Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music [Paperback]

In the tradition of Anthony Bourdain’sKitchen Confidentialand Gelsey Kirkland’sDancing on My Grave,Mozart in the Jungledelves 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 García 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 Jungleis the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit.

Blair Tindallis a regular contributor to The New York Times, Sierra Magazine, and the San Francisco Examiner; her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal and Art & Antiques. The recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, Tindall holds an M.A. in journalism from Stanford University. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.