We're going to need more shelves...

The other day, Paige let me know that she and Ryan - the orchestra's librarian - had secured a huge donation of music for our library. Orchestra Nova would be receiving 20 bankers’ boxes of music, from full symphonies and ballets to operas and a bunch of full scores. For any orchestra this is a fantastic gift and we were over the moon.
The only hitch is that we now needed some place to store all of these pieces and our storage room doesn't have enough room on our bookshelves (already bursting at capacity with our current library). We turned to our fantastic horn player John Lorge who, in addition to being an excellent musician, is also a carpenter. John gave us a quote on new shelves that was very friendly, but we still needed to come up with the money (we have a policy of not spending money on anything that isn't already budgeted).
A very generous volunteer and supporter said she would donate half the cost if we were able to come up with the rest. At our Board meeting on Monday evening, I raised this issue and how we needed some extra funds to pay for this project and quickly seven folks at the meeting (two staff members and five board members) each donated for the shelves.
This is the power of giving in any amount - you can effect real change, really fast. Eight generous folks donated towards our shelves, and so next year we will be able to choose pieces from our expanded library for our performances - saving us money and using this great resource. I'm always gladdened when a generous donor gives anything at all to the orchestra, because it will always be appreciated and ALWAYS be used.

After about an hour of rummaging through a thesaurus on a wild goose chase for the perfect way to describe our orchestra and my experience here thus far, I realized there is only one way to put it; one of a kind. Playing classical music with several youth symphony orchestras led me to believe that I knew what an orchestra was. Boy was I wrong. No cummerbunds or bow ties here, folks!

I am now beginning my second season with Orchestra Nova, where I get to talk to audience members, help to promote the orchestra, sell tickets at each of our venues and a whole lot more. My responsibilities on and off of concert nights are varied, never dull, and always a learning experience. I consider myself very lucky to have a job I can honestly say that I love.

P.S. no picture necessary, I am on the bottom of the page with the vacuum.