In
the great-expectations, high-anxiety bubble that is life at a classical music
conservatory, the last thing a graduating student wants to discuss with her
teacher is the possibility that she may not be entirely fit for the regimented,
full-time life of a symphony orchestra.
" 'So what do you want to do?' my
teacher asked me upon graduation," says Sara Schoenbeck, 33, an L.A. bassoonist
now known for her solo contributions to contemporary and crossover concert
music, the international jazz improvisation scene and Hollywood studios, where
she's played on big-budget scores for the "Matrix" trilogy and
"Spanglish."
To
her teacher's chagrin, her reply was, "There have to be other
options."
At just 23, Schoenbeck was rebellious in her confidence but
correct in her assessment of how useful to the music and entertainment worlds a
classically trained musician — even a bassoonist — can be. A regular participant
in the Bay Area's youth orchestra scene, she had studied at the storied San
Francisco Conservatory. Never, though, had she wanted to pursue a job in a major
orchestra. It just didn't feel right. Instead she graduated and took a different
route: moving into Los Angeles' diverse musical community and earning a master's
at the California Institute of the Arts, a freer, more interdisciplinary place
that encouraged her to study dance, jazz, and new and world music.
"It
may sound shocking, but I got studio work from playing contemporary music,"
Schoenbeck says. "A prominent film composer heard me improvise, which just
confirms my belief that if you do what you want artistically, people will notice
you. You've got a distinct voice. You take chances."
Schoenbeck is just
one member of a small but growing and spirited subculture of young, classically
trained female L.A. musicians who have skirted the symphony audition path to
play "alternative" musical genres and enjoy eclectic entertainment-industry work
now that the Hollywood studios are no longer boys' clubs.
Along with more
highfalutin work, the jobs these women get include acting in movies as
nonspeaking but pleasant-looking musicians with classical skills, improvising in
hip-hop orchestras and playing solos for liquor commercials a few hours before
recording Stravinskian jazz riffs for an art project. They may not pull down
either the standard symphony income or the generous residuals earned by studio
regulars who troll only for "Star Wars"-style scoring sessions. But the
impressive range of styles they play provides them with a level of excitement
and performance satisfaction that more traditional musicians cannot claim — and
they wouldn't have it any other way.
"Of course I had to do some silly
things to help make a living at the beginning," says Schoenbeck, referring to a
2000 gig that required her, a bassoonist, to "dress sexy" and mime
violin-playing in an all-female string ensemble employed to "back up" one of pop
music's ubiquitous boy bands. "But we're in Hollywood, and L.A. is good for
musicians like me. In fact, it has made me a better overall musician. I like the
challenge of having to transpose and harmonize on the spot, to improvise a fast
microtonal scale or play jazz with performers like Anthony Braxton, who I'll
collaborate with this summer at Belgium's Middelheim jazz festival. I learned I
could do all of that here in L.A., and I know I wouldn't get those chances with
a full-time spot in the Phil."
In fact, some of her male colleagues may
even be a little jealous. Local violinist Julian Hallmark was a student of
Yehudi Menuhin, among others, and has a busy freelance career. But, he says, "If
I, as a guy, could get more gigs like that, I'd want them. They pay well and are
fun."
'A more flexible lifestyle'
Another talented
freelancer with pop backup experience like Schoenbeck's, violinist Melissa
Reiner, 31, has found still other ways to use the classical training she
received from years of study with "serious" musicians at the San Francisco
Conservatory, Aspen Music Festival and Peabody Conservatory. An improvising
member of the popular country-rock band Kane and a Hollywood session musician
with credits including "The Tonight Show" and the Grammy Awards, Reiner has
played in videos for David Lee Roth and P. Diddy while maintaining a schedule of
rigorous chamber music and collaborative small-orchestra
performances.
"Classical music will always be my first love, and I still
play it, but I was driven from the full-time pursuit of major orchestra jobs by
the inherent elitism and narrow-mindedness," she says. "I realized as a teenager
that I was deeply moved by other forms of music and wanted a more flexible
lifestyle. One of the most rewarding parts of any live performance is the
immediate positive feedback from the audience — and from one's colleagues
sharing the stage. Unfortunately, the nature of classical music — which requires
silence and complete attention from everyone — produces a disconnect between
performer and audience. When I perform with a rock band, listeners are
encouraged to share their appreciation and enthusiasm during the performance.
It's much more visceral: not necessarily better, but certainly more primal and
immediate."
Reiner, who is recording a solo classical album, credits her
traditional training with challenging her to play at the highest level in any,
but especially a popular, musical environment. Like Schoenbeck, she seems to
epitomize an L.A.-specific open-mindedness that's foreign to many classical
musicians with a "conservatory" outlook.
"Some of the most inspiring and
gifted musicians I work with in L.A. are nonclassical performers," she says.
"They improvise, arrange, think outside the box. And because I both play with
and learn from them, I have been able to reach large swaths of listeners when
only the most famous of classical violinists, like Itzhak Perlman, can say that.
Plus, I actually enjoy the contrast between high culture and pop culture,
performing on MTV with Brian McKnight, filming a scene for 'Judging Amy' and
recording Prokofiev's Violin Concerto — all in one fiscal
year."
Obtaining such an array of assignments requires not only Hollywood
business skills but an ability to fulfill the needs of the music and
entertainment industries — among them, "miming" female groups, which must
exhibit a "look," and true performance groups, with the know-how to expertly lay
down the tracks that stream behind the mimers. That kind of ability is also not
a standard part of a classical music education. But violinist Daphne Chen, 29, a
string contractor and leader for jobs with such pop artists as Destiny's Child
and Mariah Carey, says she's thankful for having taken those offers. Otherwise,
she says, she wouldn't have gained the knowledge that she uses to successfully
pursue a self-run career with many entrepreneurial aspects.
A USC alum
and former CalArts graduate student, Chen grew up winning classical concerto
competitions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As a young freelancer in Hollywood,
however, she began to play with the Latin rock band Quetzal and was soon
performing new music for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella series.
Currently, she spends a large portion of her time taking studio assignments as a
member of The Section Quartet, a group of local, classically trained musicians
that also plays live shows of rock hits arranged for an amplified string
foursome with a punk-rock spirit.
"Playing as a lead instrument with
Quetzal, which is bilingual, multicultural and rock-oriented, taught me there
isn't just one kind of music that either me or my instrument is suited for," she
says. "It taught me to improvise onstage and arrange scores, the challenges of
which I love. Unlike classical playing, these styles of performance dictate that
if you make a mistake onstage, you need to, as rock stars say, 'repeat it like
you mean it.' Like you 'rule.' "
Though she still considers herself a
classical musician and hasn't abandoned the field, Chen believes that many music
schools instill a belief in young artists that they have a unique brand of
"potential" which can be fulfilled only in a few formulaic ways — mostly,
playing in an orchestra or in front of one.
But "my goal is to be happy,"
she says. "Which isn't necessarily that stuff only. I realize the silliness of
the glitz and glam of some nonclassical gigs offered to women, but I'm also
honest enough to admit that I get a kick out of some of it. I just need other
things in my life along with classical. And I can find all kinds of quality
nonclassical work that actually allows me to express my brand of creativity
better. I want to get to a point where people want me, not just a
violinist."
Chen has used her varied assignments to learn guitar pedal
effects, electronic music skills and how to secure a place for the violin in
nontraditional arenas by communicating the nature of the instrument to popular
musicians — to whom violins may be foreign entities.
The bottom line to
all this is partly the bottom line. As violinist Hallmark observes, while there
may remain a "classical norm," one restricted to orchestral and chamber work,
"only one-half of 1% of us is going to make money like that. The classical world
is having a problem bringing in audiences, and if you don't want to be a martyr
starving musician, you have to learn how to diversify. You have to be able to
both turn on the Tchaikovsky concerto and back up pop musicians you can't stand
— and do it well."
Says Chen: "Like a lot of us in this business, I have
one mission, and that's to prove that classical instruments aren't just
classical, that they can add the missing excitement and desired aggression
needed by popular styles of music. The music industry just has to allow a space
for them, or give us the chance to show it how to break one open."
Still,
during a week in which her schedule boasted a Bach choir concert, a TV recording
session, a Go: Organic improvisational orchestral show and the Playboy Jazz
Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Schoenbeck summed up what drives her community
of pioneering freelance colleagues the most:
"You have two bank accounts,
a monetary one and a creative one. If one falls out of whack, your balance is
off. Then you're not the truly independent performer you set out to be that day
you walked out of classical music school."
To contact the subjects:
Sara Schoenbeck ([email protected])
Melissa Reiner ([email protected])
Daphne Chen ([email protected])
