Lori falls hard for the Philharmonic

Well, I will start off with two major confessions. One I am a virgin to blogging and two I am a virgin to the SC Philharmonic. But look at me, I am growing.

So last week we met with the conductor of the Philharmonic and two of the instrumentalists: first chair clarinet and first chair viola. Confession number three: I have a crush on all of them. Let me tell you why.

First, the Japanese conductor is a ball of what appears to be buzzed-on-adult-beverages energy, but I asked around and the guy was sober. He was hilarious! I heard him say the word shit, kinda priceless for a grown man that carries around a tiny little baton. He also explained that conductor jokes are to lawyer jokes as viola jokes are to blonde jokes. I found these both interesting as I considered the parallels and as I was simultaneously catapulted to my GRE analogy studying days. The clarinet guy was mister sauvé himself. First he has been doing this, playing music, forever. He has like 12 clarinets and I think one cost like 5,000 dollars. Plus he played for us this super cool little piece that made his face turn really red, which I for one totally appreciated the effort. Lastly, is my boy Jared. For some reason his is the only name I remember. Does this mean I like him more? I can’t say, maybe I shouldn’t say. But anyhow, Jared was super informative and really witty. Picture this: a professor/instructor that you didn’t mind listening to, who actually said things that were funny and during breaks he played a little ditty on the only viola he owns, not too bad.

Also, we learned that the SC Philharmonic operates on a budget of about a million dollars. Holy cow! And mostly they get their money from generous donors. Now how do I get these donors to donate to the Lori Student Loan Foundation? Ok I digress. So, the short of the long is that it takes a lot of money and a lot of talent, and being cute and funny goes a long way.

Ok, so I want to say something about last night. Last night we watched them all rehearse for the first time for this weekend’s performance. Did I mention that we first ate yummy dinners courtesy of Tio’s? I still have half a wet burrito in my fridge. Dinner fantasies! Focus Lori. So, during rehearsal there was this older man playing the drums and cymbals. The guy was a riot. First, he didn’t have any shoes on and I pretty sure his socks were purple. Secondly, the guy was dancing. Moving and shaking the way I only do after throwing back a few. Actually, he did way better than that. He definitely had Salsa Meringa rhythm. Mad props drum player!

And though we only heard one piece during the hour and a half rehearsal, the piece is like 22 minutes long. And watching our Japanese conductor man was fun. I am pretty sure his legs are sore after a rehearsal because he moves around a lot. Apparently being a conductor is kind of aerobic. Favorite parts: when mister conductor man shrieked from pretend pain, or maybe real pain, from the cello section, at least I think it was the cello section; when mister conductor man made a joke about pirates, which was funny because the thought it was hysterical; and when a light went out and he thought it was a bat, a flying black bat.

So in summary, the Philharmonic rocks! Roadies rock! And I can’t wait till Saturday to go see the performance. And I leave you with this mild yet jovial threat: be there or be square, because my ticket purchases are a drop in the ocean of a million dollar goal! And PS apparently you can wear jeans!