Hi Mike, Dave Weiner made a very important point:
> You have chosen a career path that requires you to be among the > very best. > Orchestral jobs are few and far between - animals hunted almost > to extinction. This can't be stressed enough. I'll give you my perspective as somebody who in the end decided *not* to go into the profession after having seriously considered it. I got a degree in another subject (electronic engineering) before going on to do a 2-year postgraduate performing course on the horn at the Royal College of Music. I had had private lessons for several years with a couple of very fine teachers (Hugh Seenan and later Douglas Moore). I was seriously considering a career in the profession and wanted to find out how good I could really get. In the event I decided that a music career was not for me. Part of that decision was based on a back-of-an-envelope calculation that went like this. - I worked out roughly how many salaried positions there were for horn players in the UK, in all the regular orchestras, by counting the number of orchestras and multiplying by 6. - By a similar method, I worked out roughly how many horn players were graduating from all the music colleges each year. - With these figures, I calculated that there were enough players graduating to fill the entire profession in the UK every 3 years or so. Maybe double that time if you account for all the freelance jobs as well. - Assuming that a successful player would occupy one or other of those salaried positions for perhaps 30 or 40 years, then it was clear that I needed to be in the top 10% or so of those *graduating* from college in order to have a decent chance of making it. (Those figures might be off a little either way, but I'm sure they are accurate enough to give the correct overall impression.) I wasn't in that class, and there were too many other interesting things to do with my life for me to be willing to make the kind of single-minded effort that might or might not have raised me to that level. So I abandoned thoughts of a playing career, and have had no cause to regret the decision. I also do not regret in any way the time I spent at the RCM, as it enabled me to make that decision on a fully informed basis. I now thoroughly enjoy my playing as an amateur, and the training I received at the RCM and before means that I can cope with most of the technical and musical demands that might be made of me in the amateur music world. Music performance is one of the few occupations where the practical standard required for entry to the profession significantly exceeds the level necessary to attain any formal qualifications you might pick up along the way. As far as I am aware, auditioning panels for professional orchestras really aren't much interested in formal qualifications. They are interested in how you sound (in terms of tone, musicality, sight-reading ability etc), what your playing experience is, and whether they think you will fit into the section. Now, you might really be good enough for the profession. Even if you are judged now to have the potential, probably there will be no way of knowing whether you will actually achieve necessary standard unless and until you try. If you are set on this, then go for it and good luck! But be aware that the majority even of those who graduate will not make it as professionals, and that you may need an alternative career and another way of paying the bills. That might be in teaching or some other non-playing career in the musical world, or in something completely unrelated to music. Good luck! Regards Jonathan West _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
