Promotional Information

In the tradition of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential comes an insider's look into the cloistered world of classical music. Now a major Amazon.com TV series starring Gabriel Garcia Bernal.

About the Author

Blair Tindall writes about classical music for the New York Times and has performed, toured and recorded with the New York Philharmonic. She has taught journalism at Stanford University and oboe at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

This is the most candid and unsparing account of orchestral life ever to see print... Blair Tindall tells it how it is
*Norman Lebrecht*

Just because they dress up and play expensive instruments, classical musicians are assumed to behave with chaste propriety. Meet blonde chick in a black frock Blair Tindall, oboist and orchestra muso. Her life in the pits of Broadway, blowing for Miss Saigon and Les Mis, when not gigging at Carnegie Hall or recording for movies, was a dance macabre of performance and party, fuelled by coke, alcohol and promiscuity.
*The Times*

An hilarious exposé of the American musical world. If you want to know the sexual techniques of different orchestral sections, this is the book for you - an X-rated version of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra ... Tindall's book is a serious attempt to take the lid off a world in which the genius in tails is underpaid, undervalued and exploited. Parents of musical children should read it carefully.
*Sunday Times*

A courageous and often entertaining insight into an alien world ... riveting stuff ... Rest assured that Mozart's music will never sound the same to you again.
*Mail on Sunday*

Scathing . . . Its scandalous peek behind the decorous façade of classical music is bound to cause shock waves.
*Daily Telegraph*

A frank, moving and important work... a poignant and fascinating memoir... Many fundamental questions are raised here concerning the role of music and the arts in society. For anybody who cares about the answers, this is an indispensable book.
*New Statesman*

Candid and intriguing.
*Observer Music Monthly*

Tindall's book offers a devastating indictment of the sordid ethics of American orchestral life ... her engagingly written memoir offers a rare insight into an unpleasant, cloistered world.
*Classic FM Magazine*

Her description of life in the famous Allendale building . . . is delightful, as are her portraits of fellow musicians and her stories of life in the pit.
*Los Angeles Times*

A cautionary tale from the trenches . . . An unsparing glimpse into that world of small triumphs, easy frustrations and surprising excess, dispensing dirty little secrets usually reserved for late-night bar talk and backstage gossip. . . . Tindall succeeds at a more ambitious goal: presenting a surprisingly through analysis and scathing critique of the classical music business. . . . This is a fascinating examination of a peculiar culture that provides so much joy while breaking so many hearts.
*Newsday*