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I had a wonderful experience this afternoon - an LA Philharmonic concert at the Walt Disney Hall - my first time there. What made it particularly enjoyable is that our seats were 10 feet from Norm Pearson. The LA Phil releases tickets for the choir section behind the orchestra about two weeks before the concerts for in-person sale at $15 per seat (as long as there is no choir performing). By the luck of the draw we were sitting in the front row of the choir seats directly behind and slightly above the tubas (there were two for Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique - I don't know who the second one was). If my eyesight was just a little better I could have read the music with Norm but I certainly could not have played it with him. Unfortunately, the first half of the program didn't require tuba at all and it wasn't until the last ten minutes of the Berlioz that they even picked up their horns. But what a sound when they did. And the two sets of tympani were almost as close as the tubas. And I could see all the facial expressions and hand movements of Esa-Pekka Salonen (no baton). It was just like being in the orchestra without the fear of missing any notes.

Fritz Kaenzig played 2nd tuba.

The Disney Hall is great. If somebody has a cold, lookout. It's going to be a long night. You can hear a pin drop in that placfe. The seats behind the band look like they'd be fun. I'll have to try it sometime.

harold wrote:What's Fritz doing in L.A.?

Playing 2nd tuba with the LA Phil

Fritz has been playing extra with LA for several years since his wife took one of the clarinet positions.

My wife and I were out there for the Grand Opening weekend when the hall first opened and had seats in the chior loft. It's interesting to sit there but all we really heard was percussion and horn. We were lucky enough to be able to move out into the hall for the second half and that was much more pleasurable.

-Lee Hipp

The tuba players in LA probably think that Mr. Kaenzig's wife plays in the Phil and that they are happy when the Kaenzigs get to share time together.