Blair Tindall - Mozart in the Jungle

Mozart in the Jungle

Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music

Blair Tindall

Copyright 2005 by Blair Tindall

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

All events in Mozart in the Jungle are true, and all characters are real. However, the following names have been changed: Sydney, Jayson, Percy, Betty, Mr. Geizhals, Maria, Jean, Frank, Donald, Jos, Peter Huffine, Jimmy, and Basically Baroque.

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

FIRST GROVE PRESS EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tindall, Blair.
Mozart in the jungle : sex, drugs, and classical music / Blair Tindall.
p. cm.
ISBN-10: 0-8021-4253-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-4253-5
1. Tindall, Blair. 2. Oboe playersUnited StatesBiography.
I. Title.
ML419.T48A3 2005
781.680973090511dc22 2005041105

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

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For my parents,
Carliss Blossom McGarrity Tindall and George Brown Tindall

Praise for Mozart in the Jungle:

Blair Tindall crams two books into one, mixing a tell-all narrative about the classical music worlds seamier side with a history of the economics of postwar American arts. Classical-music admirers might think that its performers are sensitive, refined intellectuals, but Tindall sets out to puncture this precious assumption with gusto.... The sections that trace classical musics history and point to where it should go reveal that Tindall has a true passion for her subject.

Brian Wise, Time Out New York

A raucous, ribald and often raunchy romp ... She spares no one and nothing.... The cymbal-crashing of these two disciplines [music and journalism] is the exact double whammy needed to bring this story to life.... She tells a tale that is at once frightening and redeeming.... Any artist whos ever tried to make it as a purist in a world where the rents forever past due will undoubtedly find solace and familiarity in Tindalls scathing, intimate look at the classical musicians world. All others will enjoy Mozart in the Jungle because its an exhilarating, albeit often excruciating, ride. B+.

Cathie Beck, Rocky Mountain News

Wonderfully poignant and powerful... Blair Tindall writes so well. I think the average classical music listener will find much of her story compelling and come away with a good understanding of not only the life we lead, but also the difficulties we face in finding a career in music that is creatively satisfying and yet provides us a living.... Tindall has a real and human story to tell.

Alan Black, The Charlotte Observer

Exploding the stereotype of classical musicians as overcultivated fops in formal wear, Tindall chronicles her sex life with candor and lusty flair.... Laced with sordid stories that debunk the prim and proper image of classical musicians ... her memoir of the freelancers harried, marginal existence is a valuable reality check to the glamorous myth of classical music.

John Fleming, St. Petersburg Times

Tindalls central complaint, that the classical-music world has created a crisis by training too many musicians and supporting a culture of exorbitant pay for a few fortunate stars, is difficult to refute.

The New Yorker

[This] tattling memoir is full of scandal, indulgence and the musical life.... An accessible primer... With sharp powers of observation, she captures revealing details of her times and surroundings.... Tindalls writing is excellent and clear; she maintains the readers interest with clever twists of phrase and plot.... [Her] insightful analysis of this insular worlds overindulgence and misdirection should be heeded by all in positions of influence.

Mick Scott, Winston-Salem Journal

Its a hoity-toity version of VH1s Behind the Music.

Entertainment Weekly

Her description of life in the famous Allendale building... is delightful, as are her portraits of fellow musicians and her stories of life in the pit.

Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

Tindall succeeds at a more ambitious goal: presenting a surprisingly thorough analysis and scathing critique of the classical music business.... This is a fascinating examination of a peculiar culture that provides so much joy while breaking so many hearts.

Anya Grundmann, Newsday

Chronicles her life ... with a candor meant to set tongues clucking.

Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle

Blair Tindall gives us what were looking for.

Valerie Scher, The San Diego Union-Tribune

Yes, theres plenty of titillating smut here.... This is also a jeremiad on the dangers of fantasy lives.... She suggests that the American classical-music establishment is overdue for some reality checks. Shes right.

Scott Cantrell, The Dallas Morning News

This Behind the Classical Music memoir lays bare the unexpectedly steamy and sordid world of professional symphonies. Who knew?

Jennifer Ceaser, Hamptons

Fascinating... Begins as a lilting fairy tale, segues into opera, and evolves into a dissonant, postmodern workunflinching autobiography, bitter cautionary tale and riveting expos of the classical-music business.

Helen Sheehy, Opera News

The strongest moments are found in passages where Tindall is so overcome with emotional memory.... Her writing feels unforced and alive. No matter how much you do or dont know about classical music, in these moments you care about Blair Tindall.... Her perspective as a rank-and-file freelancer is an all-too-rarely-heard voice in the larger cultural debate surrounding the future of classical music in America.... There is much to absorb vicariously through this walk in Blair Tindalls shoes, especially for those who have never experienced the thrill of reacting to a conductors downbeat or sat in a cramped orchestra pit playing the same show for the fortieth time.

Molly Sheridan, Symphony

Written with pop culture-savvy flair... Mozart is a delightfully unlikely pageturner.... Its sure to instill... an unprecedented admiration of this deviant art.

Alii Marshall, Mountain Xpress

No other writer has better described the realities of the music business.

Ken Keuffel, Winston-Salem Journal

Fascinating on many levels, and after reading it, you will never look at those prim, black-clad musicians playing Mozart the same way again.

Dottie Ashley, The Post and Courier (Charleston)

A provocative blend of no-holds-barred memoir and tough-minded reporting about the state of classical music ... A real eye-opener.

Kirkus Reviews

A fresh, highly readable, and caustic perspective on an overglamorized world.

Publishers Weekly

A book that raises hard questions about the place of classical music in North American culture ... a remarkable book that ensures you will never see a symphony concert in the same light again.