Last night, I was playing in an 80 piece concert band. One of the pieces included a long and very exposed oboe solo. Our oboist isn’t the best, but she’s pretty good and usually does an acceptable job.
But last night – ooops! – she came in 2 measures early for her solo. The conductor tried to get her attention, which should have been easy, since they were only about 8 feet apart. But the soloist had her head down and was concentrating on the music. She didn’t see the conductor, also a woman, waving frantically. Finally, in desperation, the conductor stage-whispered to the musician sitting next to the oboist, “Hit her!” Repeated taps and then smacks to the leg didn’t get through. The oboist became increasingly upset and her tone and intonation went to crap.
I had rests during all this and was trying not to laugh out loud. Screw-ups like that aren’t common during a concert and are very rare with a top-notch band like ours.
After the concert, about 20 of us went to a bar. I sat right across from the conductor.
“So”, I asked innocently, “how did you like the oboe solo?”