Chapter 13

LLC, who was pushing late 70s or 80s now, was getting old. Everyone in our community orchestra knew he was looking for a successor. When the student of a well known flutist came back to Canada after completing her studies in England, he must’ve seen that as an opportunity to pass on the baton. Soon, we got to meet this new conductor. 

I got along with her right away. I think it may have been that she actually went to my high school previously. It was soon discovered that she lived in a house that was very close to me also and instead of making friends with X’s mom and X, it would now be very easy to simply ask the new conductor to drive me instead. She’ll come up a lot so let’s call this new conductor “Y”. 

I had never planned any of this, all of this was arranged simply because Y and I were chatting and the topic came up during rehearsal. I’m not sure if X ever took offense to me telling her I could just get a ride from Y but I know it had done something. I started noticing glares from X’s mom every time I would hang out with Y. I didn’t have any hidden motives or anything either. I simply hung around Y because she was cool to talk to. She knew all the teachers from my high school and all her jokes about them were all still relevant. As we got closer we even started talking about some small gossip here and there. 

Getting close to Y though, seemed to be a horrible idea. I thought of it as nothing more than just hanging out with a friend who happened to be a conductor but the other parents didn’t like where this was going. I was now friends with the person who would inherit the orchestra. Y had a legacy ahead of her and with all coronations or inheritances, there was always bound to be conflict. It’s kind of funny to look back on it since, keep in mind, this was for ownership of a volunteer orchestra which generated almost no income and was composed of high schoolers. Anyhow, as you’ll see, drama would occur and occur real fast. 

Now that I was friends with the conductor, I got even more friends in the orchestra. People wanted to hang out with those who knew the conductor. My new friends didn’t just consist of older orchestra members though, there were a lot of new orchestra members too. One of the first changes we saw when Y came to us was a push for more diversity in our orchestra as well as having more guest performers during concerts. During some of our concerts throughout the year, we even got to play with some internationally known guest musicians (no one famous with household names though). Here’s the other kicker, some of our guests weren’t even Chinese! 

Their skill spoke for themselves and they were definitely prestigious and capable. However, this did not sit well with everyone in the community. Some of the community were much more comfortable with just Asians being in the group. That’s right folks, Asians can be racist. In fact, we probably don’t get enough credit or backlash for it. Racism sometimes seems to only matter when the white or black people are involved. Anyhow, we were now ethnically diverse in our group and to be honest, most of us were fine with this. The majority of the orchestra spoke English during our rehearsal and this majority was only getting more and more complete. Having more members and a larger pool of available members seemed like the right step. Moreso, this was a necessary step as some of the older members of the orchestra had already left simply because the LLC was taking a smaller role in conducting. 

LLC had been the violin instructor for upwards of 80% of the violin section and he tethered the strings sections together. That was his origin story. He got the orchestra going and made it well known based on the strength of the violins section. With him starting to shy away from the spotlight and with the disapproval of Y’s new choices for replenishing ranks, the support from the families of the community orchestra was starting to turn to shambles. Two unspoken groups were created in this conflict. A change was coming and even someone like me, who was pretty much still an outsider, even got wind of all the gossip. 

The traditionalists wanted to have the old orchestra back. They wanted more LLC, even though they knew his health was getting worse, and they also wanted only Chinese players in our group. They would also state, on occasion, that our orchestra’s name had “Chinese” in it and that this should stay consistent. 

The new group wanted to diversify the group and rebrand the orchestra as more of a Canadian youth orchestra than a Chinese one. LLC was starting to retire and not only did this mean he was not going to supply more violinists to the orchestra, it also meant that his reputation would not uphold the orchestra’s prestige anymore either. 

I thought there was going to an all out war at some point but luckily, this never truly took off. The moment this discourse started, it dissipated. Much to the credit of LLC. The man, a legend already and despite his health, started to show up more to every rehearsal. You can tell the strength of character of someone who acts like this. This was a community orchestra and a volunteer one at that. But the fact that LLC, already prestigious in his resume, chose to continue to help this orchestra rehearse even as his health was getting worse showed everyone that this orchestra mattered. I respected LLC for doing this. I now understood why he was so sought for and known in the Chinese community. He was a powerhouse of authority because of how much he truly wanted to be there. 

LLC was not blind though, he knew Y was the next step in the orchestra’s longevity. His role would be necessary here but the ultimate goal was to still hand the orchestra off. His dedication now was to simply thoroughly supervise the hand off to Y. Towards the end of the year, though the handoff had been shaky, it was still relatively successful due to LLC’s efforts. The orchestra appeared to have been saved. There was no civil war, there were no factions and no bloodshed. It seemed we had just barely transitioned well into the next generation. However, as the last concert of the year was completed and we got a chance to go on break and reflect. Our situation became clear. It was undisputed that:

1. LLC acted as its heart of the orchestra.

2. Without LLC there would be no orchestra.

I was good friends with Y and to be honest, I hoped that I could help in any way but there really wasn’t. Y was given an impossible task and to her credit, I don’t think she could’ve done any better. It wasn’t so much as to how much she tried, it was simply because LLC was too prestigious in his life. Nobody wanted a substitute for him. 

I questioned who would still be around when the next year came. I questioned then, if there would be an orchestra at all anymore.