 |
| (Left to right) David, Shaun and Allan form the @AOBOPercussion Twitter team |
 |
| Shaun Trubiano at the AOBO Insight Night |
Music
lovers have always been fascinated by what happens in the pit, and orchestras
around the world are discovering that social media is a great way to share
their behind-the-scenes world with patrons. Australian Opera and BalletOrchestra Principal Percussion, Shaun Trubiano, recently set up a Twitter
account to provide OA audiences with regular updates from Planet Pit.
“There’s always so much happening in the percussion section; we wanted to share something of it with our audience,” he says.
“There’s always so much happening in the percussion section; we wanted to share something of it with our audience,” he says.
Connecting
with audiences is at the heart of music-making, and tweeting about pit
activities makes it easier for those connections to happen. As Trubiano, who
spent six months at Miami’s New WorldSymphony Orchestra before joining the AOBO in December last year, puts it:
“Today’s audiences want more than just a seat in the auditorium; we now have to
treat Stage Door as our front door; invite people into our world and share the
collaborative process between singers and orchestra with them. The Twitter
account is a step towards addressing that need.”
 |
| A tweeted photo from inside the pit of Turandot 2012 |
Members
of the percussion section have been using their smart phones to tweet
photographs and short messages. “If we change a bass drum head, for example,
we’d let our followers know. For HandaOpera on Sydney Harbour a second bass drum was required, so we prepared it
and posted it on Twitter, and had a nice response.”
Though
modest in size at the moment, the Percussion account’s following is growing
steadily. “As the winter season kicks in, we’re hoping to get artists on board
for photos with orchestra members during intermissions. We’d like to do two,
maybe three tweets a week. The AOBO ignites a great fire during every
performance, and that energy is contagious; its emotional effect on audience
members is profound.”
Other
sections of the orchestra are following the Percussion initiative with great
interest.
“People enjoy being in a shot and part of a feed, and many in the
orchestra are tech savvy.”
For
Trubiano, joining the AOBO at the relatively youthful age of 28 has been a
dream come true. He’s had his sights set on a position in an opera orchestra
since joining New York’s Manhattan School of Music at the age of 21. “One of my
teachers was Duncan Patton, the Met’s
principal timpanist, and he instilled a great love of opera in me.” Trubiano
saw many Met productions during his New York sojourn, and made another powerful
connection with the opera world when he met and married American mezzo-soprano,
Margaret Trubiano.
 |
| Tweeting some instruments! |
To
be part of the creative powerhouse that is opera was his ideal, and he worked
very hard to reach it, spending six years studying at the Manhattan School of
Music and completing three degrees, two specialising in orchestral performance.
When
the OA position was advertised, he was in his final year of study and had just
won the position with the New World Symphony, where OA was prepared to let him
go before coming to Sydney.
But
first, he had to audition, a rigorous process known to terrify even the most
accomplished of professionals. Trubiano recalls: “Four weeks from the audition
date you are sent a preparation pack with excerpts from OA rep, which you
prepare to perfection [at this he laughs], or as close to perfection as is
humanly possible.”
 |
| A tweeted photo of orchestral rehearsals |
A
week before the audition he flew to Melbourne, his home city, where a former
teacher, John Arcaro from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, took him through
daily mock auditions. “Every night we’d run through the audition and he would
be the panel. He’d help me fix things, improve my game.”
But
in the end, nothing can prepare a young musician for the competitiveness and
stress of one shot. As Trubiano says:
“You simply cannot afford to make mistakes.”
Having
made it through the first two rounds feeling that he could have played better,
in the final round he pulled out all the stops. “I was no longer nervous. I’d
been locked away in a practice room for so many years, and the hunger to join
this fantastic opera company and orchestra was so intense that…I wasn’t gonna
lose.” He laughs. “I played like my life depended on it. Because in a way it
did.”
Now
practising six to eight hours a day to maintain the skills required to do the
job (“I set myself very high standards”), Trubiano does not find hauling out
the smart phone, taking a picture and tweeting it away distracting. “It’s the
way we work now. Always with one finger on the social media button.”
 |
| A tweeted picture of Allan |
Trubiano says: “We live in a
digital world. It’s changing all the time and we have to adapt the way in which
we connect with our audience.”
You can
view the Percussion Twitter account without subscribing to Twitter. Go to:
Twitter.com/AOBOpercussion
.jpg)
.jpg)
+as+Opera+Australia's++La+Traviata++SS04%C2%A9Branco+Gaica.jpg)
