I played clarinet as a kid, through high school. Then I put it down and didn't pick it up again until my late 30's. Since I started up with music again, I've been playing very actively in various community orchestras and bands, gradually getting good enough to play with the likes of the OCO. I had a co-worker who was a violinist with the group, and she always spoke highly of it. When I heard there was an opening in the clarinet section, I jumped at the chance. I've been with them for seven years now. It's become my musical home in the sense that it is the one group I will always make time for at the expense of other obligations.
Working as a chemist at a biotech company is what pays the mortgage. I also help run two retail stores and a vacation rental with my partner. That doesn't leave too much time for hobbies besides music, although I do like to cook. I've been collecting and learning to play other woodwinds and I'm drawn to some of the more obscure and less played members of the family. If you need an amateur sarrusophone or basset horn player, I'm your guy.
The awesome thing about the clarinet is that it comes in all different sizes. Some composers expect you to use several in one piece. The 3rd clarinet part for Mahler's 4th, which we recently played, calls for no fewer than five different clarinets. I simplified matters and brought it down to three by transposing.
