Robbie Fairchild Celebrates a Different Kind of Opening Night
WOW. This is quite a night for Robbie Fairchild, who, in just a little under two hours, will play with a full symphony orchestra in front of a crowd of more than 2,000. That’s pretty impressive, to be sure. It’s been a while since he’s played in front of his home crowd, but a lot has taken place since then. It should be an interesting night for Fairchild, and the orchestra: What if they can’t pull it off?
In the past, Fairchild’s performances have sometimes been greeted with boos or laughter when the music isn’t properly polished, and even his critics have had some pretty strong opinions about his playing. That’s probably why the audience is mostly on his side this time. It’s a relatively large crowd for a symphony concert, which usually commands a bigger crowd than a jazz concert. But it’s the final show of the season, so it must be the final show of the year, and we get a special treat.
And what an experience it is. Robbie Fairchild has never sounded more natural, powerful, or exciting. He plays without any notes that are difficult for the human ear to hear. Like other younger musicians, he doesn’t make a lot of noise when he plays, but instead of being busy creating noise to create noise, he uses simple sounds as a basic building block to create a sound that is in no way loud or hard to understand. That makes his performance all that much more impressive, and his playing even more interesting and exciting. The audience really seems to love it.
As for the orchestra, they have a special treat. One of the symphony’s principal trumpet players (David Rauch) is the son of an opera singer, and his father was a famous music coach. His son is so familiar with the history of the music he’s playing (especially his father’s music) that he was able to bring it right into the performance as the piece was being played. The