Bows: an instrument spotlight

Often at the end of a piece, the conductor will single out one or more individual musicians to stand and accept the audience’s applause. At times, it will be obvious that at some point in the piece, the individual performed an important solo, but sometimes the conductor might want to acknowledge a musician who didn’t necessarily have a solo, but still had a particularly demanding individual part that they performed exceptionally well. Often, part of an orchestral musician’s challenge is to play a difficult part while NOT standing out from the crowd! In other cases, the conductor might indicate for a full section to stand for a “solo bow” when they performed a challenging work well as a unit. 

If you've followed the Ottawa Pops Orchestra during our 2023-2024 campaign, there were several standout performances both obvious and obscure. Beginning in the Fall during our Heroes of Hyrule concert, our pianist serenaded us during Breath of the Wild and our clarinets really shined in Majora’s Mask. On to the winter season, the classic Bugler's Holiday requires a powerful and enduring performance by the trumpet section while our strings section accelerated and diminished in perfect time to Johann Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz. At last, our tribute to Lord of the Rings featured many applause-worthy performances, including our flutist's pitch perfect rendition of the famous Middle Earth melody and our timpani’s amazing execution of the difficult score in Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings. While there have been countless terrific performances, do not lose too much sleep if you miss out. There will sure be many more coming soon! 

📷@_curtisperry