A single diamond earring glints under the roving spotlights illuminating the big top tent. It rests in the left ear of conductor Rob Slowik and catches the light as his left hand makes the small, deft movements required to conduct the circus band.
It’s a totally different story on Slowik’s right side.
With an unadorned ear and a hand busy playing the trumpet, Slowik’s right half could belong to a second person. His eyes could belong to a third — focused on the circus act unfolding below, they hardly seem to be looking at the musical score in front of him.
“It takes a lot of practice,” Slowik says of his triple act. “I have to multitask.”
Slowik and his band perform a balancing act, 20 feet above the circus stage and devoid of face paint and bright costumes. As the bandleader for a circus ensemble, Slowik must extend and cut musical phrases at a moment’s notice and be ready for any tempo change, in order to cater to the movements on the floor beneath him.
Along with an eight-piece band, Slowik makes sure the musical numbers for the Big Apple Circus — the traveling show that stops at Government Center — runs smoothly, even if the acrobatic performances do not.
VARIETY SHOW
While some circus performers spend their lives perfecting the same routine or a trademark move, circus band members must constantly adapt to new scores, band mates and stage arrangements. Not only does Slowik perform triple duty as musical director, conductor and trumpet player, but he also serves as the connection between different elements of the show.
“I’m like the liaison between the choreographer, the composers and the performers,” Slowik said. “We take the act and fit it into the theme — we decided how to frame the act.”
Slowik has formal training in music, having studied at Eastern Michigan University and played at Lincoln Center. He picked up a sense of showmanship touring with Ray Charles and Kenny Rogers and on Carnival Cruise Lines and Broadway. Slowik joined the circus in 1998 and has spent the past nine years contributing to the program as a performer and director.
Before each season, Slowik collaborates with the circus’s three composers and three arrangers to develop an original score for each act. They see a video of the performance acts, consider the show’s overall theme — this year “Step Right Up!” — and write music to coordinate the two.
“We make the music as flexible as possible,” Slowik said. “We write a lot of flexible phrases so that it’s easy to add something or take it away. At the same time it has to sound like a soundtrack to a movie. It has to sound the same every time and look like it’s written right to the act.”
Each piece can be played in either a major or minor key, and the timing of every acrobatic act can change. The score and the band must be prepared for acts that require an extra eight counts or an early final note, Slowik said.
A jump-roping juggler at a matinee performance bounces balls off his head and back, stumbles slightly and ending the trick by tossing the balls to his partner. The cymbal crashes, resounding in time with each bounce, stop simultaneously.
“Most of the players are show players, so we’re used to it,” Mark Erenstoft, the band’s substitute keyboard player, said.
Most of the members play in independent bands or have experience playing with Broadway shows or other circuses. Drummer Sam Wiley, Jr., has spent 13 years playing in circus bands.
“For me, as a drummer, it’s about catching the tricks,” Wiley said. He receives a live television feed of circus performers’ acts to help him accurately time high-hat cymbal crashes. He pulled on his goatee and shrugged, “And when they hit the tricks changes every night.”
“We have to keep on our toes because the cues come very fast and are different every show,” Erenstoft added as he took a quick coffee break during the two-hour show’s 15-minute intermission.
“You’re working with things that aren’t predictable,” he added.
IMPROV SHOW
While the audience may be able to take the band’s contribution to the show for granted because of its perch above the audience, Slowik and his crew receive on-stage kudos from the performers. Cyclist Justin Case, star of the “Wheely Fun” act, appealed to Slowik — situated high above the main entrance to the ring — for advice when his stunt bike fell apart. When Slowik suggested Case improvise his act, the trickster replied doubtfully, “Improvise? Easy for you, jazz man.”
Slowik’s band does play jazz music, in addition to classical, oriental, Caribbean, the standard circus fare and rock-and-roll. As the tempo or phrasing of the music changes, the styles of the pieces change, too. Players must skip from one genre to another — with only a second to breathe, flip their sheet music and switch musical gears before Slowik cues the next piece
Stylistic changes in the music, though second-nature for the band, do not always please the performers, Slowik said.
“There’s some resistance from the performers who have used the same music for years,” he said.”But whatever happens, they always like our music better. It’s more up-to-date.”
With keyboards pre-programmed with special effects, such as an electric-guitar playing mode and other updates on classic circus sounds, and a generous corner of the playing area dedicated to a sound board covered in modern knobs and switches, the band has little in common with circus bands of old.
There are times during the show when the band takes a breather and Francesco, a clown host, takes a stab at a musical career. And while Francesco plays an extended PVC-pipe horn half-filled water glasses and two recorders — at the same time, with his nose — with flair, Slowik prepares his band to jump in quickly when the next act appears.
“My favorite part is doing the shows,” Slowik said. “I get to do so many different things. You know, on Broadway I’m just playing the trumpet. Here I get to put it all together, and it’s very rewarding.”
Bringing everything together is what Slowik is all about. The score and the choreography, the circus’s theme and the act, the performance of the band and that of the acrobats — all need to complement one another and run in perfect unison. The band members aren’t the ones wowing the audience with tricks and tumbling, but their show still requires a sort of flexibility and balance.