An Athletic Pursuit

behind the scenes at the dsso

Markand Thakar

People are streaming in: neighbors, schoolmates, family members from far and wide. The drink kiosks outside are humming, the ushers are dispensing programs left and right. The crowd is restless, stirring with anticipation. “Gonna be a good one tonight, Coach?” “You betcha.”

In the dressing rooms the players are pacing nervously. They’ve had their last practice, and things feel good. They finish dressing and begin to warm up. This is the moment… the moment they’ve been working for, the culmination of all those years of hard work. From the age of 5, or 6, or 7, when they first were exposed and knew that that’s exactly how they wanted to spend their time on earth.

Year after year of getting up at 5 a.m. in the cold, to get to school early for practice. Year after year of one-on-one lessons with coaches; year after year of strenuous efforts: two, three, four hours a day alone, perfecting moves. All for….

A game? Maybe. But maybe it’s a symphony concert, because music and sports have an awful lot in common. In addition to exceptional focus and dedication, and extraordinary sensory perception, both pursuits require unusual strength and agility. Athletes tend to depend on the big muscles—legs, arms and chest; while musicians tend to depend on the small muscles. Consider the violinist, who needs speed and strength from the muscles of the fingers, wrists and arms that scurry up and down the fingerboard with facility and accuracy, stropping the string within a tiny latitude. Looks easy? Try clamping a 14x2 block of wood between your neck and left shoulder, then touching your left elbow to the middle of your chest and tickling your left cheek with the BACKS of your fingers.

Viola players have it tougher, because their arms are extended further, and they have thicker strings to slap down. Cellists and bassists even moreso—notice you tend not to see too many dainty young string bass players! Imagine the physical challenge of playing the harp (and for some reason the overwhelming majority of harpists are female). To pluck those thick strings requires astonishing finger strength and agility, along with rapid-fire footwork to depress the pedals. And that’s after lifting a multi-thousand dollar, hundred-pound, 4x6 wooden structure out of the house into the car, out of the car, and into the concert hall.

Flute playing takes a mind-boggling amount of lung power, by far the most of any instrument (and again, the majority of flute players are female!); the lip-strength of any woodwind or brass player is fearsome, and I dare you to thumb wrestle a percussionist who can play the Bolero snare drum part (dom, dagada dom, dagada dom dom) for 13 straight minutes without stopping! Like athletes, we musicians have to perform with the pressure of an audience following our every move, and like athletes, we feed off your energy.

For the spectator, sports gives you a couple hours of intense involvement in the world outside you, plus the utterly invaluable opportunity to feel superior when your team wins…of course you’re much better than those loser Packer fans (substitute Viking….Bear…Redwing…Blackhawk…etc.). Music gives the listener a couple hours of intense involvement with your own soul. Tough to beat.

Musicians, too, feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. And although I may have lost a concert or two in my life, and encountered an East German judge or two, I have yet to get booed, or high-sticked (is it high-stuck?), or sacked. Let the concerts begin!

Markand Thakar is Charles A. & Carolyn M. Russell Music Director, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra; music director, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra; principal conductor, Duluth Festival Opera and co-director of the graduate conducting program, Peabody Conservatory.