Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music

by Blair Tindall

2 of 5 stars 2 ratings • 1 review • 2 shelved
Book cover for Mozart in the Jungle
Shelve It

Bookhype may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.

In the tradition of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and Gelsey Kirkland's Dancing on My Grave, Mozart in the Jungle delves into the lives of the musicians and conductors who inhabit the insular world of classical music. In a book that inspired the Amazon Original series starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Malcolm McDowell, oboist Blair Tindall recounts her decades-long professional career as a classical musician--from the recitals and Broadway orchestra performances to the secret life of musicians who survive hand to mouth in the backbiting New York classical music scene, where musicians trade sexual favors for plum jobs and assignments in orchestras across the city. Tindall and her fellow journeymen musicians often play drunk, high, or hopelessly hungover, live in decrepit apartments, and perform in hazardous conditions-- working-class musicians who schlep across the city between low-paying gigs, without health-care benefits or retirement plans, a stark contrast to the rarefied experiences of overpaid classical musician superstars. An incisive, no-holds-barred account, Mozart in the Jungle is the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit.
  • ISBN10 0802142532
  • ISBN13 9780802142535
  • Publish Date 8 June 2006 (first published 7 June 2005)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
  • Format Paperback (US Trade)
  • Pages 336
  • Language English