the elephant wrote:I meant that many here who are young and have little practical work or audition experience will not know that there are many more jobs out there then they seem ready to accept as actual jobs in orchestras what are quite decent despite the fact that they have never been heard of (or heard) by anyone here.
That is (as is nearly always the case from you, Wade) an excellent point. One that is rarely made here between the myriad of threads about how becoming a professional musician is a gamble at best.
the elephant wrote:I need to work harder at making ALL of my point and not nust some of it.
Elephant makes a very good point about the perspective of the individuals who play all these various orchestra jobs. I think most of the people on this board without jobs are not widely denigrating Elephant's job. On the contrary I believe that most of the players here would consider winning such a job a dream come true. What I've found is that the people who hold these jobs sometimes belittle their own accomplishments. I've known players in very good ROPA groups who feel as if they never "made it" because they didn't make it into a larger budget orchestra - and I've also met many players with Elephant's perspective. The orchestras where the majority of players take pride in their jobs and what they do tend to be better jobs than the orchestras with players that don't, no matter what the salary/budget. It's not uncommon for a ROPA orchestra to outplay a bigger budget orchestra (as Elephant points out) simply because the players just care more. I once heard a veteran member of a major orchestra (this orchestra currently has a minimum salary of over $100,000 a year) say that he always wished he had won a "major job." What he meant was that he wished he'd made one of the "big five." I couldn't believe that he didn't consider his own job a "major job." It may surpise many of you here who would give one of your limbs to play in a professional orchestra that there are many people in professional orchestras who feel like failures because they never made "bigger orchestras." "Big job," "major job" or "full-time" is all in the eye or attitude of the beholder.
P.S. I'm calling adult swim now for any kids on here who are about to ask "what is the big five?" Before asking, at least try googling to find out for yourself.
