A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have a week long gig with the American Ballet Theatre when they came through Chicago. The ballet was Giselle and it was beautiful. Or so I was told, you can’t see much from the pit. But you can read a review of the production by the Chicago Sun Times.

The really special part about all of this is that I got to spend the week playing next to a person who is one of my best friends and very close “oboe family,” Anne Bach (co-owner of MKL Reeds).

What’s so great about playing with good friends? Here are just a few things:

• No one is right (don’t you just hate when you sit next to someone who is always right?) and the finished product is always much greater than the sum of its parts.
• Fear takes a backseat to making music. As my teacher, Richard Killmer always used to say, “Fear is not an appropriate color.” It is so much easier to get caught up in the energy of the moment when you are surrounded by those you trust and admire.
• It just works. No trying, no tuning, just playing.

Stuff like this really makes you love what you do.