“First First Clarinet”

D’s been a bit disaffected from the clarinet lately. He’s much more interested in getting up to speed on the saxophone, and he likes jazz a lot better than classical. Also, he didn’t make Youth Symphony in the auditions last spring and gets another year in Junior Orchestra instead. And then there’s the clarinet lessons – his teacher has been having him focus on the very stressful and tiresome perfecting of the All State audition pieces, which are stretching his abilities, especially given that his schedule is now too busy to allow for much practicing.

However! Tonight was the first rehearsal for this year’s Junior Orchestra season, and D. arrived to find that last spring’s audition judges had named him “first First Clarinet,” which means that he gets to tune up the non-strings part of the orchestra. And it means that they jumped him ahead of the two students who were ranked higher than him last year. It means he gets all the best parts, and if there are any clarinet solos, it will be him. So once he gets past the awkwardness and the sense of pressure that comes from his new status, I think he’ll feel better about the clarinet.