A Symphony of Choices

CHAPTER 2CHOOSING YOUR PORTFOLIO

As I entered the symphony office, I thought about all that I had learned so far, and while I felt overwhelmed, I believed that I had a structure that I could now follow. I scheduled a meeting with the director to go over the upcoming season and see what his ideas were.

Maestro Fernando's back was to me as I knocked on his open office door. He had a set of headphones on and was conducting the music spread before him on an oversized music stand.

He must have felt my presence because he turned around and switched off the turntable.

“Hey, Jerry,” said Fernando. “I'm sorry. I was going through the second movement of the Firebird Suite.”

“Oh, I love that piece,” I replied. “Are we playing it next season?”

“You didn't get a copy of next year's season? You should have said something,” Fernando replied as he rifled through one of over a dozen stacks of paper. If anyone needed some portfolio management, it was Fernando. I didn't feel I was in the position to suggest it. Not because I lacked a firm grasp on the concept; it was more that Maestro Fernando was not known for graciously taking advice.

“Here,” he said as he handed me a list of concerts scribbled on two sheets of notebook paper. I looked at all the pieces he wanted to add and began panicking a bit. There were a lot of big pieces that required a lot of players. There were sequences of numbers under each piece.

“What are those numbers?” I pointed to the page: Wagner, Prelude to Die Meistersinger ...