Anonymous #3, horn.
When you were 18, what were your career aspirations and how much (if at all) did those change by the time you finished university/grad school?
When I was 18, my goal was to play in a full-time professional symphony orchestra, preferably one of The Good Ones. I wanted to travel around the world playing classical music, hear my orchestra on the radio, and see my orchestra’s CDs in record stores. I’m old, ok? My goals remained the same throughout graduate school.
Over the course of your entire career to this point — but prior to the pandemic — how have you pivoted or changed career paths and why?
After my MM, I accepted a doctoral fellowship with a teacher I knew and trusted to help prepare me for auditions. I had taken some “big” auditions by then and had advanced in a few of them - but nothing was panning out. I didn’t really think I wanted to be a teacher, but if I pursued the doctorate, it would give me a little money and more time to practice. After a year in the program, a friend of mine who had worked in Mexico for a few years encouraged me to consider looking into an orchestral career in Mexico - to come down, take some auditions, and maybe play for a while to get some experience sitting in the chair, playing the rep. I got in contact with the manager of an orchestra that was looking for a hornist, and sent my resume. We made a date and the orchestra paid all of my expenses to come play in the section and play the audition. I passed that audition, and a few months after that, heard that an orchestra in another, bigger city, was having auditions. That orchestra paid way more money, and was in a place with nicer weather, so I decided to take the audition. I won the audition but the committee declined to invite me to the job; the committee was pressured by a faction within the orchestra to not hire another foreigner. And definitely not a woman. The same weekend, my friend, who had recently tendered her resignation from her position in an even better orchestra, invited me to visit her and meet the horn section.....in a way, it was sort of like moving me to the front of the line to replace her in the orchestra there. I had proven myself in other auditions, and this conductor didn’t like the hassle of arranging formal auditions. The orchestra, historically, had never had a union or a musicians’ committee; the conductor basically did whatever he wanted, and hired musicians on recommendation from his professional contacts. I played an informal audition for the horn section, and a trial was arranged for me a couple of months later. I went on a Tuesday - the rep was Tchaik 4 - and the conductor offered me the position on Thursday. I imagined I would stay on Mexico long enough to get experience, and either keep taking auditions in the US, or else just go back to school in a few years.
The orchestra is subsidized by the government, so the job paid really well, to begin with. I was making enough money to save, travel really well on vacations, and have a safe and high standard of living. Also, the orchestra played amazing rep. No pops. No kiddie shows. All big orchestral rep all the time. I kept taking auditions in the US, but the longer I stayed in Mexico, the more I realized that even though the orchestra wasn’t the level of orchestra I had hoped for, the standard of living was so much higher, and was a much more financially secure job than many of the orchestras in the US. When I realized that I could have a financially secure job AND a personal life, I quit taking auditions in the US.
What were you doing at the start of this year (2020), prior to the pandemic?
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was in my 16th year at my job. We had just begun our winter season, and had two new kids from the US on trial in the section when we began to suspect that the orchestra was going to go into lockdown. The last thing I played with the full orchestra was Shostakovich 7.
The orchestra went into lockdown on March 15, 2020, and is now performing chamber music and small programs for a very limited audience. During the pandemic, we recorded new music and other projects that were released online. I’ve received my full salary from the orchestra, including bonuses, this entire time. I haven’t been practicing much, and haven’t missed it.
How has the pandemic changed your career path or goals moving forward?
After almost 17 years with this group, 11 international tours, and 14 discs, I am still employed, but am also currently pursuing employment outside music. While I have not been affected economically by the pandemic, my partner, an opera singer, has - along with many others. I would like a chance to pursue something that has a broader impact on more people in a tangible way, and something that may be more financially lucrative for me.