NY Philharmonic Members Forced to Practice at Home

Barney Skench, NY Philharmonic First Tubaist , conducts a midnight practice session in his studio apartment while his wife looks on

The New York Philharmonic, beset by the same budget problems as many of the city's premier cultural organizations, has lost its lease at Lincoln Center. In a creative and highly unusual solution, Concertmeister Franz-Willhelm Heidi Arausskraut has demanded that each of the orchestra's 82 musicians prepare for the upcoming Summer of Mozart Festival by practicing separately in their own residences while connecting with each other via webcam and a 56K baud modem.

With the loss of Lincoln center as a venue, the new site has been announced as the After School Program Office of the Horace Mann School for the Curmudgeonly and Inflamed on 188th street and Columbus Avenue. Although the school was shuttered at the end of June because of the Swine Flu epidemic, the After School program has been fumigated and has been deemed germ free by the city's Board of Janitorial Excellence.