Plays Well With Others

Violinist and writer Constance Meyer has spent her life playing with symphonies, ballets, and on recording stages — and now she’s composing stories from the other side of the stand. Expect reflections, humor, and behind-the-scenes tales.

By Constance Meyer

· Launched 8 months ago

Double Bass: The Foundation’s Resonant Pulse

If the viola is the soul, the double bass is the heartbeat of the orchestra.

Jun 23•Constance Meyer

4

1

Sink or Swim

When our daughters, now 36 and 33, were five and two, I wanted them to learn how to swim.

Jun 18•Constance Meyer

7

5

1

Second Violin: Weaving the Inner Voice

What about the second violin?

Jun 16•Constance Meyer

5

1

I Don't Even Know if he Really Went to Thailand

I was thirteen years old and once again I had fallen in love with a close friend of my brother’s.

Jun 11•Constance Meyer

6

2

Viola

Today I want to take you behind the curtain of the orchestra’s vital inner-string world.

Jun 9•Constance Meyer

3

1

Bassoon: Symphonic Spine and Underdog Triumph

Bassoonists often joke that introducing themselves as “musicians” saves time—few listeners grasp the double-reed design, the eight-foot folded tube, or…

Jun 2•Constance Meyer

3

1

Hoping for the Best

Teaching violin has taught me as much as any lesson I ever took.

May 28•Constance Meyer

8

3

1

Classical Saxophone: Straddling Genres and Scenes

When Adolphe Sax unveiled his invention in the 1840s, few could predict its future.

May 26•Constance Meyer

6

2

House of Waller

Most people have had at least one bad landlord.

May 21•Constance Meyer

3

English Horn

Welcome to a journey behind the curtain of orchestral woodwinds—those instruments whose voices float beneath the surface of every performance, vital yet…

May 19•Constance Meyer

4

The Landolfi Affair

In 1980 I was in the market for a new violin.

May 14•Constance Meyer

5

1