The shitty thing about playing classical music is similar to plenty of other arts: the scarcity of good paying opportunities.
Still, I chose to take a chance. I learned from some of the best in the world...... But auditions will kick even the best musician's ass. It doesn't help that I can't afford the best instrument and that makes all the difference when competing with people at or around your skill level. My consolation is that I get enough local gigs that I make roughly around a teacher's salary, all while working in a school office and playing on the side. I'm actually content with this because I have a job that I can leave at the door when I leave work, unlike being a teacher.
But I never stopped practicing. Today I had the first rehearsal of another concert and we have a bassist that's in the Harrisburg symphony. It's may not be Philly, but it's still an important one. He's bit more than twice my age, so he has a lot of experience, but I caught him following me at times and I knew I played some of the tougher passages of the symphony just as well or even better. At the end, he gave me some glowing compliments, which was really encouraging.
Rehearsals aren't competitions, they're where the real music gets made, but to know that I can stack up with some of the established players in the state was really vindicating.
Here's a selfie of me after practicing in the kitchen because I got sick of messing up:
After this rehearsal, he says to me: "You're blowing me away. I'm glad you're here. You're saving my ass!" 😂
Mind you, we're playing Mendelssohn symphony 4 and it is a really tough piece. It's my second time playing it this year as I did it with another orchestra earlier in the year
