Thinking back over her fourteen months traveling with the show Tommy, Laurance Mahady allowed that she would be willing to go out with another show "if the music were interesting and the venue someplace new." She said that going on the road is "serious experience."
Laurance is from Lake Charles LA. Her father, a professor of percussion, influenced her by example to practice hard and play all types of music. She studied during high school with former BSO hornist Ralph Pottle, who encouraged her to attend NEC, which she did, studying with Jon Menkis. Since graduating, she's been free-lancing, giving private lessons, and, for hobbies, learning medieval recorder music and painting in watercolors and acrylics.
Laurance won the job by audition, which is unusual for shows. She met a trombonist; learning that he played mostly on the road, she expressed interest and he gave her a number to call. The music director faxed three excerpts and Laurance sightread two more for her and some administrators. A few days later, she got the call that she had been accepted. They were putting the show together at this time.
After two rehearsals in NYC and two more before the first show, they went on a "bus-and-truck tour," traveling on Mondays, staying in motels, and playing eight shows a week. There were about fifty people, eight musicians. They got on well and Laurance made some good friends.
Tommy is a rock-and-roll show in the format of a musical. Everything the horn plays is like a solo. It was "challenging", but Laurance became comfortable with it and soon changed a few things, such as putting passages up an octave, to make it more challenging!
The most exciting part of the tour was Brazil. There Laurance was struck by the poverty, but she also found that "live music is a part of an everyday person's life." The show played in Rio de Janeiro (touristy, beautiful, very Latin), Sao Paulo (large, cosmopolitan, vibrant), and Curitiba (sophisticated, European, colonial). Laurance took a hike in a temperate rain forest with lush jungle flowers, and swam at the base of a waterfall.
On the practical side of touring, the pay is "not terrific, but not bad." Laurance feels lucky to live in a house with good roommates that she didn't have to give up while on tour. She loves Boston and was happy to get home. Her advice to anyone going on tour -- "Don't take anything you can't carry yourself!"
Laurance now lives in Mannheim, Germany and can be reached at baernardo@aol.com