A parent called yesterday and wanted me to work with her kid and play at an audition with him. I checked my schedule and turned out that I couldn't help her out because I'm already booked for some other gig in advance. The parent begged and begged for quite a while, thinking if she begged enough, I would drop everything and go to the audition with her child. Her reason was that I had worked with her child before so there would be no need to rehearse a lot, thus making everything "so much easier" for her.
COME ON NOW! I know I don't have a normal 9-5 job like most people do, but like everybody else, musicians have their own schedule they need to attend to. Yes, music is what I do but I can't just drop everything to make life easier for her!
In this past couple of years I've really began to see how parents and students take accompanists for granted. They think they can just give me the sheet music today and expect me to know and ready to rehearse it by tomorrow. No, it does not work that way. If the performance did not go well, the first person to blame is the accompanist even if the soloist messed up. I've heard numerous harsh criticisms on extremely fine piano accompanists just because of the parents' ignorance.
Anyway, I politely declined (several times) to the mom. There is a little something called responsibility. I have already made commitment to another gig and I'm sticking to it. Sorry! Maybe next time she can learn to call earlier instead of days before the audition.
Don't take me for granted. Don't take anything for granted in life!
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