bassoon reeds and not to make them. I made my own reeds all these years, and struggled through it. Wasted all that time and money.  I finally found a guy that makes reeds that I can live with, and I’m much happier.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me.

Nice talking with you.

Faculty Recital
Delta State University Department of Music
Recital Hall, Bologna Performing Arts Center
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
7:30 PM

Program

Divertissement for multiple woodwinds and piano
Sy Brandon (b. 1945)
World premiere

1. Intrada
2. Nocturne
3. Valse
4. Marche
5. Romanza
6. Galop

Caprice en forme de valse for alto saxophone
Paul Bonneau (1918 – 1995)

Sonata for oboe and piano
Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963)

1. Elégie
2. Scherzo
3. Déploration

Sonata for clarinet and piano
Francis Poulenc

1. Allegro tristamente
2. Romanza
3. Allegro con fuoco

Ode to a Toad
Ray Pizzi (b. 1943)

Notes

Sy Brandon’s Divertissement for multiple woodwinds and piano (an adaptation of a prior work for oboe, percussion, and piano) was written in fulfillment of a Co-op Press Commission Assistance grant award, and is presented tonight in its world premiere performance. It is one of few existing works that features a woodwind musician playing multiple instruments. The composer says about this piece:

The Intrada [for flute] is energetic and playful with a lot of interplay between instruments. The Nocturne [for saxophone], being a night piece, is both lyrical and mysterious. The Waltz [for bassoon] is in a flowing waltz tempo with occasional shifts away from three beats in the measure. The Marche [for clarinet] is not a piece that would be used in a parade. It is a march that exists in the mind of a child who is playing with toy soldiers; therefore there is playfulness and humor that would not occur in a functional march. Lyrical lines and expressiveness are the predominating features of the Romanza [for oboe]. The piece comes to a rousing close with the Galop [for multiple woodwind instruments], which is a “perpetual motion” type of movement with a lot of rhythmic variety.

Paul Bonneau wrote the Caprice en forme de valse for seminal French-school saxophone soloist Marcel Mule in 1950, and it remains a favorite of saxophonists and audiences today.

Among composer Francis Poulenc’s final works is an incomplete set of sonatas for woodwind instruments with piano. The sonatas for oboe and for clarinet, presented tonight, are frequently performed, as is the flute sonata; a planned bassoon sonata was never begun. The oboe and clarinet sonatas were written within a few weeks of each other, and dedicated to the memories of two of Poulenc’s departed friends and musical colleagues, the oboe sonata to Serge Prokofiev and the clarinet sonata to Arthur Honneger.

Ray Pizzi is best known as a virtuoso jazz artist and studio musician on several instruments, and one of few to distinguish himself as a bassoonist in jazz and commercial music (some of his unique bassoon sounds can be heard in movie soundtracks like Return of the Jedi and Predator 2, as well as television shows like Family Guy). He describes Ode to a Toad as a “whimsical swamp blues.”

—Bret Pimentel

Here I am at the far left saying something brilliant and witty. Tereasa Payne, Shelley Collins, David Weiss, and Jim Walker look on in wonder and delight.

At this year’s NFA conference, I had the very cool opportunity to be part of a discussion panel about woodwind doubling. The panel was organized by Florida flutist and doubler Tereasa Payne, and moderated by my Delta State colleague Shelley Collins. The panel consisted of me, Tereasa, Hollywood studio great Jim Walker, and David Weiss, who is the ethnic flutes soloist for Broadway’s The Lion King. It was an honor to be included in a group of such stature!

We spoke to a surprisingly large and enthusiastic crowd. At one point Shelley asked for a show of hands by the doublers in the audience, and we were blown away by all the hands that shot up. The audience asked great questions, and many stayed afterward to talk some more. I was delighted to meet several of you personally who read this blog or who have communicated with me by email or on Twitter.

In advance of the panel, Tereasa had prepared some questions for the panelists to think over. I took some notes to organize my thoughts, and I’m providing them here in an edited version. This isn’t a transcript of the live panel, but it should give you an idea of what was talked about, and of my thoughts about some of those topics.

What instruments do you play in your profession, and in what capacity do you play them?

I teach collegiate oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone, and freelance on those instruments. As a freelancer, I also play the flute, and occasionally some ethnic flutes and woodwinds and electronic wind controller.

Woodwind Specialist, Doubler, Multiple Woodwinds Performer… there are so many titles for what you do. Do you have a preference for what you are called?

Woodwind doubler seems to be the most common term, so that’s what I usually end up using. It can be problematic because sometimes people take “doubler” to mean “dabbler.” It also seems incorrect if you play more than two instruments. “Specialist” also seems like a misnomer, since doubling is really sort of a refusal to specialize. I kind of like “woodwind multi-instrumentalist,” since to me it seems clear enough and has a certain amount of dignity, but I’m still looking for something shorter.

And none of those names really captures the way I want to see myself: as a flutist AND an oboist AND a clarinetist and so forth.

Did you get into doubling for the money? (haha)… What are you in it for?

I got into it because I was interested in it and looking to expand my employability, and stayed in it because interest and ambition turned into passion. As a college student I started gigging a lot more than my classmates, even those who played their single instrument far better than I did. So I’ve probably earned a lot more money by doubling, but on the other hand I’ve probably also spent more doing it.

How and when did you begin adding instruments? Do you have any opinions on the order that students should add additional instruments?

I started as a saxophonist, and dabbled a very small amount in flute an clarinet as a teenager because someone told me I would need those for jazz. As an upperclassman undergraduate student I very deliberately started study of each of the woodwind instruments because I had decided I wanted to become a doubler.

In terms of being the most marketable, I think for saxophonists it makes the most sense to pick up clarinet next, then flute, and then, if desired, a double reed or two. For flutists, oboists, clarinetists, or bassoonists, I would go to saxophone next, then follow the saxophonist sequence. One possible alternative for a double reed player who is headed for an academic career is to add the other double reed and apply for the relatively frequent oboe-and-bassoon teaching positions; however, there are very few performing situations that call for this double.

Did anything or anyone ever discourage you from doubling?

I had a few teachers who were not hot on the idea. I think those that objected felt that doubling would mean I couldn’t or wouldn’t be a serious “classical” musician.

How does doubling affect your flute playing?

It takes time away from the flute. I don’t feel that doubling hurts my flute playing in any ways besides that, like hurting my embouchure or mixing up my fingerings. Occasionally in the heat of battle my lips will be a little swollen from playing reeds, or I’ll be too tense, but that’s evidence that I’m doing something wrong on the other instruments, not on the flute. If I’m playing each of my instruments relaxed and with good technique, and I’ve thoroughly warmed up before the gig, there’s no reason I can’t make a quick switch to flute and play at my best.

How do you manage your practice time on so many instruments?

Often it’s triage: deal with the patient that is hemorrhaging the worst. (Sometimes they can’t be saved.) When I have the rare luxury of not being in panic mode, I try to rotate instruments so that I don’t necessarily get to each one every day, but so that each one does at least get a few days in a row. For example, Monday is flute-oboe-clarinet, Tuesday is oboe-clarinet-bassoon, Wednesday is clarinet-bassoon-saxophone, and so forth. It means each instrument gets neglected for a couple of days, but then it gets practiced a few days in a row so I can hopefully get a little momentum going.

What are the most challenging aspects of being a doubler?

Time and money. If you think if how many hours you would have to practice to be a top-level flutist, and instead divide that time by three or four or five instruments, then you can see how you might start to feel like you’re falling behind. And it’s expensive accumulating good instruments—plus reeds, accessories, lessons, sheet music, maintenance, insurance…

It seems there is a very small percentage of women doublers. Why do you think this is?

I don’t have a good answer to that question. However, data from my recent survey of woodwind doublers does seem to indicate that younger women are doubling more than older women, so perhaps we are witnessing a surge in the number of female doublers.

What advice would you give to flutists wishing to “branch out” into woodwind doubling?

Pick up the alto saxophone, and get some good coaching (including lots of listening) on jazz style. In theater music, the part with the flute solos is often also the part with lead alto writing.

Another good way to expand your skill set as a flutist is to explore ethnic flutes. Recorders, pennywhistles, and simple bamboo flutes are all pretty versatile, fairly easy to play, and don’t have to break the bank.

My general advice for anyone who wants to double is “be a beginner.” Give yourself the advantages you wish you had had as a beginning flutist: a great teacher, a quality instrument, and dedicated practice. Start with a beginning method book and practice those whole notes like they are the most important thing you will ever play (hint: they are). Build your fundamental skills on each instrument with deliberation and thoroughness. Don’t try to skip steps.

Was it always your childhood dream to be a doubler? When did it become your goal?

As a teenager, I wanted to be a professional saxophonist and university professor, so I went to college to study saxophone performance. I was fascinated by musical instruments, and I had dabbled a little in flute and clarinet but hadn’t pursued them seriously.

One day I was sitting in saxophone studio class and realized that one day my teacher would retire and create one job vacancy, but there were twenty of us in the class. I knew at that point that I would need to carve out a more specialized niche to be competitive in the job market. Getting serious about doubling was a solution that made me more marketable and really expanded my musical horizons as well. Now I can hardly imagine going back to playing “just” one instrument.