Interview: Woodwind road warrior Terry Halvorson

ByBret Pimentel
Terry Halvorson

I’m always pleased to hear from other woodwind players. Terry Halvorson has been a contributor to my Broadway woodwind doubling list for several years, we’ve communicated periodically online, and we even bumped into each other in person at an IDRS conference a few years back. Terry has been working as a musician with touring musical theater productions for a while now, and I  was curious about life on the road. He was kind enough to take some time out of his schedule to answer a few questions.

BP: What do you do for a living?

TH: I am a woodwind doubler (oboe/English horn, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, recorders, whistles). I am currently 44 years old and have been performing musical theater since I was 14. I have been playing the Reed 2 book (oboe and English horn) with the national tour of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast since February 2010 and will be continuing, switching to the Reed 3 book (clarinet, bass clarinet, 2nd flute) from late September through May 2013.

How did you get the job?

I was called back in late 2005 by a musical director friend to play a reed book on the tour of Will Rogers Follies, but I had commitments at the time that I couldn’t get out of, so I had to turn it down. However the reed player who was hired gave notice four months into the eight-month contract and I was able to join the tour in the middle, replacing him (my first experience seeing a high D on flute!). Toward the end of this tour, we were in the New York City area when NETworks Presentations (my current company) was holding musician auditions, and I was able to attend; I received a call five weeks later asking me if I would like to play with the national tour of The Producers, and here I still am!

What background (education, other experience, etc.) do you have that prepared you for this job?

Wow, loaded question… well, I have been a major woodwind geek since high school (I arranged my favorite band piece for mixed clarinet sextet when I was 14 years old, and we won a command performance at our regional solo and ensemble festival); I also played oboe, clarinet and bassoon in my local youth symphony in various years. I was, of course, a music major (oboe and clarinet) in college as well, beginning as an education major but switching to performance. I freelanced a LOT, playing mostly reed books 2 and 3.

What’s the best part of the job? What’s the worst part?

Best parts are having a steady paycheck as a performing musician (how many people can say that?) and of course seeing and experiencing all the different places we play; I have played all fifty states and most Canadian provinces. The worst part is probably the lack of freedom to come and go and the strict adherence to a schedule.

What’s it like being on the road?

How much space do we have? Haha! Life on the road has its ups and downs; I like to refer to it as living in a bubble, slightly outside of reality. Facebook and smartphones help a lot to keep in touch with family and friends. The average age of a non-equity cast tends to be around 23, and there are usually cliques that happen, sometimes a bit high school like, other times just small groups with similar interests who hang around together a lot. The pit and the crew tend to average slightly older than the cast, maybe around 30-35 years old? On a personal note, I take meds for bipolar and ADHD and was recently diagnosed with HFA (high functioning autism), so I tend to be somewhat awkward in certain social situations, so the road life can be a bit more difficult for me at times, but I have been managing for six and a half years so far.

Does “non-equity” mean non-union?

Yes, but equity is the actors’ union; so a non-equity tour is lower-level, typical doesn’t play a lot of A-list cities, and doesn’t stay long. You also get paid less and have to share hotel rooms, etc.

How is touring different from playing local gigs?

Well for one, I don’t have to work at a restaurant and take the weekends off, losing $120 a night to drive 60 miles round-trip to a $70 gig. But it also stinks sometimes when you’re off for a day or two around Christmas, New Year’s or Easter, but can’t take those great gigs back at home.

Is there a pecking order on the tour, and where does the orchestra fit in? Do the musicians pretty much hang together, or are there typically friendships with the cast, crew, and other tour personnel?

The crew travel separately and don’t hang with the rest of the company all that often (though some do); the cast and orchestra also tend to hang within their respective groups, but but intermingling also happens, especially for birthdays and such.

What’s a typical day like?

Depends on the day; if we’re on a week sit-down, Monday is usually traveling, Tuesday we have company meeting 2 hours and 15 minutes before the show and sound check 2 hours before; the rest of the week is free except for shows. Sometimes the cast will have understudy rehearsals, but we don’t play for those. If we have multiple cities in a week, we usually travel by bus and leave in time to get us to the hotel around 1½-2 hours before company meeting; depending on the length of the travel, we have to stop for a 20-minute restroom break every two hours and have an hour lunch.

What’s your schedule like over the course of a year? Vacations? Holidays?

The schedules (itineraries/routes) vary a lot from show to show, but non-equity tour schedules are generally kind of like the school year: mid-September to late May or early June. Sometimes we have Christmas week off, or at least a day or two. There are no vacations other than layoffs where there are simply no shows scheduled; for most of these we are flown home with no pay (but we can file for unemployment).

Do you get tired of playing the same show over and over? How do you cope? How do you stay “sharp?”

That’s tough; I played The Producers 489 times and have played Beauty and the Beast so far around 680; luckily both of those shows were well written and orchestrated, and are fun to play. I admit that in some tutti sections, my mind will wander a little; sometimes I’ll look around the audience or the theater, other times I’m thinking of what’s going on after the show or my finances. But I always have at least 95% of myself engaged.

What happens if you or one of your orchestra colleagues gets sick or otherwise can’t go on?

Most of the time we simply have to make it work. I actually had to leave in the middle of a show once because I was violently ill; I also had a terrible bout of bronchitis a couple of years ago and we managed to find a local sub who audited and took over for a couple of shows while I went to the hospital; but for the most part, unless it’s serious, we have to play.

Do you find time and space to practice on the road? What are you currently working on?

I am the bad musician who doesn’t practice much on the road (shoot me!). I am planning on changing this, especially since I will be subbing on the Reed 1 books of Aladdin and Hairspray this summer (right after we get home from tour, actually), as well as switching books on the next leg of tour after playing my current book for two and a half years; this will be a nice change up, but I’m a little bummed as it comes just as I’m receiving my new oboe.

How do you deal with reeds on the road? Do you make your own? Do you notice a lot of change in your reeds from location to location?

I, unfortunately, was not blessed with the skills of a fine carpenter that oboists are supposed to have. I have a reedmaker in southern California who sends me small batches of reeds about once a month, and I keep most them, pulling out different ones for different altitudes, climates, temperatures, etc. It generally works. For my single reeds I have been playing on Légères since they first came out, and they are getting better and better all the time. No one has ever noticed, other than the players sitting next to me who can see them.

What advice do you have for musicians who might like to do this job?

See a therapist quickly! Just kidding. The truth of the matter is that the newer shows are being written for smaller and smaller orchestras and some companies are using virtual orchestra machines (bleh!), but be persistent; try to send your resume and .MP3s of your playing to musical director friends and other friends who play your instrument and are doing what you’d like to do; also try to get a hold of reed players in New York City, Los Angeles, and touring shows, and ask if you might sit in the pit.

Do have any favorite doubling tips (or general woodwind-playing tips)?

Hmm… for oboe, generally dip the reeds then lay them out; only leave them in the water if you are in an extremely dry climate like Utah or Arizona. Take the double reeds off the instruments and resoak them whenever you can so they stay wet, and also swab out at regular intervals (I have my swabbing practically choreographed). As for flute, the vibration from playing any reed instrument before playing flute tends to slightly “numb” the center of the lip, thus messing with the correct flute embouchure, so practice going from sax or clarinet to flute a LOT; I try to buzz my lips a bit (turning away from the mic) between these changes, if possible.

Do you have have any career tips that aren’t specifically about woodwind playing?

Be friendly and go with the flow… life on the road can be challenging, but it’s easier when you have friends around you, and often times you will make friends for life from your tours.

What instruments are in your arsenal?

I play:

  • Buffet Festival Greenline B-flat clarinet (Fobes and Grabner mpcs, Backun barrel and bell)
  • older LeBlanc E-flat and A clarinets
  • older Rigoutat Symphonie model oboe
  • 1927 Loree English horn
  • Tom Hiniker cocobolo oboe (arriving any day now!)
  • Muramatsu DS model flute (standard and Straubinger headjoints)
  • Woodwind model grenadilla piccolo with synthetic headjoint by Eldred Spell
  • Pearl silver-plated alto flute (curved & straight headjoints)
  • Cannonball curved soprano sax
  • old 1940’s Conn straight silver soprano sax
  • old Buescher alto sax
  • Yamaha 62 tenor sax (rubber and metal Otto Link mouthpieces refaced by John Reilly)
  • several nice wooden recorders (garklein, sopranino, soprano, alto, and tenor)
  • Susato chromatic set of pennywhistles (low D to high G)

To hear Terry play, check the Beauty and the Beast tour schedule and buy tickets for a show near you. Thanks, Terry!

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  • Interview: Ryan Lillywhite of Cannonball Musical Instruments

    ByBret Pimentel
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    I’m pleased to share an interview that I did with Ryan Lillywhite of Cannonball Musical Instruments. Ryan and I played in college jazz band together, and recently reconnected. He is a really creative and fun soloist with an incredible tenor sound, plus a cool guy with a cool job, not to mention a new dad. Read all the way to the bottom to find a video of Ryan and his Cannonball colleagues (all very tasty players) showing off their chops and their horns. Cannonball is a serious contender in today’s saxophone market, doing some very interesting and innovative things, generating some great buzz, and signing big-name endorsing artists left and right. Ryan was kind enough to answer a few questions about what he does at work. [Full disclosure: I recently bought a new Cannonball tenor with Ryan’s expert help, and it is a seriously awesome horn.]

    BP: Tell us a little about yourself.

    RL: I work for Cannonball Musical Instruments. I studied at Brigham Young University where I started in music but ended up graduating with a business degree and a music minor. When I’m not working, I stay busy performing, fixing up old horns, working on my old muscle car, and spending time with my wife and five-month-old daughter.

    Tell us about your performing background.

    I had a blast as lead tenor in Synthesis (BYU’s jazz band); I’ve performed with the Utah Symphony and some smaller local groups, recorded for movies and commercials, and recently performed with the Cannonball Band at the Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival. Most of that was on tenor sax, but I’ve done my share of doubling on flutes and clarinets in pit orchestras. I currently take my jazz quartet around for local weddings and other events, which I’ve been doing for about a decade now and still enjoy. Especially when food is provided.

    What is your job title? What do you do at work?

    It kind of depends on the day … we all wear a lot of hats around here. I play test, inspect, and acoustically customize about half of the saxophones we sell; I’m in charge of the spare parts/repair department; I manage a number of international accounts; I do our social media; I contribute to product and acoustical development and testing; I clean the boys’ bathroom (hey, you asked!); and whatever other projects come up. Things definitely don’t get boring around here.

    How did you get the job?

    Read More “Interview: Ryan Lillywhite of Cannonball Musical Instruments”

  • Endorsement deals

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    First, let’s be clear about this: in an endorsement deal, the artist endorses the product or brand. The product or brand doesn’t endorse the artist. If an artist claims to be “endorsed by” a company, that is incorrect word usage.

    An endorsement deal means that an artist agrees to be publicly associated with a product or brand, presumably because the company thinks that will encourage more people to purchase their products. In return, the artist generally receives some kind of compensation, which often takes the shape of free or discounted products. The contract might specify some requirements for the artist to fulfill, such as having their name and image used in advertising, appearing at the company’s publicity events, or plugging products on social media. Read More “Endorsement deals”

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    University woodwinds job postings, 5/30/08

    ByBret Pimentel

    Being a doctoral student in multiple woodwinds performance, I like to keep an eye on the job listings for university faculty positions that involve teaching multiple woodwind instruments. There usually aren’t many, at least not many that involve a national search. But two positions were posted to HigherEdJobs.com this morning: Read More “University woodwinds job postings, 5/30/08”

  • Interview: bassoonist and inventor Trent Jacobs

    ByBret Pimentel

    Last summer I finally got myself a Little-Jake setup so I could experiment with some electric bassoon playing. The inventor of the Little-Jake, Trent Jacobs, is a performer, educator, and reedmaker, and I’ve linked to his blog posts on a number of occasions.

    Trent was kind enough to answer a few questions about himself and about the Little-Jake.

    Tell us in a nutshell about yourself and your career.

    I have a bachelor of music degree from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, and Masters and DMA degrees from the University of Illinois. My primary teachers were Monte Perkins and Timothy McGovern. I moved to Minneapolis in 2009 where I started work at Midwest Musical Imports, and began freelancing and teaching as much as I could around the full time job. In about 2010 I started making reeds commercially under the Weasel Reeds brand, which grew significantly over the years. I started teaching bassoon and music theory at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in fall of 2015 and left MMI shortly after. I now teach there and in my studio in Minneapolis, continue with the reed making business, help in raising my two children (which includes Suzuki violin lessons), and freelance when I’m able.

    What is the “Little-Jake?”

    The Little-Jake is a small and inexpensive wind instrument pickup, designed to mount directly to the bocal of the bassoon or similar location on other woodwinds. It gets the name from a nickname I had when I was a little boy. My fathers friends called him “Jake” as short for Jacobs so when I was around I was “little Jake” while he was “big Jake.”

    What was the impetus for creating it?

    In about 2005 while I was working on my DMA, I started working out that my thesis/project would be somehow related to jazz bassoon. Years prior I was a pretty competent jazz guitarist, but didn’t ever translate that to bassoon much, and never improvised on bassoon until then. So when pursuing jazz bassoon in all facets I encountered (again) the music of Paul Hanson, and his electric bassoon playing.

    If you know anything about Paul’s setup at that time, you’ll know he was using a pickup that was no longer being made or serviced by the inventor, and was an unusual piece of gear with odd technical requirements. The only thing on the market available to anyone else was actually a control booth earpiece that functioned as a microphone well enough when fit to a bocal (the Telex pickup).

    I was curious about it and happened to have a third-hand connection with Mark Ortwein at the time, and I knew he had a Telex setup which he let me borrow. It worked, but I was rather unimpressed with the sound quality I could get through my guitar amp and pedals, so I set out to make something I liked better. Quite a few dozen experimental pieces later I had a prototype I was close to happy with, that worked with the Telex fitting.

    What kind of background or skills did you have that made it possible?

    It’s rather embarrassing to say, but the first skill needed in making something like this is soldering, which I learned by modifying gaming consoles to play homebrew software. I had learned to do that with some tutorial videos on the internet and had made a few small electronics projects so I had some idea what I was doing. I also got some help from the guy that makes the Altoids box preamps that are now commonly bundled with the Little Jake in the technical aspects of circuit building.

    Most of the construction of them isn’t all that different from bassoon reed making in my mind. Small pieces have to be fit together in a precise way, it’s just that the tools and pieces are a bit different. The hardest thing in the early days was getting a good connection with the existing Telex pickup bocal adapter being made by Forrests Music. I was fortunate enough to have a colleague in the bassoon studio at the University of Illinois who was an architecture major and had access to CAD and acrylic laser cutting machines. He helped me prototype and get working pieces to allow for a solid connection.

    Eventually I switched everything over to a threaded/screw adapter like what Paul Hanson was using with his FRAP pickups, so he could use my pickups with his existing equipment. That is the only way I make the pickups now.

    What instruments are people using the Little Jake with? Are there others that it theoretically would work with?

    I’ve seen them used on clarinet and saxophone, although not too much. Nearly any woodwind instrument is possible, as long as the player is willing to drill a hole where it’s needed. Clarinet is best done in the barrel, which is easy. Saxophone could use the mouthpiece but the neck is better, similar to the bocal mount for the bassoon. English horn could be done on the bocal but it’s fine work and I don’t know of anyone that’s actually gone there.

    Flute is the one that’s not really necessary, as there are plenty of high quality microphone systems for flute that would be ultimately superior to the sound you could get with the Little Jake anyway, but there is a way to modify a Little Jake and a headjoint of a flute to make it work together. A lot of work and the sound wouldn’t be as good as a commercially available flute mic at the lip plate anyway.

    Oboe is the toughest sell: you have to drill a hole at about where the third octave key is on the top joint. Most oboists aren’t willing to sacrifice a top joint to electrify the oboe, so I don’t think it’s been done. Paul McCandless has done it in the past with a FRAP, but I don’t think anyone else ever has.

    I’m sure there are non-western instruments that it’d work with as well, as long as there’s a place to drill the hole.

    Have you seen any uses of the Little Jake that you found especially surprising?

    I’m just always surprised when I find a bassoonist using it and enjoying it in a rock band setting. I’ve had people send me recordings over the years and it’s pretty cool to see something you’ve created being used in contexts you wouldn’t yourself be in. I was blown away when I discovered a band in Iceland that had a bassoonist using a Little Jake.

    Obviously using a Little Jake opens up a whole rabbit hole of new gear to buy, but what is a good minimum setup that, say, a bassoonist needs just to try out some electric playing?

    The amp is the most important second piece of equipment. The goal of using a pickup with a bassoon is to get the sound space into a place that can be heard even when there are drums involved. When putting together a guitar rig, as an example, the guitar is only half of the sound; the other half of the sound is the amplifier. Ask any guitar player, the amp is absolutely critical when getting the tone you want. All the pedals and stuff you can put between the instrument and amp are just extras. So it’s really important to get an amp that gets you the sound you want at a volume appropriate for what you’re doing. I’ve settled on a really high end acoustic guitar amp, but in the past I’ve used bass guitar amps, powered PA speakers, and guitar amplifiers. It all depends on what kind of sound you want. You can get a good amp used for $100 or less.

    For someone who already has that minimum setup, what are the next few things to consider buying?

    If you don’t know anything about effects pedals, one of the simple and small multi-effect units for guitar or bass guitar are a good starting point. You can experiment with lots of different types of effects and decide what you like to use before investing in more specialized gear. Those multi-effect units can sometimes be found for $50 if you get a good Craigslist deal.

    If you know what kinds of effects you like, you can get dedicated pedals that do that one thing really well. I find that a lot of things respond differently to bassoon than to electric guitar (which is what these things are designed for) so you really have to try things out before you spend the money. It’s always fun to take your bassoon out in a guitar store and start playing through pedals. The people in those shops love it! I also really highly suggest effects units designed with vocalists in mind. A voice or wind instrument is more similar to a bassoon than an electric guitar is. I personally use a lot of pitch shifting effects, modulation effects (phaser, chorus, etc.), and time based effects like delay/echo and reverb. I don’t really use distortion all that much unless I’m really trying to sound like another guitar player in the same band. The other thing that’s always sure to turn heads is an Envelope Filter (sometimes called auto-wah but that’s not really correct). That’s the effect that makes your instrument have that “quack” or “wah” sound when you articulate.

    What surprises or challenges do people run into when electrifying their instruments for the first time?

    Feedback is probably the biggest issue with amplifying an acoustic instrument. Feedback is where the sound from the amplifier or speaker is picked up by the microphone, which creates an audio loop that quickly becomes very loud and usually very high pitched. Acoustic instruments have more problems with this because they themselves are a bit of an amplifying chamber that can pick up the sound of the speakers. You have to learn what effects and volume levels will create that feedback with your own setups and be ready with a plan to control them (be always close to a volume knob that you can zero out if it gets really bad).

    Do you have any favorite bassoon- (or woodwind-) playing tips?

    Don’t play on crap reeds. Life is too short. Practice your damned scales and long tones. Take good care of your equipment: regular instrument maintenance with a specialist on that instrument, store things properly, clean them regularly, buy appropriate cases or covers or whatever to keep things protected. Don’t swing stuff around carelessly. Swab your horn. Especially in my years at MMI I was frequently amazed at how poorly some people, even professionals, took care of their gear. If you’re playing a bassoon at a night club you’d best know that you have the single most expensive piece of equipment in the band probably, and nobody knows it or cares, so watch out for your own stuff.

    Would you like to share anything about your recent medical history?

    In May of 2017 I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I underwent 9 weeks of chemotherapy and in early November had surgery to remove the tumor, which involved also removing my entire stomach and a portion of my esophagus. I finished 9 more weeks of chemotherapy after the surgery and have started playing again, but I still have a long road to recovery and learning to live without a stomach. I have started teaching and working again and so far things are looking good for my healing. We will do regular scans and hopefully find nothing.

    I found that some side effects of chemo prevented me from making reeds as much as I was used to, and generally being fatigued kept me from playing as much as I wanted. I obviously had to turn down quite a few calls for gigs. I’m fortunate to have a good health insurance plan through my university and have some of the best doctors in the world working on me, so while my income has suffered I have a good safety net. I expect to be in full production of bassoon reeds again in the spring of 2018, so if anyone wants to be notified when I have reeds ready to go again, send a message to me through my website.

    Thanks Trent!

    Check out a couple of Trent’s performing groups:

    And of course his website: Trent Jacobs, bassoonist

  • |

    Advice on multiple-woodwinds graduate degrees and teaching careers

    ByBret Pimentel

    I often have university students bring up the idea of graduate school and a university teaching career, and I have previously given general advice about that.

    Perhaps since my graduate degrees and a teaching career are in multiple woodwinds, my students sometimes wonder if that’s a path they should take. Here are a few thoughts:

    I’ve mentioned previously that, even for talented and hardworking folks, a graduate education is far from a guarantee of employment. Does a multiple-woodwinds degree help? I think it helped me, but I also had some significant luck.

    The year I was on the job market, I applied for a small handful of multiple-woodwinds jobs and got a small handful of interviews. I landed in the job that was the best match. I kept an eye on job listings in subsequent years, and years went by without a single multiple-woodwinds job being listed. If I had graduated a year later than I did, I may well have been unemployed.

    During my job search I also applied for single-instrument teaching jobs, and got zero responses. Having been on the hiring side of things a few times now, I understand why. Faculty jobs get dozens of applicants that need to be narrowed down quickly, and the ones whose qualifications and experience are laser-focused for the job in question rise to the top. Though I felt I had things to offer, my multiple-woodwinds background wasn’t a precise enough fit, and somebody else’s background was.

    So is a multiple-woodwinds education better, employability-wise, than focused study of a single instrument? It’s a calculated gamble. When you’re on the job market there might happen to be a windfall of single-instrument jobs, and if you’ve been focused on multiple woodwinds instead, you may be out of luck. However, there are fewer multiple-woodwinds graduates, so if a multiple-woodwinds-geared job opens, your background might prove very valuable.

    Multiple-woodwinds teaching jobs tend to be common at smaller schools with smaller music departments, and that may or may not affect your decision. I have a mixed but mostly positive relationship with my small-university job. If your heart is set on teaching at a major university, then most of the jobs won’t be multiple-instrument jobs, and your competition will mostly be highly-specialized, highly-focused single-instrument players.

    One other factor to consider is what kind of multiple-woodwinds education you want to get. Do you want to have a “primary” and “secondary” instruments, or study them in an equal way? Do you want to do a masters degree and a doctoral degree both in multiple woodwinds, or one in multiple woodwinds and one in a single instrument? How you focus your studies will affect which theoretical future jobs you will or won’t be a match for. (Each degree program is a little different, so check with the schools you’re interested in to see how their programs are structured.)

    Graduate study in multiple woodwinds can be valuable preparation for a career in higher education, but the job opportunities are limited and hard to predict. I suggest pursuing that path if you have additional reasons or motivations for doing so, like a fascination with the woodwind instruments and woodwind doubling.

  • Interview: flutist Tammy Evans Yonce

    ByBret Pimentel

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    Flutist Tammy Evans Yonce is an active recitalist, writer, clinician, speaker, contributor to various conferences and professional organizations, and professor at South Dakota State University (plus: she is my former classmate). Her thoughtful blog is a favorite of mine and my regular readers will recall that I have featured her posts on a number of occasions. Her debut CD will be released earlier next year—keep an eye on her website and Twitter for details.

    I am always particularly amazed by her brutally busy performance schedule, and she kindly agreed to let me pick her brain about it.

    How often do you perform?

    I do an annual fall tour, which includes multiple performances and masterclasses. This year it was to Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Sometimes I choose these places because it’s a geographical area I want to explore or because I have friends and collaborators there. This year’s tour included collaborations with some really fantastic friends. I’ve been able to perform in 24 states so far, so that’s been fun.

    I always give one on-campus recital each year but also frequently collaborate with colleagues on theirs.

    Other performances include festivals, conventions, and such. I like giving 15–20 performances per year.

    How do you maintain such a busy performance schedule, on top of teaching full time, having a family, etc.?

    It mainly comes down to organization and clearly defined goals. And making consistent progress every day. I work in big six-month chunks, where I have goals listed in a variety of categories (performance, writing, recording, commissions, etc.). Those goals help me organize my day-to-day decisions, and they also allow me to stretch beyond what I think I’m capable of.

    I have some general long-term goals but I think the nature of my work (music + academia) means that I can’t anticipate all opportunities that might arise, so I try not to be too rigid about those long-term plans. My upcoming fellowship to Israel came out of left field, for example, so I try to keep my eyes open.

    I also have a really supportive husband who carries his share (plus some, probably) at home so I have some flexibility.

    How does your performance schedule affect you? What benefits or drawbacks are there to a busy performance calendar?

    I enjoy travel and find it invigorating. It helps me to break up my schedule, see new people and places, and be in a different environment, and it certainly helps my teaching. I enjoy collaborating with friends.

    Performing frequently has effectively eliminated performance anxiety for me. There’s just not time to be nervous and I have a lot of hours banked actually on the stage. I’ve “practiced” performing so much that I can stay in the moment. Since creation and analysis are completely different processes, if I can stay in the moment I’m not worried about analyzing my performance as it happens.

    Being busy might be considered a drawback for some but I feel like the things I do are a worthwhile use of my time. I don’t do things just to have something to do.

    How do you maintain balance in your career and life?

    I have a couple of trusted people who understand me and my goals that I check in with regularly. We make sure that we’re staying on track. Also, I don’t check work email after 5pm or on the weekends.

    Do you have any self-care or stress-reduction practices?

    I get regular massages. I used to see this as a luxurious indulgence but being a musician does take a physical toll. I like good food, I travel as much as I can, and I try to work with my friends whenever possible. Finally, I read a lot. I read at least 25 books a year.

    You frequently commission new works. How do you connect with and select composers?

    Sometimes I’m approached by composers who hear me play and have an idea of something they’d like to write. Other times there are composers I know I’d love to work with, and I approach them. Most of these connections happen either online (Twitter, usually) or at conferences and festivals. Even if I haven’t met a composer, it’s likely that I’ve seen them around online or have mutual friends, so there’s usually a connection.

    Generally I work with the composer during the compositional process. We meet via Skype or FaceTime so I can try out their ideas or they send sketches as the piece progresses, so I have a good idea of what the piece is before it’s done. The composers I work with want things to work, so if something is awkward or impractical, we find a solution.

    You have done some performing and commissioning with the Glissando Headjoint. How does this play into your career? Is it bringing you opportunities that you wouldn’t have otherwise? Does it cause you to be pigeonholed?

    The Glissando Headjoint has been a lot of fun. I don’t think it has helped or hindered me. I see it as another item in the toolkit I can use to get the musical message across. Since there isn’t much repertoire for it, it has been fascinating to see how composers use it. They are really drawing from their own creativity instead of basing their musical decisions on existing repertoire.

    When programming, how do you balance new repertoire with previously-performed works?

    Big considerations are the audience, the logistics of the performing venue, and whether or not I have collaborators available.

    My recitals have taken a big turn lately and are much more logistically complex. Last month’s recital featured dancers, lines of poetry projected in real time, a lithograph displayed during one piece, multiple collaborators, and a variety of equipment changes. While it was complex, I think it was effective.

    I’m already planning next year’s recital, which will involve literature, readings, photographs and other visual art, and several new commissions. Once I get the plans in place, I’ll put more info on my website. I like the impact of a cohesive recital that involves more than just the ears.

    Do you have any favorite flute-playing tips?

    Practice. You can’t go wrong with lots of etudes and Taffanel and Gaubert.

    Thanks, Tammy, for taking the time to answer some questions! Find her at:

3 Comments

  3. This was really cool to see a glimpse into this career. My sister plays the clarinet, and I think she would love to have a career like this. I can’t imagine playing the same music 680 times! I think I would need more change than that to keep me interested. Thanks for sharing your experience!

    Reply

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