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This podcast is devoted to the lives and experiences of instrumental musicians who play for musical theatre. Listeners can hear the stories of what goes on in "the pit" and aspiring musicians can learn what it takes to become a pit musician.
Episodes
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Aaron Gandy is my first NYC resident as a guest. He has had a fun career that included a national bus tour playing for My Fair Lady. He spent 9 years as an assistant music director for The Lion King on Broadway, and he has several interesting stories about what it was like on that production, including the very high standards required for the actors! He worked with Glenn Close on Busker Alley. He conducted a concert series with the New York Tenors. He has written several shows, including a one-man show for the acclaimed Jim Dale called Just Jim Dale! Oh yeah, and before all of this, we each played in the same high school marching band for one season together in a very rural small town in Florida. This episode would be a great one even if it wasn't so fun personally to reconnect after more than 30 years!
Please take the time to rate and review this podcast, and share with your friends. You can reach out to the podcast via www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast and also follow on Instagram or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod.
Friday Oct 23, 2020
Friday Oct 23, 2020
What can you do if you're wanting performing arts in a fairly isolated community of 4,000 people? You can either go somewhere else that has it, or create it yourself. The town of Elkin, NC renovated its Reeves Theater in 2017, and asked Tommy Jackson if he would create a house band to be featured performers with their own shows as well as provide backing for guest artists. What does this have to do with the pit? Well, aside from the crossover of skills, it was Tommy's theatre experience that gave him a major piece of the blueprint for how to do this as well as his direct connections for getting this gig in the first place. We talk a lot about the house band, but also his theatre experience that ranges from music directing and playing keyboards for productions of shows like Chess, Chicago, and Aida, playing Jerry Lee Lewis for The Million Dollar Quartet, or his own humble beginnings as a child dancer in The Nutcracker.
Tommy is also a songwriter. You can check out his music at https://jacksoncleary.wixsite.com/tommyjackson and the Reeves House Band at https://www.facebook.com/thereeveshouseband/, and the Reeves Theatre itself at http://www.reevestheater.com.
Follow the podcast on Twitter or Instagram @LifeInthePitPod. Reach out with a message through www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast.
Friday Oct 16, 2020
Friday Oct 16, 2020
If you're a piano student, be sure to listen to this episode! Being a professional soloist is a moon shot, but learning how to be a great accompanist will give you a great chance to be paid for what you do! Haidee is a staff accompanist primarily working with the theatre department at Elon University, one of the premiere musical theatre programs in the United States. We have a fun conversation about what it's like to be a theatre accompanist and then transition to the Piano 1/Keyboard 1 spot of the pit.
As a reminder, you can follow the show on Instagram or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Reach out with a message through www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast .
Friday Oct 09, 2020
Friday Oct 09, 2020
Most national tours of Broadway shows travel with a small core group of musicians along with the music director, but require the services of local contractors to fill out the personnel needed in the pit for each area they visit. In the Raleigh-Durham area, that person is most likely Wayne Leechford. He has contracted musicians for many groups, but especially for the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC), a regular stop for the biggest Broadway tours including Wicked, Hamilton, Billy Eliot, The Color Purple, Legally Blonde, Mean Girls and so many more! In addition to what it's like getting musicians for those shows, working with the different music directors, and performing in the shows (Wayne also professionally plays saxophone and clarinet), we talk about what musicians can do to get on the radar of someone like Wayne and get to play for these prestigious shows and what those expectations are if you are hired.
You can find out more about Wayne, including his amazing bio, at www.wayneleechford.com . Follow the podcast on Instagram or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Visit www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast to find out more about the show or to leave the host a message. Please share with your friends, and leave a rating and review.
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
This is the third and concluding episode of the woodwind trilogy. In Episode 18, we talked about flutes. Episode 19 was about clarinets and saxophones. This week's episode features Matthew Covington, as we talk about double-reeds (such as oboe and English horn) as well as Matthew's unorthodox path to choosing his instrument and becoming a professional musician.
Follow Life in the Pit on Instagram or Twitter @ LifeInThePitPod. You can leave a message to the host through www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast.
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
This is the 2nd episode in a trilogy of conversations with musicians who play a specific family of woodwinds.
Kania Mills is plays clarinets for multiple symphony orchestras and concert bands, and teaches at two colleges. We talk a lot about the difference of a clarinetist's role in band and orchestra. We, of course, talk a lot about playing for theatre. We also have an important conversation about race. Kania is an African American woman, and shares her perspective on the challenges that brings and the possibly subconscious but apparent biases that she often receives. In spite of the serious subject included, it is a fun conversation with a lot of laughter!
You can follow this podcast on Instagram or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. You can contact the host through direct message there, or by filling out a contact sheet at www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast. Please rate, review, and share if you've enjoyed this episode!
Friday Sep 18, 2020
Friday Sep 18, 2020
Episodes 18, 19, and 20 form a trilogy where I will be talking to a musician who focuses on one specific family of the woodwinds. This episode features Dr. Tika Douthit, an assistant professor at Winston-Salem State University, adjunct professor at Forsyth Tech Community College, and principal flutist for the Piedmont Wind Symphony. He talks about the flute family and his experiences in the pit, about the importance of an emotional connection with the music, and being our own inspiration.
You can follow the LIFE IN THE PIT on Twitter or Instagram @LifeInThePitPod. You can send a message or find out more information at www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast.
Friday Sep 11, 2020
Friday Sep 11, 2020
A little seriousness and a short necessary rant at the beginning. The fun part of this episode begins at 6:07.
Guy Kelpin is an everyman in music. He has played in orchestras and horn lines for bands such as Bantum Rooster. He's been a composer. He's been a band director and private instructor. He's been a church choir director. He's been a properties manager and house manager, the latter an interim position he holds at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He has 2 different musical Master's Degrees. Oh yeah... he has played a ton of shows in the pit as both a trombonist and bassist (including the bass/tuba book for Chicago!)
Guy talks about his winding musical journey, and his thoughts on musicianship in general including the very unique analogy in the title of this episode that he explains.
You can follow the show on Twitter or Instagram @LifeInThePitPod and find links to all major podcast apps plus all episodes at http://www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast.
Friday Sep 04, 2020
Friday Sep 04, 2020
The harp is one of the most visually stunning instruments to see performed live. It is also one of the most complicated instruments, enough that usually only harpists or experienced harp composers actually understand it. For that reason, this episode features a lot more "101" on the instrument than normal.
Our guest is Grace Ludtke, and she talks about what it's like to play the harp in addition to the demands of playing the instrument for musical theatre. She also reveals that her origin in theatre was as an actor and even running the light board, and we talk about how other theatre experience makes you a better a pit musician. Grace also has thoughts about how the harp is actually a character, and the various roles it plays in productions from Hamilton to The Nutcracker, to an opera by Francis Poulenc.
We talk about an ensemble that Grace helped create called the North Carolina Harp Ensemble. You can follow them at www.ncharpensemble.org. You can follow Grace at www.graceludtke.com and follow her on Facebook or Instagram @harpist.grace
You can comment or find out more about this podcast at www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast or follow on IG/Twitter @LifeInThePitPod.
Friday Aug 28, 2020
Friday Aug 28, 2020
Dr. Ronnal Ford plays two entire families of orchestral instruments, but when asked about his primary instrument he says, "My primary instrument is what I'm getting paid to play at the moment."
Ron has played all of these instruments and more for theatre and other venues. He is an educator and very active as a performer. Among his projects is The Ron Ford Orchestra.
He also describes how major illness nearly derailed his life, career, and quest for a doctorate, and overcoming that. And as you'll hear every few minutes, he is not only not afraid of a challenge, but is invigorated by it.
You can follow Dr. Ford and all of his projects at https://www.ronfordmusic.com/ at https://www.youtube.com/user/fordronnal and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @RonFordMusic.
Follow the podcast on Instagram or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod, and find out all the social links for the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast