In the Metropolitan section of Sunday’s (6/9) New York Times, Sarah Kramer talks with Carl R. Schiebler, orchestra personnel manager of the New York Philharmonic, as part of that newspaper’s series of “interviews with New Yorkers whose behind-the-scenes jobs help keep the city humming.” In his Philharmonic post, Kramer writes, Schiebler “keeps rehearsals running on time, tracks down substitutes and serves as fixer. Mr. Schiebler, 75, was the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s second hornist and later its personnel manager before coming to the Philharmonic in 1986.” Schiebler provides answers to such questions as “Which instrument is the hardest to fill?”—lately, he says, it’s been the zither—and “How do you go about filling vacancies?” Asked to describe a “typical day” for him at the Philharmonic, Schiebler says, “Today we have the first rehearsal for this piece. So I want to check with the conductor and also the stage manager at intermission to make sure things are O.K., or if there is a problem, where to go with it. And I think this afternoon I have to listen to 77 bass trombones. And we have a fund-raising concert tonight that’s brewing. Is that a typical day? Yeah, I guess that’s a typical day.”
Posted June 11, 2013
