Although its stars are the musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Music From the Inside Out, in the words of director Daniel Anker, “is a film about music, not about the Philadelphia Orchestra.”

Music From the Inside Out follows Philadelphia Orchestra members not only on the job, but through the rhythm of their daily lives: a trombonist moonlights with a Latin band; a violinist plays bluegrass fiddle; another runs marathons, and so on. While concentrating on the artistic or spiritual life of the musicians in and outside the orchestra, the film attempts to answer the question: “What is music?” The players clearly love the music they perform but they also love other things. Like most of us, we discover, they are not defined by their jobs.

As most music-lovers can appreciate, many of these fine players set out to be concert soloists and not orchestra players, and when the realization finally set in that they were not going to achieve their original goal it was a blow to their egos.

Concertmaster David Kim is particularly eloquent and honest on this point. It takes a mature and centered person to accept such a crushing reality. Kim had been a child prodigy and had won one competition after another as a soloist. These successes led to important engagements over many years, but not to enough of them in the end to make a solo career.

This well-crafted, thought-provoking film provides some useful insight into the daily life of an orchestra player; it would be an excellent selection for anyone planning a career as a classical musician.

Personally, I would have liked some investigation into the politics of the orchestra, merely hinted at here. Musicians in real life, after all, spend much of their time complaining about conductors and administrators and work hard to make their voices heard and to assure that their grievances are rectified.

Subject matter for another film perhaps?

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