Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Long Road to Success

Most young college students, as entering freshmen in our universities, are only beginning to formulate career goals. Some flounder even until their undergraduate study is completed and now facing a Masters program, their curriculum choices must be more specific. This is not true however with the budding young professional musicians. These young students have already spent 10 to 15 years studying their instrument, taking weekly lessons, preparing recitals and impromptu performances. Now as entering freshmen, these young musicians are just kicking it up another notch, practicing up to eight hours a day just in preparation for their weekly lessons — such is the competition they are facing.

One would think such preparation for a career would automatically lead to great rewards with the promise of a secure position and financial benefits. This of course is not the case in any field, however, there are certainly more opportunities in business. As a University Professor for 42 years, it became very clear to me that freshmen music majors entering my studio have a great love of music, display promising musical talent, and have no other specific career goals. At this point little thought is given to earning a living as a musician; they found success at a young age and continue to pursue their hearts desire.

With this in mind, let's consider what I call the Ultimate Interview.  This chapter of my book deals with the long and arduous process of obtaining a tenured position in a major symphony orchestra. There are few if any job interviews that cover such a long period of time with enormous expense borne by the applicants. With as many as 300 candidates applying for one position, the likelihood of a young musician even being invited to audition in person is small. Students begin developing their audition skills even as undergraduate students, auditioning for places in their school bands and orchestras eventually reaching out to the community and actually securing paid positions in the area. They also participate in mock auditions to hone the skills of stepping on stage and performing in public with one chance to get it right. What can be accomplished with such ease in a practice room takes on an entirely new perspective when performing in public. The experience of rehearsing and playing concerts in school bands and orchestras would seem to offer confidence when taking an audition. But when the security of playing with dozens of your colleagues in these musical groups is now reduced to one person on a stage playing for a committee of your peers, knees become weak, a cold sweat may break out, hands shake, lips tremble, and fear sets in — we call this stage fright! Many talented musicians have had to forgo careers as professional musicians because of the inability to remain calm and in control when taking auditions. Those finding success in moving into the final phase of auditions will reach out further and further in the community, travelling to nearby cities or states to apply for positions in an orchestra— and adding valuable credits to their resumes along the way.

The entire auditioning process for a major orchestra is outlined in detail in my book. What I would like to present now is an overview of this process. Openings in major orchestras around the world are found in The International Musician, the newsletter of the American Federation of Musicians. Audition committees will then scan the applications looking for 30 to 60 people to invite to perform in person. Candidates that are accepted will have to pay their own travel, hotel, and food expenses to participate. The process begins with a series of preliminary, semifinal, and final auditions— most behind a screen. It is not a small feat to continually perform these excerpts round after round to advance into the finals. At this level a wrong note, careless rhythm, slip of intonation, rushing the tempo, missing a dynamic marking, unclear articulations, or poor phrasing can end your audition. Imagine flying halfway across the country, sleeping in a hotel, waking in the morning and going to the hall for your preliminary audition of 10 to 15 minutes and not passing the first round.  What can be more discouraging!

Unknown to those not familiar with this process, rarely is a candidate chosen as a winner from such an audition. Possibility 2 or 3 finalists will be selected. The conductor may decide to hear each one play a full week of concerts with the orchestra during the next season. This of course may take many months. The music director and audition committee will then decide if any of the finalists are qualified to be offered the position— if not the entire procedure begins again. If one person is selected, that person then proceeds to perform with the orchestra for two full seasons as a probationary member. At the end of each year, the committee again votes to decide if the person is satisfactory. If the committee votes yes, then the conductor decides if that person is satisfactory. Only then, is musician offered a tenured contract with the orchestra.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Valuable Skills

For young students who have a musical background, and are entering Freshmen at a college or university, an undergraduate degree as a music major is one of the most difficult and challenging degrees to pursue. Besides the normal academic load, music students are involved in rehearsals and concerts that take up quite a bit of time. Not to mention the hours necessary to prepare for their weekly lessons. Serious music students may practice up to eight hours a day to achieve the competitive advantage necessary to succeed in this profession. Skills learned as a musician are valuable for any profession. Primarily the daily practice regiment for their weekly lessons. This is similar to being given a project and completing it in a short time span. Music students do this every week of the semester.

Another important skill is that there is no such thing as being late in the music profession. In a major symphony orchestra, a conductor will not begin a rehearsal if one musician is missing. Every instrumental voice in the score must be heard to properly rehearse the music. If a musician calls in sick, management must hire a substitute player to fill the chair.

Music students quickly learn that they not only must be at rehearsals and concerts on time, but they must also allow time to warm up, be in tune, and ready to peform at the exact rate of speed as the rest of the orchestra from the first downbeat. It is not unusual for some professional musicians to arrive at rehearsals and concerts up to one hour before they begin.

Musicians also learn to take criticism-whether it's from a music critic, teacher, friend or relative. As soon as we step on stage, we are subject to criticism.  Especially from conductors!  As music students, when taking a private lesson, teachers constantly are instructing students to play louder, softer, faster, slower, or any of the hundreds of other musical directives that apply to the score.  These suggestions are not open to discussion.  Students learn to follow directions; a very important skill in any business.  As professional musicians and educators, teachers know the value of being able to immediately adjust to a conductor's demands.  So, our comments are not said to create one particular version for the student, but to see how well they can apply these changes to the music.  If a student has trouble following directions, they are probably not cut out for a career as an orchestral musician.

A symphony orchestra concert is very different from opera, ballet, and musical theater.  When attending the performance of an opera, ballet, or musical theater, it is obvious the show on the stage is not the orchestra, but the singers and dancers.  At a symphony orchestra concert, the orchestra is the show, they are not performing in the pit below the stage.  This requires every musician to be dressed properly and no one should stand out by wearing too much jewelery or sparkles on their clothing.  Management is always looking out for "attention grabbers" that may distract the audience from listening to the music.  Major orchestras usually have a dress code in the contract to insure all the musicians blend together as one from the audience.

This is also true about performing within each section.  Except for solo lines, musicians must sound together as one voice, and no individual member of the section should rise above the general dynamic level of his or her section.

In my next post, I will deal the very unusual audition process to obtain a tenured positon in a major orchestra.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Our Great Profession

The title of my blog is also the title of my new book of the same name.  A book about the profession of professional musicians and what is involved in reaching the goal of performing in a major symphony orchestra.  It is also about the Artistry, Passion, and Heartache, of this a profession.

(http://www.meredithmusic.com/the-great-american-symphony-orchestra)

Patrons of the Arts, who attend symphony concerts, applaud the music, support the arts with their time and money, yet have little understanding of how the performers on stage, the conductor, stage crew, librarians, management and staff function in this amazing business.

Little is known of the discipline, perserverance, and work ethic necessary to pursue such a  goal of an orchestral musician in a major orchestra.  The interaction between the conductor and musicians is, in itself, a wonder, since the the position of the music director (conductor) of an orchestra functions as a dictator.  They decide how fast, slow, loud, soft, or any other of the hundreds of musical directives that occur in a musical score.  How you ever wondered how well-educated, highly trained, professional musicians and solo artists, concede so much of their musical opinions to a conductor?  A quote from Walter Legge, Founder of the London Philharmonia, says it all: "There is no form of occupation which has a worse effect on a man's character than that of a conductor."

The audition procedure to join this organization is so involved that it can be utterly discouraging to the young musician. This is discussed in detail in the chapter titled: The Ultimate Interview. 

The position of Music Director in a major orchestra involves complete control over all artistic decisions in this organization.  While musicians readily perform at the conductor's discression, when it come to the reseating of orchestra personnel, serious issues can occur which may affect the moral fabric of the entire orchestra.

There is so much more!  In my next post, I will discuss in detail the working conditions of musicians in this amazing profession.