I'm a classically trained musician, but have little experience playing piano, yet I've been recruited to turn pages not infrequently. Somehow there seems to be more pressure as a page-turner than as a performer. I always felt extremely conscious of my place beside the musician, while as a performer, it is much easier to lose ones self in the muscle-memory and flow of a piece. Page-turning requires, as the essay describes, a special kind of focus.

I was shocked to see how a woman I dated prepared for a classical orchestra performance. She was a professional musician. An envelope of music arrived with her parts for a symphony performance. She would set aside a few days to practice it, then there would be one day of rehearsal and then the performance. The pages of music were complex, far more complex than any music I'd ever played or even looked at and of course a solo or exposed piano piece would likely have even more complex music to be read, putting a great deal of dependence on the page turner.

I suppose that by the time one is taking professional gigs like this that there is a standard repertoire and that some of the pieces might be at least a bit familiar. Nevertheless, I can't understand that level of musical ability, it seems super-human.

One other interesting fact: she had taken a few private lessons from very high level performers, principal oboe at NY Philharmonic as I recall. She asked him what would happen if he missed an exposed note during a performance, like a very soft note that might not get the oboe reeds to play. He said he couldn't make a mistake without risking his job. This is hearsay and I don't remember exactly what she said his answer was, but professional orchestra performance must have very serious pressure to deal with.

Seriously, I never thought an article about such an esoteric topic would be so interesting.