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Would this be a good way to seat the violins?

 
 
Reply Sun 16 Aug, 2015 04:03 pm
I just got a job as a high school orchestra conductor. I decided to let 24 violins in(14 1st violins and 14 2nd violins). If I put the 12 stronger violinists in the 1sts and the 12 weaker violinists in the 2nds, I won't have any strong leaders in the 2nd violins. However, if I put strong players in the 2nds, they'll probably get mad that they always have to play 2nd.

What I was thinking of doing was having the best 2 violinists switch between concertmaster and principal 2nd, the 3rd and 4th best violinists switch between assistant concertmaster and assistant principal 2nd, the 5th and 6th best violinists switch between 3rd chair of the 1sts and 3rd of the 2nds, and my 7th and 8th best violinists switch between 4th chair of the 1sts and 4th chair of the 2nds. Then, I would seat the violinists who rank 9-16 in chairs 5-12 of the 1sts, and the violinists who rank 17-24 chairs 13-18 of the 2nds. So for some pieces it would be:

1st violins:
1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
2nd violins:
2, 3, 6, 7, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

and for other pieces it would be:

1st violins:
2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
2nd violins:
1, 4, 5, 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

Would this be a good way to do it? Thanks!
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engineer
 
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Reply Sun 16 Aug, 2015 04:49 pm
@switchsection,
This is fine as long as the lead violins understand what you are doing and why. You can also spread out some solos in there to give the top players some opportunities. You probably should also give the section leaders for the seconds some responsibilities for bringing up the performance of their section. The skill level deep into the seconds is going to be questionable.
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