Third Wheel is proud to be a member of Chamber Music America, and we really enjoy taking advantage of all the great services they provide. So imagine my reaction when I received the latest issue of Chamber Music (CMA’s publication) and saw this featured as their cover story: “Trending Upward: Why ensembles are deciding to get out of their chairs and perform on their feet.” Accompanying this title is an artfully constructed list of all the ensembles who are suddenly deciding to perform standing up. (No disrespect meant to any of the fantastic ensembles mentioned, especially one of our favorites, eighth blackbird.) Wouldn’t you know it, Third Wheel is not on the list.
I’m quite certain that as an ensemble, we have performed standing up since we first starting rehearsing together. Now, this was probably because there were not enough chairs available in the living room of the house in LA where Rich was living at the time, but still. Nearly everything we have ever done as Third Wheel, we have done on our feet. And it hasn’t ever really been a remarkable aspect of our group. As an entrepreneur, it kind of makes me think that maybe this is a huge marketable angle that we should be exploiting — maybe CMA is on to something with this article. But honestly? I never thought it was really that big of a deal. Sure, many of our concert venues are surprised when we tell them that we only need three music stands for our performance and no chairs. And let me tell you, it would be the strangest thing ever if we had to make Rich sit down to perform. Check out some of our performance videos over on our YouTube page — if you fast forward through them, you will see that Rich is always moving and walking and dancing when he plays. Sometimes, he even takes on the flamingo pose, a la Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.
As an ensemble, we absolutely want to deliver to our audiences the highest level of concert experience possible. And yes, that quality probably would be diminished if we were sitting down. Chairs do seem to have a silly way of inhibiting one’s ability to be wholly expressive and communicative. But don’t you think that standing up is quite an odd practice to write about? Maybe we should be looking at groups who perform sitting down, and ask them why they do it. Especially wind players — how do you deal with that diminished lung capacity? I have known many singers who always complain when an acting role requires them to sing while sitting. It makes the entire breath support system compromised just a bit.
So, readers, let me know what you think. Was it a slow news week over at the Chamber Music offices? Why did they exclude Third Wheel? What do you think of groups who perform sitting down?
