The Orchestra Musician

Playing in an orchestra is unlike any other job. To get into an orchestra, instead of interviewing, a musician has to audition. Some people might think that playing an instrument isn't hard, but it is actually very hard. It is especially not easy to get into the CSO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra). When most of the musicians were kids, they would practice about five hours a day. A lot of musicians practiced that hard but still will not make it into a professional orchestra. At the CSO, the auditions can make people very nervous. These are the audition steps:

1. Practice all the excerpts on the list.
2. Prepare one solo that you know and will be ready to perform for the audition committee.
3. Come to Chicago if you don't live there already.
4. You will not know what the audition committee will ask you to play.
5. Play the solo that you had prepared.
6. Play excerpts of the audition committee's choice.
7. Get votes from the audition committee; if 6 out of 9 say yes, then you go to the finals.
8. If you make it to the finals, play excerpts/solos of the audition committee's choice.
9. If at least 6 votes out of 9, plus the music director (Maestro Mutti), say yes, then you are offered the job.
10. Now you are on probation for two years.
11. If you pass probation, you stay and join the CSO

At the orchestra, there is a hierarchy. There are sections (flutes, drums, tubas, trumpets, violin, etc.) and every section has a leader. The orchestra has a leader, who is the concertmaster, and the conductor is in charge of everyone. Every day, musicians will practice 3-5 hours at the CSO and 2 hours by themselves at home. The musicians get a few weeks to learn new music. During a week of rehearsals, as a full orchestra they get 12 hours before they have to perform. They have to make the music sound easy, but really it's not easy.

At most jobs, people have meetings, give presentations, sell things, but at the CSO, musicians perform and are judged at every concert by the audience members who clap or shout “boo,” and also by critics who write reviews that are read all over the world.