Newsstand - Orchestra Hits Wrong Note At Dulles

Orchestra Hits Wrong Note At Dulles

Touring Russian musicians sounded a discordant note at Washington's Dulles Airport where they were escorted off a plane following complaints about drinking.

A report in the Washington Post says that around 100 members of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra were ordered off a United Airlines plane which was waiting to leave for Los Angeles.

The plane, on a flight from Amsterdam to LA, was delayed at its gate for about 90 minutes while the musicians were requested to behave.

A United spokeswoman told the newspaper: "The group was misbehaving, inebriated, opening their own bottles of alcohol, rowdy and non-responsive to the crew."

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2002/02/1014157823.html

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http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/003835.html

Oh God this is so funny. As an orchestral musician, I can only imagine. It would be hilarious to see my orchestra on a plane drunk and rowdy.

Considering half the orchestra shows up to rehersal that way, it really wouldn't be a big deal. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Reminds me of the time we were doing Carmina Burana. After the Saturday evening concert here on the island, Seagram's hosted an open bar reception, so of course most of the orchestra went (the choir, being from the mainland, went home after the concert). No beer, just wine and spirits. Eventually the last of us got kicked out of the reception at closing time, clutching the miniatures of Crown Royal we were all given. The concert mistress and I wound up wandering through the Centre for the Arts, drunk, singing loudly, and trying to find the dressing rooms so we could pick up her stuff; we eventually arrived and her son was looking at us like we'd grown extra heads.

The next morning it sure felt like we had: aching heads. Unfortunately, we were all off to catch the ferry to the mainland since we were doing a concert there that afternoon (the bridge had not been built yet at that point in time). 45 minutes on a boat, hung over. Most of the orchestra was on the same ferry, the last one which would get us there in time. Most of the orchestra was stretched out on couches or on the deck, or outside getting some fresh air.

Sunday afternoon's concert was lots of fun. Lucky me, I was 5th chair percussion, so I got to play cymbals through the whole concert, which didn't help my headache any. And then a soprano passed out (and she wasn't even at the reception!) and fell onto the pianist, who fell onto her piano keyboard.

islandcub