Be careful what you wish for ... or maybe not

In my first post here about horn playing, I wrote about meeting a fellow horn player while we were both traveling to the U.S. from China. While talking in the Hong Kong airport, he inspired me to find a group to play with by telling me his experience of joining one community orchestra only to have things snowball with more and more groups asking him to play until he had to turn some of them down. I wanted that to happen to me, too. And so, I joined a community band.

After three years when no one was knocking on my door yet, I contacted five community orchestras and got four auditions. As it turned out, I did not get in any of those orchestras, but that was the turning point. A horn player in one of those orchestras referred me to a chamber orchestra that needed a horn player for a concert. That led to more concerts with that group. The conductor of the band I play in recommended me to the community orchestra that he plays in and I joined that orchestra as 4th horn. The horn players in that orchestra invited me to join a horn choir. One of them recommended me to another orchestra that needed a substitute for a concert.

In the past few weeks I have been asked to played in five orchestra concerts with three different groups, plus an opera and a chamber concert. These are in addition to concerts I had previously committed to with the band, the orchestra, and the horn choir. I don't have enough time! I have had to turn most of these opportunities down. Maybe it won't last, but for now, its seems I have people knocking on my door. As a friend said, it's bittersweet; it's sad to turn opportunities down, but it feels good to be in demand.