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Full details here

https://knoxvillesymphony.com/about-kso/employment/

Always interesting to see what other orchestras pay. Mine pays less per service, but does do mileage and lodging, which adds up since I’m from out of town.

Assuming around 150 services, that works out to about $24k.
Is there enough freelance or teaching in that area to make a living wage?

I'm setting the over/under for the number of applicants at 49.5.

Do you have the over or the under???

Instead of the Star Spangled Banner, do they open up each season with Rocky Top?

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:47 pmInstead of the Star Spangled Banner, do they open up each season with Rocky Top?

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:47 pm Instead of the Star Spangled Banner, do they open up each season with Rocky Top?

They take a sample of 50 attendees* and calculate the ratio of tattoos to teeth.
If that ratio is above 2.75 then they start with Rocky Top.

*Might those 50 attendees account for half the audience?

Chuck Schulz has been in Memphis over fifty years...probably 52 or 53 years...(??)

I might be playing for him slightly more often than in the past, but not all that much more often
(and sometimes, it's because he's doing other things...He's actually become an expert as some non-music related - ie. important - things, and is often hired to do those things).

He no longer climbs up on roofs (and yeah, maybe I shouldn't be up in trees or up on roofs either, but I am), but he still plays racketball...I believe he's quite good.

me...??
This is my fiftieth year of being Chuck's regular sub or second. In the past, I also covered (until John Mueller retired from Pershing's Own) any baritone stuff, including Ein Heldenleben (which is when I decided to BUY a euphonium, as it felt embarrassing to BORROW one from a friend (who had played it in one of the Marine base bands).
The first piece I played when subbing for Chuck (fifty years ago)...Stravinsky's Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée".
(nope...I didn't own a jinbao french tuba.)
I was 17. It wasn't up to Mark's school systems' standards, but I used a leaky three-valve King 1240.
On that concert, I was playing with protégés of Beversdorf, Gray, and Remington.
Most importantly (for me, for performing that piece), though only 17 (and no tuba lessons...only several years of guitar lessons) I knew how to count bars that featured old pencil marks (such as these: △)

to Sande MacMorran:

Jim Williams wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 10:35 pm Is there enough freelance or teaching in that area to make a living wage?

I would seriously doubt it, unless there was a demand for teaching there.

Jim Williams wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 10:35 pm I'm setting the over/under for the number of applicants at 49.5.

Do you have the over or the under???

It's going to be completely filled for that day. It'll mostly be younger/inexperienced players who aren't ready for a professional gig; and some will be very good players, albeit inexperienced. I doubt anyone who's played in a pro orchestra previously will even bother (unless they're already local). I'll just be curious to see how it goes.

It seems pessimistic, but when it comes to orchestral jobs, the jobs there are are shrinking, as are the budgets, but the talent pool is increasing every year with hungry players who have no clue how they're going to put food on the table. They'll audition for this, because there's not a whole lot of playing options besides this.

Here in Orlando, Disney can make an announcement for a TEMPORARY position that lasts maybe a few weeks, casual (which typically means standard 3-5 hour gig at standard gig rates locally), and that's it. People will literally FLY DOWN HERE from all over the country, fill up a bass audition with 100+ applicants, for the possibility of a gig at Disney. I think a lot of them think it'll be a shoe-in to gig at the parks more, but they all get very disappointed very fast. Same with a part-time gig at Disney. 2 days/week, factors out at about $20k. You'll see double bassists having driven here from as far as the Midwest for that shot.

The rub is that Disney auditions are NOT blind auditions, because it's a "casting" as much as it is a "musical" audition. Further, there's usually someone specific in mind; typically someone who was recently laid off from another on-property job and the company is just trying to do what they can to do good on their full-time entertainers--who also already understand how the company works, and doesn't cost the company any extra money on training or the months it takes to learn how to work in this environment (which is very high quality players who also have to have tons of stage presence and lots of speaking lines). The auditions are harder than any orchestral audition I've ever done, even though they're hundreds of times more pleasant and fun. It's just that these casting calls usually have less than a few people already in mind and the audition is just a formality they have to have due to CBA rules.

When I first moved to Orlando, Disney auditions were kinda a "big deal," but you'd only see less than a dozen players show up for an audition, and they were all local. Usually, just about any one of them could handle the gig. After roughly 2015, something changed where you might find your barber from NYC sitting in the waiting room next to you for the same job.

Also, I did an audition with the President's Own on euph back in 2002 (Ryan McGeorge, who's retiring this year, won that audition). Out of the 200-something people there, the "stable" was full of euphonium players who weren't anywhere near ready for such a gig. But they all came out because "you never know." On one hand, you can see that there's the lesson of experience you can get from auditions, but on the other hand, if it's not a blind audition, and you don't do well, you might have really hurt future options (I've seen it); and on the other hand, the audition committee can get completely burned out by hearing a lot of the same kind of musician they're not looking for, they might not be in a good mood when the more qualified musicians come in.

That being said, this vacancy was very much meant for someone local. The pay isn't awful when you consider many regional orchestras' pay, so if you're already living there and have carved out an otherwise decent living, it's probably a great position. I just don't think anyone would really benefit much if someone who wins it has to move to Knoxville for the gig.

Jim Williams wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 6:21 am

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:47 pm Instead of the Star Spangled Banner, do they open up each season with Rocky Top?

They take a sample of 50 attendees* and calculate the ratio of tattoos to teeth.
If that ratio is above 2.75 then they start with Rocky Top.

*Might those 50 attendees account for half the audience?

Harsh!

Winner

Mike Anderson