Next weekend I'll be off to audition with 9 other bassoonists for a place in the European Union Baroque Orchestra 2013. Over the past few months I've been very busy in preparation for this event and I hope that my hard work pays off.
What really surprised me when I got our information package was that there were more bassoonists auditioning for one placement than there were oboists for two. It's great to see that there is a community out there, but I'm beginning to see that it's much larger than I had hoped. Not that it's a bad thing, right?
I've had a few conversations recently about how the ever-increasing number of young early musicians looking for work and I could never shake off the nervous feeling I would get after. The headlines in the newspapers remind us daily of the tightrope walking going on across the Western economies and it's business as usual in the minds of young musicians. And if you were to read a little farther than page one you'd see that The Globe and Mail's Who Had It Worse Time Machine should kill all the hopes of any but the over-confident. No matter, it seems.
Ok Andrew, reel it in.
Anyways, you'd think the baroque basson world was, at least for the time being, immune to this problem. Nope.
Wow....that's sort of depressing. Can you expand a little bit on those conversations you've been having? No, DON'T reel it in at all. The truth needs to be said...competition is thicker now than it ever has been, and I for one am a bit amazed...
ReplyDeleteIf you're not a recent graduate popping out of the very good programs in historical performance in the US, what's a baroque bassoonist to do? Also, what do you think of the market for dulcian players looking to do more chamber music, as well as work with larger ensembles like choirs doing late renaissance/early baroque music? This is exactly what I did in NYC for a while, a few years ago, before the damn economy hit the toilet and I got "we don't have the budget for it" excuse time and time again... :(