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Interactive: North Carolina Symphony Blog
A Musical Pregnancy
Sitting in the back of the orchestra for the last seven months has been a very different experience for me, as I embarked on my pregnancy journey. I'm the other pregnant woman in the orchestra, Jackie Wolborsky, the violinist, being the one that most audience members see. Playing a brass instrument while pregnant has been quite an experience! I really didn't see too much of a difference in the beginning, but right around 5 months, when I started feeling the baby kicking, was pretty fun. The baby really likes concerts- especially when I am not playing, because she can hear the rest of the orchestra. I think when I am playing it's more boring for her, either that, or because my abdominal muscles are contracting, I don't notice the movement. Sometimes I would look down and see my concert black top twitching and I would chuckle at the fact that there was some involuntary movement going on that no one could see.
I'd say that a turning point concert for me was when we played The Planets. This piece had a lot of extremes in dynamics. Both loud and soft playing have their own challenges on the horn normally, but when pregnant, even more so. With a limited lung capacity because the baby is taking up more space, I just had to find more places to breathe during the loud parts, and I had to try and find more energy to pump out all of that sound. And the extremely soft parts entail making one's breath last for a long period of time- to play softly you have to blow less air in a fast stream, but it feels a lot like holding your breath. That is when I felt like I would pass out any second!
This last weekend was "My Favorite Things" Pops concert. I'm now about 34 weeks along, and the baby is (or feels) enormous! When she moves, it is such a big movement that it feels like the audience can see! I sometimes notice a big movement and look around to see if anyone noticed that my belly just involuntarily jumped! And the verdict is in... my husband Dovid (the associate concertmaster) and I were hoping for a baby whose favorite composers are Beethoven and Bach, but judging by her movements this weekend, I think we will have a real Cole Porter and Rogers and Hammerstein fan on our hands.
Comments (3)
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Fantastic! I had wondered about this while watching the bellies grow on stage. What a lucky baby to form into a human with all that wonderful music around all the time! And with two such talented parents, how can we expect anything but pure genius from this little one. The next Mozart, perhaps? Congratulations!
# Posted By Linda Bibelo
| 5/18/10 3:24 PM
I can't imagine performing and keeping a long breath like that while so pregnant. I never thought about that factor. So interesting. Thank you for sharing your wonderful musical motherhood journey with us.
# Posted By ncsofan
| 5/21/10 12:40 PM
Wow, thank you! Keep up all the good Work, great to read what you are up to! Thank you! ps the wedding in Chicago was great, loved that band and the food and the etc etc etc!
# Posted By Nicholas Wiedman
| 5/31/10 8:59 PM
