To see a girl in an orchestra now is perfectly normal. In fact, it would look very odd if there were none! When I started, from my time at the Academy, it was a very different matter.

Over the coming months I am going to tell you about what it was like back then, how things changed, right up to how it is today and how this will affect both sexes.

Anne

Anne Collis ARAM

Hello Visitor

Welcome to April's Newsletter.

This month I would like to highlight Chapter 14 in my book 'The Percussionists's Essential Survival Guide' (available chapter by chapter through our online shop). This chapter is called 'The Los Angeles Percussion Fairlist - or, How Much Equipment Do I Need?

The life of a percussionist can be an extremely varied one in today's musical scene. Gone are the days when an average percussion section consisted of snare drum, bass drum, cymbals and triangle. With a greater number of composers, including David Fanshawe and Karl Jenkins, works are now being written which include the whole range of available ethnic percussion.

Not only is the orchestral palette being enriched by these sounds, but compositionally, the rhythmical influences which they bring with them further enrich and excite the musical content. This enables a whole new vista of expressive possibilities, both for music in the wider performing context and percussion in the more particular sense, to become possible. It also means that new techniques and areas of focus become a necessary part of our everyday lives.

The Los Angeles Percussion Fairlist is the only attempt, as far as I am aware, to clarify what constitutes a list of percussion instruments which one could justifiably be asked to provide and play.

More on this in Chapter 43 'The Life of a Professional Percussionist'
(available next month). 

Cheers

Nigel

Nigel Shipway

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