TubeNet

Edited because of mistake.

Does anyone know about how many jobs might open up in the next 5 years?

okay, no names please. woops. I could see where that might upset people. Anyone willing to guess at a quantity of full time orchestras with 60 plus year old tubists. When I was playing tuba in 1999 a person said it was about 15. Now I'm not around anyone with that kind of forsight and knowledge of whos where and am wondering how many jobs may be in the field. I realize there's a lot of people going for very few jobs, AND I'd like to know a wild estimate of how many, however few, are coming up.

I guess no one has told you how spots are really won...

Why not simply do some research...make up a list of full time orchestras - I bet it's REALLY short, but I suppose it depends on your definition of "full time." Then go to the members section of each orchestra's website, get the name of the tuba player there, and research the biography.

Or did you really need the folks on the board to do the legwork for you?

Exactly. The question isn't how many jobs will open up for you, but how many orchestras will there be to even work in!?

tubashaman wrote:Shrevport....sadly....

You might want to do your homework before accepting this one.

viewtopic.php?t=26690

Although, here is the link to the SSO job announcement if you're interested.

http://www.shreveportsymphony.com/employ.cfm

Columbus is in serious trouble, too.

http://tinyurl.com/3at6uy

I agree with Wade. Not a lot of jobs here in the US for a while. If you must have an orchestra job, keep an eye on overseas positions. My old prof Dave Zerkel posted something profound on this forum about this very topic a few years ago that I think is a great perspective. Let me see if I can find it....

Here we go: viewtopic.php?t=13092&highlight=

It's a few posts down. I really admire Dave for all the projects/recitals/everything that he has done over the years and I think he is a great example of the things you need to do to "make it" in the music business. I'm really excited about his latest etude recording project! Should be really cool!

Don't get bummed about the fact that there "aren't any jobs"...just keep on working and try to do things that will bring money in at the same time. That's my less profound advice.

As far as jobs go, I am curious about how many people are able to wrangle a living out of playing/teaching tuba/euphonium now as appose to, say, 20, 50, or 100 years ago.

In the States, it seems that there are more, or I would at least think that there are jobs for tuba players now than ever before. The number of professional orchestras in America could possibly be at or near its peak. I am not familiar with "Classical America" in the early 20th century, but I assume that with the economic growth that occurred during the mid-century came a desire for an improvement in the arts. Of course, this is all just curious speculation.

It seems more likely to me that there are more tuba/euphonium players who are able to make a living by teaching at the college level now than ever before. In North Carolina alone, there are over 10 colleges/universities with adjuct/full tuba professors. I would be very surprised if the number was equally high 15 or more years ago.

Also, there seems to be a greater demand (although still small) today for the tuba as a serious solo instrument. Right now, Oystein Baadsvik seems to be the only one to live off of solo performances, but maybe some day in the future, the world can support two tuba

I think that this is a very legitimate question and in no way bad taste. Nothing wrong with speculating future job oportunities. Some of you really pounced on this guy - (typical around here though). I have no answers for you though. Like someone said, all you can do is speculate based on guestimates of retirement age. I read somewhere a long time ago that on average, there is 1 opening every 2 years in the US. I suggest that you be willing to travel anywhere in the world for auditions. Odds in the USA are just not good.

Stefan

Stefan wrote:I think that this is a very legitimate question and in no way bad taste. Nothing wrong with speculating future job oportunities[sic]. Some of you really pounced on this guy - (typical around here though). I have no answers for you though. Like someone said, all you can do is speculate based on guestimates of retirement age. I read somewhere a long time ago that on average, there is 1 opening every 2 years in the US. I suggest that you be willing to travel anywhere in the world for auditions. Odds in the USA are just not good.

Stefan

It's not just retirement. It's in bad taste to wish focal distonia on someone. Or an auto accident. Retirement ages don't mean so much any more, either. Often people play long beyond. You can't BUY the kind of experience that brings.

I don't think that people were being so hard, rather, they were asking, "Do you realize exactly what you're asking!?".

Now, rather than specific anticipated specific openings, if it had been more general, than perhaps the thread might have taken a more reasonable approach.

The news wouldn't have been much more encouraging, though.

The whole reason for the audition forum is to inform people of openings, and there are many other websites to help musicians try to find jobs. There is no reason to speculate on someone's career, that's just unkind and impolite.