I was offered a place in a second orchestra last night. Nothing says “You’re more talented than you think you are” like someone else asking you to come in to support a weak cello section, let me tell you. Autumn to the rescue!

Interestingly enough, Cantabile was founded by my current LCO conductor, Douglas Knight, though it’s been led by Peter Willsher for a few years now. Go figure.

Cantabile is a choral group with a full orchestra. On November 15 in a Lachine they’re performing Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Since this is rescue operation, I don’t know whether I’ll stay on full-time, especially as rehearsals overlap a bit with the class I teach on Sundays. However, for the three weeks until the concert, I can be flexible.

The odd part is that the choir is peppered with people I used to sing with about ten years ago. It’s going to be a bit awkward, I think. I’m a very different person, I use a different name, and, well, I’m not as mousy and tremblingly polite as I used to be. I probably still be polite, of course. It won’t be the same, though. Am I making sense? I’m a whole decade older; I like to think I’ll be comfortable enough to walk away and enjoy being by myself as opposed to empowering others by being a patronised audience.

In all likelihood l’m being very uncharitable, and they’ll all probably be delighted to see me. Besides, I’m focusing more on the fact that this is going to be an excellent test of my sight-reading; there are only three regular rehearsals before the concert, after all.