Professional Orchestral Players Compared to Students

I was recently asked about how ready professionals have the music before a first orchestral rehearsal for a concert.

The short answer is very ready! You will almost never play any orchestral concert as a pro with more than four rehearsals and many only have one or two. Part of why they are paying you is because you are a pro and not only play well but will show up at the gig prepared and ready to make music. Inevitably you won’t have it all scoped out but what music you need to learn at the gig will hopefully be minimal, so that you can get the remaining surprises worked out quickly before the second rehearsal at the latest.

Students on the other hand typically have a different mindset. It may not be as extreme as “Oh, look, we are playing Till! I wonder if it has any good third horn parts?” but it can at times border on that. Students tend to think they can learn the music in the rehearsals and actually they are unfortunately pretty correct on that as typically in the context of student ensembles they have a lot of rehearsals before the concert.

[And yes, as a student I do remember playing in sections with players who literally seemed like they must be sight reading major excerpts in major works on the first rehearsal. You need to know what the big pieces are and gear up for them! My checklist for excerpt study is here.]

If you are an old pro or a good reader you may need to practice the music coming up before rehearsals very little, and for some concerts you can be sure that if you get there a bit early before the first rehearsal that will be enough time to scope out the parts for anything that needs work. If you are a young professional however be sure to get the music early from the orchestra librarian and be ready. The expectation is that you should know the music pretty well before the first rehearsal. It depends to a point what the music is but even on a pops program there will be some passages to look over. You should if possible never be sight reading at the gig anything that is involved or technical or exposed. Good luck!