Getting over jet lag...the hard way

MannyLaureano · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:52 am Post subject:

Dear friends,

As promised...

After the Carnegie concert to kick off the tour we left the following afternoon for Vienna. With the time change we wound up getting there mid-morning and to our hotel shortly before noon. Bob Dorer, our 2nd player had arranged for us to go to the Schagerl factory and pick up the rotaries we needed to complete the set (this trip, by the way, is a whole' nother story I'll tell you sometime).

We got back quite late and I had 10 minutes to change and get ready to meet some folks who wanted to hear Vienna in concert playing a very Viennese program of Webern, Strauss, and Bruckner. I was already very tired but determined to stay up so I'd avoid the usual getting up in the wee hours of the morning wide awake as so often happens crossing the pond. It was a challenge to stay awake and during the 2nd movement of the Bruckner, I believe I temporarily nodded off and when I abruptly opened my eyes, there was this woman staring daggers at me for I must have been snoring! OOPS. Forgive me , Anton...nothing personal. At any rate , the embarrassment alone helped me stay awake for the rest.

I went back to the hotel, had a meal and went to bed about midnight. I figured this would do the trick and I'd wake perhaps 6 or 7 or maybe even 8. Then I could eat, practice and make my way to the hall for rehearsal that afternoon.

No such luck.

I woke at 1:15. Now, normally I would be able to deal with that if :

A) it had been AM instead of PM and
B) I didn't have a rehearsal exactly 15 minutes from the moment I opened my eyes!

Yes, my friends...I slept 13 hours straight because I had closed the blinds in my room and wasn't awakened by the sunlight.

I became a little brown tornado and grabbed anything to wear I found, grabbed my horn and got into a cab. Of course, before all that I had to get Euros from the front desk to pay for the cab and dissuade a very kind Egyptian doorman from engaging me in conversation as he thought I was Arab and wanted to know where I was from , etc. Then, as luck would have it, the cab driver was a former employee of the hotel and he stopped to have a pleasant conversation with the other doormen.

"Please, someone just kill me now..."

Believe it or don't, I got to rehearsal with 5 minutes to spare but my lips felt like they were coated with fur. I was grateful we started with Bartok and not Prokofiev.

All went well, miraculously and so did the concert. But of course the best part of this was that I was the first orchestra member to be completely over jet lag!

Warmly,

Manny Laureano

HorneyMikey · Veteran Member Joined: 18 Jun 2003 Posts: 325

"Little Brown Tornado"???

(With a Black Belt, yet......)

M.

Derek Reaban · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 7:42 am Post subject:

Manny,

You are not alone! This is a message from Deborah Card (the new CEO with the CSO) about their tour to Japan last year. You and John have a very similar story. I especially like your comment about your chops being “coated with fur”! At least you were just going to a rehearsal.

Hi everyone:
Sorry to be late with sending you an update from Tokyo. I was all set the other day and the email was down. We've had an exciting first week of the tour. Wonderful introduction to the city and great concerts to launch the tour.

We had a welcome reception on the first evening at the US Amabassador's residence. Howard and Nancy Baker are very warm and friendly and enthusiastic about the orchestra. Our brass quintet played for about 45 minutes followed by a buffet dinner. The players did a great job and were very funny, cordial, respectful, and offered a really fine performance. The residence was magnificent -- to make any American proud! The Ambassador had a really good feel for who we are, our role in the world of music, and was appropriately complimentary to our patrons for helping to make the tour possible.

The next night we had the first of two parties at the "offices" of our presentor, Mr. Sasaki. This place is absolutely indescribable. You have to check out the pictures on the website from Greg. Words can not do it justice. My only comment is that my senses are still recovering.......

Our first concert in Tokyo at the famous Bunka Kaikan is one we will all remember and share in tour lore. The concert (Mahler 9) itself was a great one and memorable for the music itself but the start of the concert was the story. Our reliable, conscientious and talented trumpeter John Hagstrom was discovered to be missing at 6:55 pm (7:00 pm concert). A search all over the building did not find him and Heidi's quick call back to the hotel found him in his room asleep. Poor guy, with jetlag, had slept through all manner of calls, alarms, etc. He jumped in a cab and had several more harrowing experiences getting to the hall (imagine rush hour traffic in Tokyo and a cross city cab ride with a driver who didn't know where the hall is, now Yen in John's wallet, etc). We started the concert 30 min late and John walked on about 15 minutes in to the first movement. Mark Ridenour and Tage Larson covered for him and he managed to be there for the most important 3 trumpet sections at the end of the movement. Not an evening John or any of us are likely to forget! Mr. Sasaki was pleased with the concert and we were happy to have a grateful and enthusiastic audience response.

Last night's concert was uneventful in comparison but another example of our great orchestra in action. Tannhauser followed by Schoenberg Variations and Tchaik 5. The audience went wild and DB and the band offered two encores. Smiles and excitement all around.

Today we have an afternoon concert and then prepare to take the train tomorrow to Osaka. It will be nice to have a bit of change of scenery and hopefully less traffic. It feels like we spend a good amount of time in buses, cabs and subways as every place we go is "on the other side of town".

Thanks for holding down the fort in Chicago and presenting concerts for the hometown. We are missing you! Deb
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

trumpetmike · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:40 am Post subject:

Last time I came back from the States (not something I do too often) I was playing at an early service at the local Cathedral, a day after I got back. Rather than take the risk of sleeping through the gig I just stayed on US time for an extra couple of days. It confused the heck out of anybody who met me during those days (I was up hours before them yet going to bed early – very unlike me), but it worked.

When it came to the gig, everybody else was struggling with the early start time (especially for the rehearsal, starting at 7.30am – the trumpet should NEVER be played at this time), to me it was the middle of the day – no problem!!

This year’s ITG could prove a problem. Having been looking at plane times I am likely to get back at about 5am (UK time) then be teaching at 9.00!! I have a feeling I will be cancelling that particular lesson.

Ralph · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:21 pm Post subject:

ROTFLMAO...........................

MrClean · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:51 pm Post subject:

My first year in NY, we took a tour to Asia. The first venue was Korea. I think we started with a Beethoven overture, which I played second to Sullivan on. Next was an English horn concerto which I didn't play. Near the end of that piece (close to intermission) I noticed that I hadn't seen Phil yet. I went up to the personnel manager and told him not to panic, but I hadn't seen Phil yet. Well, they called back to the hotel. Phil answers the phone:

"Hey Phil, did I wake you?"
Phil, in his best faker voice, "er, uh, no, I'm awake" He wasn't.
"Well, we're at intermission now and were wondering if you were going to check in tonight."
"Crumbs. I'll be right there."

It was rush hour in Seoul, and it had taken the orchestra busses about 25 minutes to get from the hotel to the venue. We got his tails out and ready for him - somehow he made it down in about 15 minutes, threw his clothes on, played a few notes and played the p*ss out of Bruckner 4!

Afterwards, he took the trumpet section out to dinner to apolologize, wherein I took great pleasure in making him buy me a beer.

J

[ This Message was edited by: MrClean on 2004-03-08 19:53 ]

Strawdoggy · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 9:47 am Post subject:

Great stories !!!

blasticore · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:01 am Post subject:

It's quite comforting to know that I'm not the only person who's fallen asleep on stage, haha. Very amusing stories though.

_________________
Chris King
http://www.cktrumpet.com
http://www.ckbrassworks.com

trumpetmike · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 2:29 pm Post subject:

Ah, the joy of falling asleep on stage.
Reminds me of my days with the County Youth Orchestra, a few years ago.
We were in Hungary and beer was 25p per litre!
On the final night in the hotel we decided to try and drink the bar dry (having already consumed everything we had purchased for our rooms). We got very close!
The next day we were playing a concert in a huge cathedral (7 second echo!). It was a programme we had been playing for the previous week, so we knew it quite well.
In the middle of quite a heavy orchestral concert the powers that be had decided to put a strings only piece. Well, all the brass, woodwind and percussion took advantage of this piece and fell asleep on stage!

As the strings piece finished a few people woke with the applause.
A lot didn't!

I woke up with that feeling of "I know this bit."
followed closely by
"oh ****, I'm supposed to be playing now!"
followed by much amusement as I watched the rest of the section doing the same!!

By the end of the piece, most people had remembered what they were supposed to be doing - only a few were still oblivious to their surroundings. Oops!

riffdawg2000 · Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 3:10 am Post subject:

Okay ... I am gonna sound chezzy here ... but ...

This is cool ... pros posting just a little bit of their lives for us to read about...letting our imaginations go. (wishing it was us!)

Just plain cool ... thanks Manny & Derek.
_________________
Joel Thomas

TrumpetPly1 · Regular Member Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 60

Hey Manny,

I had a similar experience when I was over in Europe my a couple of years back when our College Wind Ensemble decided to tour England, Ireland, and Scotland. We were in Ireland and we had an early flight out the next morning at and we were suppose to be on the bus at 6 am. My roommate and I didn't get up until 15 til 6 and we hadn't packed or anything. When we got downstairs, our director just gave us the look. On top of that, we the plane ride from Ireland back to London was one of the worst and scariest flights I had ever been on. We didn't see the ground until we touched down there was so much fog.

Michael