what's new?

the Association

the musicians

events

they have written...

FAQ

contact

It's nonsense to think musicians have it easy The Montreal Gazette [letter] Sherman Friedland, Cornwall, Ont. May 21, 2005 There is one unbelievable exclusion in the letter from Karen Segal concerning her view that medical secretaries and others work very hard, "if not harder for less money," than Montreal Symphony Orchestra musicians (Letters, May 19, "MSO not alone in working hard"). Let us take the average symphony musician in the MSO. He or she has to prepare for this position in music from the time he or she is about 5 years old, for some 20 to 30 years prior to auditioning and winning an audition to earn a place with this symphony. The audition process alone is enough to drive many out of the business or to nervous collapse. For a woodwind position within this orchestra, there are perhaps at least 100 candidates. And only one is taken, and he or she must prove himself or herself for a year or more, under trying circumstances, in order to achieve some sort of permanence within the orchestra. The trying circumstances are that every time you play a single note or a group of notes, you are being scrutinized and can be dropped or kept at the whim of one or two people. I speak from the vantage point of a senior citizen who has performed and taught professional music for more than a half-century. It is a very rough world out there in the realm of the professional symphonist. It is real and there are no mistakes, and there are "no prisoners taken."