Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, R is for the Regina Symphony (and donuts).

As I mentioned in B is for Bass (or should have mentioned), I played in the Regina Symphony Orchestra for many years. I first played in it 9 months after I started playing the bass, and continued for three years until I graduated with my Bachelor of Music degree and moved to Ottawa. When I returned from Ottawa, I took a hiatus from classical bass, playing instead in jazz bands around the city. At some point though I was talked into going back and played for several more years until I left Regina and moved to Victoria.

The Regina Symphony is the longest continuously running orchestra in Canada, well over 100 years old. When I played in the orchestra, there were, I think, 11 full-time musicians (known as “the core”) and any number of per-service players, so called because we were paid per service (rehearsal and concerts are services) instead of a salary. Any musician regularly playing with the orchestra has to audition, although sometimes players are brought in as needed, usually from other locations. Everyone is paid – that’s important. It is a professional orchestra even though most of the players are not full time. And many of those not-full-time orchestral players are full-time musicians, playing gigs around the city and province, teaching privately or at the university, etc.

So concerts typically had 4-5 rehearsals and a concert. We would begin rehearsing as a full orchestra the week before the concert. The understanding was that you would have practiced your parts for the pieces being performed ahead of time, and we usually had our music several weeks in advance. Rehearsals were in the evenings as we all had lives and jobs or were students during the day. Made for some long days and weeks man. Then on the day of the concert, typically a Saturday, we would have the dress rehearsal in the morning and then the concert that evening.

And that dress rehearsal is the memory I wanted to recount here.

Donuts. The bass section had a tradition of donuts during the dress rehearsal. One of us would be tasked with going to Robin’s Donuts and getting a dozen assorted deliciousness to bring to the dress rehearsal. There was always coffee served at break, so the donuts were the icing on the top. We were known for our donut breaks and sometimes very special people were allowed to join us by invitation.

But the best dress rehearsal was the last one of the season (a season running from September until May usually). At that dress rehearsal I decided to go all out. I would bring cheese and crackers and other yummy goodies and sometimes sparkling drinks, a table cloth, and a candelabra, plates and cutlery. And we would do it up big time. I loved those breaks and wonder if they continued after I left. I think some of the other sections (violas maybe) decided to imitate us – I like to think I created a tradition of some kind.

And that is the story of my time in the Regina Symphony and donuts.

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter R.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…