Some of you know that I am parttime professional woodwind player (hence the REEDMAN name)
- I just got done playing the first clarinet book at Hershey Theatre for the national tour of "South Pacific" TUE-SUN
- the woodwind section was in a separate room since there wasn't enough room for us in the pit
- the flautist sat on my left
- Thursday night she started warming up 1/2 hour before curtain
- some of her notes sounded wispy - I said "That's not good!)
- she started to check out the keys
- I said that her thumb key mechanism was touching the rod next to it
- she saw it too and when she tried to bend it back the entire key mechanism broke off where it was soldered to the body
- (CRAP . . .)
- she started to lose it (who wouldn't)
- I said I'll call my wife and have her bring my flute from home
- so I called my wife
- had to talk her through disassembling my flute, packing it up
- told her how to get to the theatre (pretty simple from my house, but she'd never been there)
- I knew she wouldn't make it by curtain but would be there shortly after
- I texted her the flautist's flute number and told her to doublepark at the theatre doors and meet her in the lobby
- I called her a little later to see where she was (about five minutes away)
- sent the flautist up to the lobby, show started
- flautist came in with my flute at the end of the overture (first number) and played the rest of the show
- my flute costs around $3K, but hers costs over $20K (Audi instead of Lamborghini . . . )
- it went well for her; she thanked me profusely and asked me to thank my wife
- she had to use my flute for the remainder (most) of the performances
- the next night she sounded just like normal and was completely comfortable playing a different flute
- she gave us a gift card and a nice thank you note
