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 | | Stefan Dembowski, trumpet, with colleagues |
While snow still fills the air, and ankle-deep slush covers the ground, the circuses start their season along the icy roads of Scandinavia - tiny, drafty caravans for the workers and musicians, better caravans for the animals, and artists. A traveling circus is like a small multi-national world run by its own rules and regulations. The working conditions are hard and dangerous and one life is usually lost per season. The shows are always breathtakingly beautiful and filled with humor! The audiences believe what they see, and marvel instead of asking "Why?" or "How?" The musicians' salary is so poor that no Western European trumpeters would ever consider working in a traveling circus. All weeks consists of 7 working days. In a season that lasts from March to September, there is seldom a single day off.
Some Norwegian circuses demand the musicians to do at least 5 hours of heavy body work daily. They must lift and climb the poles as well as tighten the ropes of the enormous tent together with the workers. Every man has his own duties. Stiff fingers and constantly-aching arm muscles are the result. This is worst for the saxophone players, who are in highest need of finger dexterity. Peak performances are never the less demanded night after night. The trumpeters must produce "mile long" fortissimo high Cs followed by phrases up to high E's and F's while Russian trapeze acrobats perform their neck breaking stunts under the tent. Each artist and troop brings their own music for their particular show.
Hundreds of Eastern European trumpeters support their families by performing this work in Western European countries on a regular basis. The musicians have traditionally come from Poland, but living conditions are now fortunately improving in this nation so rich in culture and agriculture. Although it is still difficult to find work there, the trend is now shifting to Russian musicians taking the circus jobs.
"You don't have to be crazy to work in a circus, but it helps", says trumpeter and sport's pilot Jarek Orlowski with a smile. He was educated at the Music Academy in Krakow, Poland, and is a former trumpeter of the city's Radio and Television Orchestra. He is today the executive director of the Fine Art Museum in Jaroslaw, South East Poland. Mr. Orlowski served in Circus Agora, Norway, in 1997 and 1998. But he knows the conditions for circus trumpeters all over Europe as he has worked in Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, and Spain. "In Germany there are 160-170 circuses," he says, "working there, you have to play 2 shows every day, sometimes 3. Each show lasts 2-3 hours. But in Germany and the southern European countries you don't have to put up and take down the tent almost every day!"
On my question on the sanitary conditions for the musicians, Mr. Orlowski went silent for a moment. "Well, the artists and animal owners are paid enough for keeping their own caravans, so they are all right with sanitation. But most of the musicians are living in caravans without any sanitary facilities at all. In some circuses 20 workers and 8 musicians share 1 shower and 1 toilet." The pay for a circus trumpeter in Norway is less than one third of the pay for an orchestral trumpeter. Even so, Norway is one of the most attractive countries for circus musicians…
Circuses and amusement parks are the places where trumpeters work the hardest for the least payment. Summer of 1995, Polish trumpeter Stefan Dembowksi played his Bach Stradivarius for 4 or 5 hours every night in the Tyrolean Restaurant in Lise Berg Amusement Park, Gothenburg, Sweden. His accommodation for the season was a caravan so small that he could neither stretch out in his sleep nor stand upright inside it. He never complained. He received one hot meal per day together with his payment of $30. He had never heard of Clarke or Stamp. He didn't have a music stand either. He was just a very humorous, musically sensitive, and technically brilliant double high C player.
Next time we take our children to the circus, let's give the musicians a big hand. They live, eat, and work like slaves, but somehow adapt to the circumstances and create music of high quality. They give their best years to their families while being separated from them. I once visited a trumpeters' caravan and found it pasted with baby pictures. The proud father could tell that his first son had been born after he had left Poland. "My son's name is Pavel, like me! When I come home, he will be 6 months!"
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