What do you have to do to join a symphony and get paid to play an instrument?

Question:i would like to play the violin and get a salary for it, what do orchestra members amke yearly, do they need degrees, or will they hire you based on talent. thanks for your help.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i would like to play the violin and get a salary for it, what do orchestra members amke yearly, do they need degrees, or will they hire you based on talent. thanks for your help.

Its certainly not impossible. Get private lessons from a good teacher, play in a youth orchestra, join all state. Get a lot of musical experience. Work hard and you have a great chance of getting into your local professional orchestra. Yes, you have to pretty much be a prodigy to get into the major orchestras like NY philharmonic or Boston symphony, but certainly not your local orchestra.

Most musicians have multiple jobs to supplement their orchestra income. They are music teachers, private tutors, part of chamber orchestras, do gigs. With those other jobs they make a bunch of money. That answer that said they cant support themselves is BS.

I know that for local orchestras you do not need a degree you just have to go through an audition process. As for that being your only job, I wouldn't recommend it; perhaps if you were to join a state or national orchestra you would make enough money to sustain yourself on.

To get a full time salary in the orchestra is very difficult, especially for violin. Only a portion of the violin section is on salary, the rest our per hire basis and receive a service salary. Depending on the size of the orchestra the per service fees are different. Some range from $100 a service to $400 a service. The only guaranteed money is concert master, assistant concert master, first chair 2nd violin.

The big orchestras like NY Phil, Boston and LA pay top dollar. hard to say how much but I imagine very high. To earn that spot, will take years and years of work. The concert master for NY Phil has held the post for some 15 years and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Concert Master has had that position for 25 years.

To even get into an orchestra you need a music degree. Preferably a masters. You need to build up your string skills. Talent has nothing to do with it. You must learn everything related to music. For strings, you must know excerpts... and there are a lot. Thats why you goto school, so the professionals can help you and build your ability. There are auditions all the time but it is so difficult to win a seat. I know colleagues who have done 50 plus auditions and never been called back. It is that competitive. 1 chair can have up to 1000 people audition. First you send in a tape or a dvd and if they deem you good enough they'll call you for an audition.

Trust me, it is not easy to get into a violin section. There are so many great violinists out there. If you do not want to attend University for music you stand no chance to get a position. Even if you attend school the chances are slim. You have to be the cream of the crop, the best at what you do. You have to understand how many grads there are per year in violin. In New York alone I would guess from the 3 major schools (Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes) that there must be a combined total of 500 per year. In New York alone there will probably be 2 or 3 openings a year, and that isn't with the NY Phil - but smaller orchestras. And then your competition comes from New England Conservatory, Oberlin, Curtis, Eastman, Boston University, Peabody, USC, San Francisco Conservatory to name a few.

Good luck if you think you will make it on talent alone. Do you know how many talented violinists are out there?

You don't need a degree, however, the level of talent and skill required to make any money in a symphony on a regular basis would almost imply a degree. There are auditions for local symphonies you would just need to check out their webpage or call their office.
Also, most Orchestra members do many other things to supplement their income. They are always looking for gigs to play with this or that. In the end, be realistic, you learn things in college that are important to performance. My best advice would be to get into a good music school like Juliard or Berklee or Eastman, then go on to an Orchestra or you can start locally and try to work your way up. Either way is going to take a while to establish yourself and be solely supported by your music career.

Chinese Cowboy gave you a full and honest answer. the chances of getting into an orchestra are very slim. You will have to be extremely good at playing the violin to even get into a good school.

You would be shocked at the number of talented violinists who get rejected.

You need to be able to play like this : and yes, you will need a degree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8E4z4VQV...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPpwIbcjU...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtWFB2yoo...

When you are playing an instrument, NOBODY cares what your academic background is... all they care about is you can play it. That being said, you may need a degree from a prestigeous music schoolm, just to be accepted FOR the audition

You will need to be able to PLAY that instrument BETTER than the 100 other people who you will be auditioning against for the ONE or TWO openings in the orchestra... so you MUST be VERY GOOD.

Orchestra members barely make enough money to live on... many qualify for food stamps and rent assistance... Years ago, I was in an orchestra and making $250 a week when restaurant cooks were making more

I don't know how old you are. If you're still in high school, start working your tail off. My daughter has the same aspiration with her french horn. She actually wants to be an author, but knows you can't make any money until a book hits the shelves. So, she thinks maybe she could play for an orchestra to make money while she writes books. She's only in 7th grade, but she is very talented. Her band director says she's the best french horn player he's seen come through their school. But talent won't get her into a symphony orchestra all by itself. She's going to have to keep her eye on that goal and practice very hard. And she's starting working herself into that world as early as this year..... by auditioning for the Junior Youth Orchestra in Fort Worth. By high school, hopefully the Youth Orchestra. You might look for something like that in your area to give you some serious experience.