Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music

Author/Contributor(s):	Tindall, Blair
Publisher:	Grove Press
Date:	06/08/2006
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

From her debut recital at Carnegie Hall to performing with the orchestras of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, oboist Blair Tindall has been playing classical music professionally for twenty-five years. She's also lived the secret life of musicians who survive hand to mouth, trading sex and drugs for low-paying gigs and the promise of winning a rare symphony position or a lucrative solo recording contract. In "Mozart in the Jungle, " Tindall describes her graduation from the North Carolina School of the Arts to the backbiting New York classical music scene, a world where Tindall and her fellow classical musicians often play drunk, high, or hopelessly hung-over, live in decrepit apartments, and perform in hazardous conditions. (In the cramped confines of a Broadway pit, the decibel level of one instrument is equal to the sound of a chain saw.)
"Mozart in the Jungle" offers a stark contrast between the rarefied experiences of overpaid classical musician superstars and those of the working-class musicians. For lovers of classical music, "Mozart in the Jungle" is the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit.