Cato van Riemsdijk
They stop mid-conversation when a unison settles, then ask which player moved first. At twenty-three, after timing wedding dinners around delayed speeches and colder-than-promised entrées, Cato won a public argument over a disputed oboe A by having the section sing the interval before playing it, and lost the catering shifts that followed.
Articles by Cato van Riemsdijk
Guest Conductor Arrives With 47-Page 'Artistic Vision Document,' Orchestra Ignores It
The document included a 'philosophical framework for the Beethoven Fourth' and a section titled 'What the Oboe Means to Me.' The oboist did not read it.
Entire Brass Section Develops Mysterious Illness on Day of Avant-Garde Premiere
All twelve brass players called in sick with symptoms ranging from 'stomach issues' to 'spiritual fatigue' on the morning of a premiere requiring them to play into buckets of water and scream into their instruments.
Principal Oboist's Reed Breaks Mid-Solo, Audience Hears Sound Previously Unknown to Acoustics
The noise, which spectral analysis later characterized as 'a duck being stepped on inside a clarinet,' occurred during the second movement of Brahms's Violin Concerto at the worst possible moment.