You Mean They’re Human?

“Their rarefied vocations notwithstanding, orchestra players are as normal as most other people. But somehow a stereotype grew up around classical musicians long ago, and it endures to this day.” Namely, that they walk around all the time in tuxes or topcoats, that they listen to nothing but the classics, and travel by streetcar or some such antiquated mode of transport. In other words, they are fictional characters in some turn-of-the-20th-century novel. Anyone wanting a dose of what classical musicians are really like need only get to know the members of the New York Philharmonic…