Ron, do you have any pants…?

I had an absolutely wonderful time with the Syracuse Symphony last week doing Brahms 3 and the Dvorak Cello Concerto with Mark Kosower, an incredible artist. We have all experienced that moment after arriving somewhere when we realize we’ve forgotten something.  What was unusual when we were in Jamestown NY last week was the call I received an hour before the concert from a musician in the orchestra. It’s impossible to make this stuff up, especially since we were in the birthplace of Lucille Ball!…….

One of my favorite people is Vladimir Pritzker, a longtime Violinist with the Syracuse Symphony originally from the Ukraine.  He’s a superb musician and a constant source of jokes laughter and fun, it’s always great to see him.  So 1 hour before our Jamestown concert last week he calls my room….. (I wish I could write in his accent)

V: Ron this is Vladimir, I have a question…do you have pants, I have no pants!
R: You mean you are not wearing any pants, I hope nobody saw you on your way here
V: (Laughter)….No I have no black pants, do you have spare pair I called you first…
R: I have dark green pants, how about those?
V: Who can I call, I am sitting first stand tonight…this is not the first time this has happened to me
R: Well at least you are on the inside…. let me give you Jon Mosbo’s number (Orchestra Manager), he might have black or dark pants, or could try to find some…
V: Ron thank you, I’ll call him right now, I hope to see you tonight
R: Yes but hopefully fully clothed!

So after wiping away the tears, not even a minute later Jon Mosbo calls me:

J: Ron I am wondering, do you have any spare pants……

I guess by being on the hot seat all the time people assume conductors need more than one pair of pants per concert, or are they confusing a certain look that we might sometimes give with something else that might be happening?…I hope not! We change shirts sometimes yes but pants!?  This is only the beginning of what unfolded..or “unpleated”

I get to the hall 40 minutes later and the first person I see is Vladimir wearing black pants and I’m thinking either he found them in his suitcase, or by a stroke of luck somebody had a spare pair:

V: Ron, you are not going to believe this but Andy (the Concertmaster) is sick, he calls me to tell me I am playing concertmaster so I told him thank god and so I am wearing his pants…(literally and figuratively!)  I need to go over the Dvorak solo with you and oh yes this same thing happened when we were in Portsmouth, he got sick I had no pants, and so I took his pants and there we played Dvorak 8!

The SSO didn’t miss a step and performed brilliantly, Vladimir was superb, although it was hard to look at him for fear of cracking up. The next night he had purchased a new pair and Andy was back, but then Heidi Hoffman a Cellist comes up to me after the performance:

H: By the way, I didn’t have a shawl so I used black pants instead…
R: Thanks for not calling me!

I go back to Syracuse tomorrow and I am taking at least two of everything!