Musicians Live on Little Sleep, Adrenaline and Humor

On Sunday morning, Bruce Dukov will battle traffic and Hollywood road closures to arrive early at the Kodak Theatre.

He’ll walk through a metal detector, flash his name badge complete with barcode to a security person who will then scan the badge and watch his photograph appear on a computer screen. Only then will he make his way into the bowels of the theater.  He’ll hit the stage at 10 a.m., work feverishly till lunchtime, take a short break, don his tuxedo and at 5:15 p.m. on the dot, he’ll be ready to go.

He’s just as important as the A-list celebrities who’ll either hand out awards or accept them, but he’ll receive very little recognition.

Dukov is the concertmaster for this year’s 83rd Academy Awards. That means he’s basically conductor Bill Ross’s wingman. As the lead violinist, he’s the liaison between the orchestra and the conductor. Dukov will make sure the orchestra is in tune, seated in its proper place and ready to play every note, bar and phrase of music throughout the three-and-a-half hour show that is the Academy Awards.

Dukov spent 18 years as the concertmaster for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and has played at the Academy Awards for over 20 years, so he does know the drill.

This year, over 50 musicians will cram the stage or orchestra pit to ensure that there will be music accompanying the winners on stage, a score befitting the annual ‘In Memoriam’ screening, and of course the dreaded ‘play off the stage’ music, should anyone dare to overrun their acceptance speech limit.

The orchestra is comprised of some of Los Angeles’ most gifted freelance musicians  who spend a little under a week rehearsing and recording vast swathes of music for the night. Living on adrenalin and not much sleep, these artists didn’t even enter the theater until Wednesday night.

“This is actually the first year that we’ll be on stage the entire time,” Dukov told Patch in an interview late Tuesday night after returning from a long rehearsal. He also admits that he’s a little concerned as there is talk of the orchestra being on a moving stage. “I hope I don’t get sea sick,” he says.

In the past few days, Dukov says the orchestra has learned so much material, mostly play ons and play offs and underscores for people who are talking, but there may still be more work ahead as the orchestra will spend all day Friday rehearsing. 

On Saturday night the orchestra will do an entire run through of the show and it will take most of the night. Then they’ll be back doing it all over again Sunday morning.

“We have stand ins for the star presenters,” Dukov says. “None of the stars show up for the dress rehearsal. But we do have a bit of fun. The stand ins will open the envelopes and say ‘And the winner for this rehearsal only is….’”

On Sunday night, when the real winners are announced, the orchestra will have less than a split second to play the correct piece of music. It’s a daunting task, says Dukov, having to learn every piece of music from every single film and to be able to pull out the correct one in a heartbeat. So how do they do it?

“Every piece of music is numbered,” Dukov says according to how the show will run. “So we know for example that ‘best cinematographer’ is No. 88. We’ll have the name of the person plus the movie they worked on. We’ll look quickly for the number and play it.”

Dukov gives credit to Ross who has the ability to keep everything timed down to a split second. “It’s incredibly intense,” says Dukov, especially if they have to play the “get off stage” music. To the musicians, these pieces of music are called ‘chasers.’

“If someone talks too long we’ll start playing quietly to give them the hint. Then if they don’t get off we’ll play louder. We’ll build up to a crescendo to the point where what they are saying will be drowned out. We also have to know when to wait and when not to. Obviously  the producers will allow more time for the big winners, like a Best Director, than they will for Best Costume Designer.

Dukov recalls when Julia Roberts won the Best Actress Award in 2001 for Erin Brokovich she looked down into the pit and told conductor Bill Conti: ‘Don’t play that music, stick man!’ “It was a running joke with us for a long time,” Dukov recalls. “We all kept calling him stick man.”

He also recalls when Michael Moore won the Best Documentary Feature award in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine. “It was really embarrassing. He got up on stage and started saying, ‘Shame on you Mr. Bush,’ following the start of the Iraq war. “The audience was booing and we did have to play him off even though we didn’t want to.”

Although the work is incredibly stressful, Dukov says they do get to interact with some of the celebrities and that’s fun. “We haven’t worked yet with James Franco and Anne Hathaway (who will be hosting this year),” says Dukov. “We’ll meet them on Friday.”

However, he does have great memories of spending many years working with Billy Crystal. “He’s such a master,” Dukov says. “He’s from the old school of stand up comedy. He’d try out all his jokes on us and if we laughed he’d say, ‘Well if the orchestra is laughing it must be funny. I’ll keep it in.’ It was amazing to watch him try out new jokes and change up his act.”

This week Dukov said the orchestra got to record with Mandy Moore who will be performing one of the Oscar-nominated songs from her movie, Tangled. In past years, Dukov says many of the artists have come in and had fun with the orchestra, including Dolly Parton and Randy Newman.

And there are definitely other perks to the gig. “They feed us well, we get to go backstage and see some of the stars and we get to be a part of history,” Dukov says.

And the downside? “We have to constantly be on the alert for any changes. We’re sitting there with headphones on so we can hear the conductor. We may have a piece of music that’s 25 bars long and suddenly the producer is yelling at the conductor to speed up and the conductor will tell us in a split second we’re now only playing 18 bars. It’s very intense, and there’s always that unknown quantity, but it is a huge adrenaline rush.”

Dukov’s only other complaint is the bathroom situation. “There really aren’t that many bathrooms at the Kodak and when you think of all the people there plus the 50 or so musicians, you really have to time your bathroom breaks, because we don’t have a lot of time.”

The commercial breaks are often when the musicians will try and slip out to the bathroom. However, those few precious minutes are also when Dukov will take the time to retune the orchestra if he feels it’s necessary.

Despite the enormous amount of work involved and the pressure the orchestra will be under, Dukov is excited about Sunday night and proud of the work that he and the other musicians do.

“The sheer volume of music that we have to play in a three-and-a-half to four-hour show is considerable. Of all the Oscars I’ve worked on this has been the most intense two days of sight reading and playing I’ve ever done. It’s staggering. And I’m always astounded by the level of talent of my colleagues to be able to do that. It makes me really proud to be one of those people.”

Come Sunday night, keep your eyes peeled for the orchestra, who may be shown in tiny glimpses on your television screen. They’ll be the ones in tuxedos and black evening gowns, headphones on, instruments tuned, ready to roll with the inevitable punches that are sure to occur in a live show watched by millions of people around the world.