LA Phil Musicians Speak Up in Images

       An orchestra's language is music, but the musicians have a way of using words to evoke the orchestra's character.

       Tympanist Joseph Pereira says, "The percussion is sort of the orchestra's backbone.  The strings are the beauty and the face, the brass is the soul and the woodwinds are the heart."

        David Howard recalls the "physical feeling" that attracted him to the clarinet when he was thirteen:  "I love the way the instrument takes air from me."  Howard says his bass clarinet is "more of a character actor than a leading man."

         Principal bass player Christopher Hanulik says "The job of the bass section is to lay down a sound as plush as a carpet for the rest of the orchestra to float upon."