Occasionally the musicians in the pit of the Detroit Opera
House are called upon to play for touring companies of Broadway shows and, less
frequently, one of the woodwind books includes strictly flute doubles, meaning
that whoever plays that book only has to play flute, piccolo, sometimes alto
flute and, at times, recorder. Usually
the woodwind books include instruments that most legit flute players don’t
play, like saxophone and clarinet. I have fond memories of playing shows such
as Man of La Mancha, Carousel, Mary
Poppins, Peter Pan, Music Man and Phantom of the Opera, to name a few.
In the days before electronic keyboards there used to be
full orchestras in the pit but now the shows usually travel with a conductor,
two keyboard players who round out the orchestra with sampled sounds of
strings, harp, oboe, bassoon and whatever else they need, one doubling as
assistant conductor (so the conductor can have one show off out of 8 shows per
week), and, depending on the show, possibly a trumpet player, guitarist or
percussionist. In Lion King, for
example (my favorite show) the flutist travels with the show, carrying along
numerous members of the flute family, including all sizes of ethnic flutes to
make the show sound more authentically African. The audition process for this
show is grueling – the flutist practically has to be a professional pan pipe
player as well as other end-blown and transverse bamboo flutes– and a very few
have devoted their professional careers to travelling with the various touring
productions of Lion King.
I have enjoyed meeting the travelling musicians in these
shows and I admire their patience in teaching us the books they know so well,
every week or two a new batch of musicians in a new town. Again, Lion King stands out for the generosity
and humanity of the flutist who has been to Detroit at least twice. Kay
Ragsdale not only plays and takes care of the many flutes she plays in the show
(I think it’s 15!), she also has her own personal collection of ethnic flutes
which she keeps in a large trunk that travels with the show’s equipment. She
offered to give a demonstration to any interested flutists and students while
the show was in town so I put together an assembly of locals and she literally
gave us a tour of the flute ‘world’ with demonstrations, stories and myths
accompanying all the various flutes in her collection. It was fascinating! If
you want to know more, just google Kay Ragsdale, Lion King flutes.
Not only did Kay take much of her free time to give us the
demonstration but she offered to let one student at a time sit in the pit with
her during a show and watch over her shoulder as she played. Two of my students
took advantage of her generous offer and so did I! This behind-the-scenes peek
into the life of a pit musician was inspiring for them. She also gave each of
them a gift – a hollow clay bird that you play like a whistle and, when you put
a little water in its belly, it chirps and warbles like a real bird.
Kindness and generosity abound in these touring companies.
When Mary Poppins was in town,
Nicolas Dromard, the actor who played Bert the chimney sweep (who, by the way,
walks upside down across the proscenium during the big “Step in Time” dance
number), came into the pit before one of the shows and introduced himself to
me. As it happens, he played the flute and liked to meet the flute players in
all the towns where they played with hopes that they might want to play duets
sometime. That opportunity came and we
got together a few times to play duets and talk flutes. He had a lovely flute
and we had fun playing duets. I brought a few of the books in my collection of
flute duets from Mozart operas and mentioned in passing that I had lost my
favorite one, duets from the Magic Flute.
To my surprise, not long after that I received a new copy of the Magic Flute
duets with a sweet note from him. Not only kind and generous, but thoughtful
too.
As I write this, I am in the middle of playing two weeks
with the National Tour of “Cinderella”. We have one day off, then eight more magical
shows. I’ll write about that in my next post.
How fun, what a great opportunity!
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to an interview with Kay Ragsdale, flutist with The Lion King, in which she demonstrates the 15 flutes she plays in the show.
ReplyDeletehttp://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkmUYK6e847o&h=QAQHX6E4a