Musical Chairs

Last night's rehearsal went well enough although the "musical chairs" in the viola section is causing a bit of disruption. The principal violist has to miss one of the concerts, then the co-principal will miss the next one. So they've asked me and my stand partner to fill in, one at a time, for each of the concerts where one of them will be absent. I originally thought this was fine, probably because I've been thinking about trying for first chair. But now that people have to move around, problems have come up. My stand partner sat 2nd chair last night and it didn't appear to be a good experience for her. She doesn't have that much experience playing at this level, and from what she says, she relies on me to know where we are in the music, and for entrances. But sitting 2nd chair, she was much more exposed.

In the mean time, someone else sat next to me and he has a very different sense of the music than I do, specifically about timing. And he is much more confident and loud than my usual stand partner, so as a result now I hear someone playing next to me who is more on top of or ahead of the beat than I am. After reahearsal, the discussion came up that "what we should have done is simply have the whole 2nd stand sit first stand for these two concerts" and I realized that it made a lot of sense. I think I was so concerned about getting my parts under control that I didn't think about the bigger picture.

Since the concert is tonight, I plan to make a suggestion: have me sit 2nd chair so my usual stand partner can stay where she is, and have the guy that sat with me in rehearsal last night sit where I usually sit. I think that it would be the best way to go, but I don't know if everyone else will agree with me about that. There's only one way to find out!