A Cellist’s Love of the Orchestra

My apologies for the missing blog posts of the past two weeks! Things have gotten so busy in preparation for our opening, which is just under two weeks away. We are now officially loaded into the Agassiz theater, and are putting the last touches to the set during spring break.

This week’s blog post is written by Allegra C. Caldera, ’17 (director of The Gondoliers and cast member of Patience and Pirates) about being in the orchestra. This semester, we have a lot of board members playing in the orchestra. Matthew J. O’Connor, ’17 will be returning as a bassoonist, and I myself have picked up the oboe. It’s been so exciting to explore different aspects of the show, and I think we’ve put together an amazingly talented group of people for the show.

We hope to see all of you at some point during the run of Iolanthe! If you are just as excited as we are, listen to “The Law is the True Embodiment,” a song from the show that features the cello brilliantly.

Love,

Kat C. Zhou, ’17

Written by Allegra Caldera

I didn’t bring my cello up to Harvard freshman year, thinking I would focus on theatre and my classes. But I missed having the ability to play. So this year I made the eight-hour drive up to school with my cello in the back seat. And instead of directing or performing in this spring’s production of Iolanthe, I’ve decided to take on a new role – orchestra member.

Under the gifted direction of Sam Wu (‘17), our orchestra has spent the last month preparing for this spring’s eight performance of Iolanthe. Though our first rehearsals were stalled by snow-day closures (thanks, blizzards Juno and Neptune!) we’ve managed to catch up without much trouble. Sitzprobe was great, because we got to learn how the cast’s voices complement and fill out the instrumental accompaniment on our first or second time playing through each song. (Although I learned that, sadly, as an orchestra member, you miss most of the sung jokes.)

Re-remembering what it’s like to cart around a cello hasn’t been without its misadventures. Last week, I got to our final Sunday rehearsal a few minutes late (I’d been printing show posters). I pulled out my cello quietly – only to realize that the changing weather had gotten to it. All my strings were wildly out of tune. After over 15 minutes of tuning, I’d almost gotten all four strings… when my A string suddenly snapped. Then I realized I didn’t have a spare. Oh well – I’m home for spring break now, and can hop over to Potter’s Violins for a new A. In fact, I’m going to grab an extra full set of strings, just in case!