SUSAN BIDDLE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST - At the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first ever ‘Rusty Musicians’ event, regular folks could play with the BSO. Emile Gogineni practices his violin as Frances Eargle, who plays cello at center, chats with Kimberly Johnson, who plays bass, at right.
“I’m not pursuing money at this point,” says Mary Padilla. “I’m pursuing the best musical experience I can find.”
Padilla, 47, is a software developer who lives in Woodbridge. She’s also an oboe player. Although she is not a professional musician, she plays with four orchestras. Her life doesn’t look altogether different from that of some freelancing professionals: working out the logistics of a complicated rehearsal and performance schedule, picking up other gigs when she can.
On Tuesday night, Padilla will take part in a “Rusty Musicians” concert with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Hall. For the fourth time, the orchestra is inviting amateur musicians onstage to perform with it under the baton of Marin Alsop.
When the orchestra announced its first “Rusty Musicians” event in February 2010 at the Music Center at Strathmore, more than 600 people signed up. The BSO responded to this obvious interest by continuing the program (more than 200 people signed up for Tuesday’s “Rusties,” which accommodated the first 175) and adding a summer institute called The Academy, where for a fee amateurs participate in an intense week of lessons and concerts with BSO musicians. Padilla has taken part in each Rusty Musicians event and both Academies.
“A couple of times a year,” she says, “I am playing with the highest-quality orchestra I will ever play with in my life.”
Washington is good at celebrating the amateur musician. That would be “amateur” in the sense of loving music, not necessarily “amateur” in the quasi-pejorative sense of not being fully serious about it.
On Saturday night, the Friday Morning Music Club will celebrate its 125th anniversary with a gala concert. Founded in 1886 by 15 women who loved music, the club has expanded to include an orchestra, international competitions, outreach programs, and several concert series, including free lunchtime concerts on Fridays at noon in — as of this fall — Calvary Baptist Church.
Every year, the club’s 600-odd performing members submit pieces they’d like to perform, and from these submissions a committee assembles 60-odd recital programs that represent a wide range of both music and abilities. The season opener on Oct. 7 at noon features a piano duo, a guitarist, a violinist and a soprano. The musicians volunteer their services.
The club describes itself simply as “a community of music lovers and musicians.” “We’re open to anyone who wants to audition,” says Barbara Cackler, program director. Some of the performing members are doctors and lawyers. Some play for the National Symphony Orchestra. “It’s really a mixed bag,” Cackler says.
Natalie Barrens Rogers, a soprano and a club member, will sing at Saturday’s gala and on Oct. 7. “I’m a freelance musician, a professional,” she says.
Why do professionals join the club? For Barrens Rogers, 35, who joined in 2008, membership has meant both regular performing opportunities — solo performances in Washington are nothing to sneeze at — and a way to meet other musicians, amateur and professional alike. “I find a lot of the amateurs are folks who have music degrees or have had some semblance or whiff of a career,” she says. “They’ve moved on, but want to get back into performing. That line between amateur versus professional is very gray.”
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