| ive known many orchestras in latin america and europe that wont hire you without a degree. in my experience the worse the job seemed, the stricter they were about it. may the best player win is a first world, maybe even US only notion. its certainly not reality.
as for the statement about playing 3rd or 4th. well, ive known plenty of orchestras where that statement holds true. there are lots of bands that dont do heavy duty rep and you can very easily and happily pass the time down low in the section hiding out. the pay is shit, and the bands play like shit, but they exist in force unfortunately. you tend not to see that so much in the US, and less but its there in Europe.
anyway the original poster is from Scotland and he says "in the more obscure orchestras". my experience tells me the more obscure the orchestra, the stricter they are about rules and regs, the less they care about how anybody plays. flame on. |