Orin O’Brien
Molly O’Brien’s film about her aunt Orin, the first woman member of the New York Philharmonic, produced when the legendary double bassist was 88 (though she comes across, quite naturally, as been fifty-something) is a marvel — don’t mind its being on Netflix and sponsored by The Secular Society. It gives you a compelling account of a life convincingly lived with passion, vulnerability, and disarming self-irony. Orin would tell her students to treasure the sound of their instruments, ‘but if there’s anything else you enjoy as much as playing the bass, by all means, do it’. That’s good vocational discernment. Looking back, she offers her ‘theory of how to enjoy your life incredibly’: the secret is not to ‘mind playing second fiddle’, loving what you do so much that you do it for its own sake, never mind whether or not you get rapturous applause.
