Multiple Violas, Multiple Versions
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c2a6f19-02fa-43ed-9708-2508f8eab6a0_320x240.jpeg)
I told one of my professors the other day that I converted my piece for 9 violins into a piece for 9 VIOLAS. He seemed pretty dismayed about this recent turn of events. "Why did you do it?" he asked. I told him I was having lunch one day and a whole bunch of violists were sitting at the table next to me. When they heard that I was working on a piece for 9 violins, they were like, "Why are you writing a piece for 9 violins? LAME. If you change it to 9 violas, we will TOTALLY play it."
DONE. I was promised a potential performance in May, and I'm pretty happy about the piece.
Anyway, back to the original conversation:
My professor told me to hold on to the original violin version (oops) because, if you think about it, how hard is it to round up 8 or 9 violinists to play a cool piece of music?
I would say...VERY HARD. I had the hardest time recruiting 4 violinists for my recital last year. Maybe they all assumed that *someone* would help me out, but that never happened.
So, the piece is for 9 …
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