A Maestro Shares His Perspective

Domenico Bartolucci has seen six popes' worth of sacred music. His insights on the matter are worth a read.

Has it really been a month?

Yes, unless my calendar deceives me, I haven't written in here for a month.

The organ gig that I was so enthused and stressed about turned out rather underwhelming in the end. I am such a poor keyboardist that most of my work was done with just the right hand. Yes, I'll admit it: I cheated. I really shouldn't have been allowed to pass the audition I did (which was also one-handed). I was, and continue to be, rather mortified at what I did. I spent most of Mass trying to retain my composure enough to prepare for the next thing I had to play.

Until I get some serious practice under my belt, I'm staying away from church music gigs that involve organ. Give me a baton, and I'll lead a choir; give me a score, and I'll sing from it. But don't make me play organ.

That was my last recent adventure in sacred music. Most of my work now has returned to the *gasp* secular world. I have a studio of 8 students now, and couldn't be more pleased. I love pedagogy (yes, I'm weird like that), and it brings me such joy every week to go in there and watch them realize things and cement things, get excited and just plain enjoy what they're doing.

I have one who's preparing for symphony auditions currently, and she is super-psyched about that. I think she'll do well.

I also prepared myself for auditions recently. Took an audition for an opera orchestra in Harrisburg and got in (unsure what seat I am, though). It's an unpaid position, but it will look amazing on my resume. We're doing Falstaff this fall, which allegedly has one of the hardest orchestral scores of any opera. Oh, I am so ready!

On the other side of the spectrum, I'm eagerly anticipatipating my first gig with Ash and Rowan this coming Friday. I played casually in college with a few Irish groups (one amusing pre-med piper in particular), and I really miss it. I have heard this group before and was left stunned by their brilliance. I am eager for a chance to revel in that as their flutist. Keeping fingers crossed that everything goes well. I'm nervous, because in my excitement I've told several people about it, and they've said they want to come. Oops? Someday I'll learn to keep my enthusiasm to myself. Really don't want people getting the idea that I actually want to see them, ha!

On a more serious note, several of my friends have asked me, "But what happened to sacred music?" It needs to take a back seat for a while. The more I've had time to think about things this summer, the more obvious it's become that my skills do not currently lie in that field. I need to accept that and do things to work on them, but right now my focus is on developing the gifts that I have, where they are, without running from them in search of other, "better" things. I thought for a long time that being a Catholic musician meant that I had to be a sacred musician, but I've begun to learn otherwise. I still love sacred music and hope that I will have the opportunity to participate in it again (as a singer, though) and possibly even study some more in it. (My dream grad program would be flute with a sacred music minor.) But God made me a flute player for some reason, and for right now, I'm learning to daily say "thank you" for that and not "but why aren't I an organist" instead.