LA violin blogger gets called in by the LA Phil

Laurie Niles, an LA freelancer, writes violinist.com, essential reading for strings players.

One day she got a call from her local band:

… In late February, I received an e-mail from a personnel director whom I’d never heard of: “Are you available for these dates?” As the longtime editor of Violinist.com, a longtime free-lancer and a teacher, I get a LOT of e-mail, a lot of not-doable requests, a lot of spam. My first assumption was, “Hmmm, this is probably some non-union gig that I’m going to have to politely decline…”

“Yes, I am available on those dates,” I wrote, and quickly pressed “send,” feeling like I was doing something a little naughty. Because of course they were not actually trying to ask me to play. This was a mistake or joke or mix-up. For sure.

“Great Laurie! You’ll be in the first violins, eighth stand!”

WHAT? Okay, look, first of all, I play second violin. The last time I played first violin I literally had a panic attack on stage…

Will she? Won’t she?

Read on here.