BPO “Luggage”

An orchestra is a large and cumbersome beast when it comes to traveling.  Not only are there a lot of people involved, but there are large and fragile instruments.  Getting an orchestra and all of our stuff down to Florida is no small task.

These trunks will carry percussion instruments down to Florida.

You can’t really pack a tuxedo in a suitcase, so the orchestra has provided these “trunks” to keep everyone reasonably wrinkle-free.  The cardboard boxes aren’t fancy, but they should get the job done.

Apparently we’re bringing lots of cords and outlets down to Florida.  In the compartment on the right are many stand lights…..because what if the stage is too dark?!  It’s best to be prepared.  That’s what we say.

The orchestra members and staff are flying to Florida on Thursday, but we are also sending a truck down ahead of us.  In order for the truck to get there in time, it has to leave tomorrow morning, so it was packed today.  That meant that the orchestra members who play instruments too large to carry onto a plane had to pack their instruments up after our Education Concert this morning.

Here’s a fleet of cello trunks. As you can see, a lot of our trunks are OLD and have been through the wringer.  I was asking around, and a lot of the musicians prefer these old ones to the more modern fiberglass travel cases.  These old wooden monstrosities are real heavy and therefore less likely to tip and more likely to be handled with extreme caution.

I have no idea what kind of trunks these bad boys require.  I assume they have cases, and I assume those cases are large.

I told Dinesh that I wanted a picture of a comically large and difficult-to-pack percussion instrument for the blog (I was hoping for a marimba, but I guess we’re not bringing any of those) and he immediately whipped out the measuring tape he had in his pocket and pretended to measure this bass drum.  He’s not really measuring that drum.  Faker.

I’m sure it will come as a surprise to no one when I say that musicians are SUPER fussy and neurotic about their instruments.  I’ve traveled so much with my viola that when I don’t travel with it I periodically experience a jolt of anxiety, as if I’ve forgotten it somewhere.  It’s a similar sensation to temporarily losing sight of a child in a crowded public place.  It’s a short burst of “OHMYGAWD!” followed immediately by the calming thought that, “Oh yeah.  That’s right.  I decided not to bring my kid viola back to Minneapolis for Christmas.  My viola is safe at home.”  Sometimes I lug my viola back and forth on vacations even when I’m pretty sure I won’t practice a note, just because it feels weird not to have it with me.

So, as you can imagine, packing instruments into trunks is a source of some anxiety.  Our stagehands are SUPER-DUPER-MEGA-PROS (and we love them), and the truck is climate controlled (string instruments in particular can suffer a lot of damage if they get too hot or too cold), so in reality there is probably not much to worry about.  But still.  We fret.

Today Daniel had to pack his bass into the BPO-provided travel case and say goodbye to his baby until they are reunited again in Florida on Friday.

When I saw the little inflatable side-pads I joked that the case would be extra buoyant in the very unlikely event that it wound up in the ocean.  Daniel didn’t think that was a very funny joke.

It fits!  Hooray!

And finally, here’s a little video I shot of Daniel sending his bass on its merry way.  (Sidenote: Apparently the digital camera I bought in 2006 is pretty shoddy by today’s HD standards.  I’ll try to get my hands on something that can shoot reasonably decent video before I post again.  Who wants to buy me a new camera?  Heh.)

Bye, bass!

-Kate Holzemer 3/9/10

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