Great Expectations

When I consider the expectations I had versus the reality of preparing for, winning, and maintaining a position in my orchestra, much of what I had anticipated in the audition process turned out to be true, but almost everything I had imagined about maintaining and functioning in my position was wrong. As I described in my recent article , I was fully aware of how difficult it would be to win a position in an orchestra. In fact I wanted to get a job so badly and I was so afraid of failure that my fear became a powerful and constant motivator during my conservatory years at Eastman. I wanted nothing more than to learn and experience as much as I could and to practice as many hours as possible. I did exactly that and in the end, I was able to win my position towards the end of my senior year.

In addition to private lessons and practicing, actual experience playing in an orchestra is extremely important in developing the skills needed to succeed in auditions and later achieve tenure in an orchestra. I had a major advantage having won a per service position in the Rochester Philharmonic. David Zinman was Music Director at that time and I gained invaluable experience under his direction for two seasons prior to winning my full-time position in Columbus. During my time there the musicians treated each other with respect for the most part and seemed happy to part of such a good orchestra.

With this experience, I fully expected the atmosphere to be similar in Columbus, but I was dead wrong! I joined the orchestra during a period of very rapid growth, both financially and artistically. The season length was expanded and many new full-time positions were added in just a few years. Amazingly, a decision was made to pay the new full-time musicians almost double what the existing full-time musicians were being paid. As a brand new second bassoonist, my salary was much higher than the principal whose education and student orchestral experience was almost identical to mine. Now multiply my situation by fourteen, which was the total number of musicians added when I joined. Needless to say, and rightly so, the veteran musicians were not happy at all and it instantly divided the new musicians from them. After a six month strike two years later, the salary disparity was corrected but it was a very rough start to my full-time career. Instead of the positive atmosphere I had experienced in Rochester, fear and paranoia ruled the day in Columbus in those early years. None of my prior education and experience helped me and it was the opposite of what I had expected orchestra life to be.

Now more than twenty years later, the atmosphere is completely different. Although our orchestra struggles with economic problems like most orchestras today, the general atmosphere is much better. For me the greatest difference between my expectations as a student versus the reality of orchestra life is the fact that musicians can not afford to focus only on their performances on stage. If every musician did nothing but show up, play their best, and go home, our professional lives would be much worse than they are today. Involvement with musician advocacy off stage in a variety of ways is essential. As a student, I did not know this and was completely unprepared. Fortunately I was mentored by two former orchestra committee chairs, one of whom was Chris Durham, and I quickly learned how to be an effective advocate. My hope is that some kind of program can be adopted by the major conservatories to educate students on the business of orchestras, not just from the management/board perspective but from the musician perspective as well.