Stand Partners For Life

Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a "higher power" rub some people the wrong way. As orchestral musicians, we only know one "higher power": the conductor, who rules every aspect of our musical lives! Here are some slightly rewritten twelve steps toward embracing musical anonymity in the orchestra of your choice. The Twelve Orchestral Steps Admit you are powerless over your musical decisions and life has become unmanageable.Surrender those decisions to a higher power to reclaim musical sanity.Turn your musical life over to that higher power (the conductor).Make a searching and fearless inventory of your audition self.Admit the nature of your wrongs to yourself and a practice buddy.Be ready to have the conductor remove your defects of character.Actually ask the conductor to humbly remove those defects.Make a list of colleagues you have musically harmed, and seek to make amends.Make direct amends to these colleagues, e