Musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
  • Home
  • Donate to the Musicians
  • Press for CSO Musicians Strike
  • Features
  • Events and Activities
  • News
  • About
    • About the CSO Musicians
    • Riccardo Muti
  • Musicians
    • Orchestra Roster
    • Musician Interviews
  • CSO Videos
  • Travel Blog
  • Links
  • Contact

Twenty Hours a Week is Just the Beginning.

10/15/2015

1 Comment

 
By: David Sanders, CSO cellist since 1974
Something that members of a world-class symphony orchestra are used to hearing, especially around contract negotiations time, is that “those musicians only work twenty hours a week” (four rehearsals and four concerts). What is missing from that statement? Let’s see.
 
Most members of a great orchestra began working at their chosen instrument from the time they were young children, maybe as young as four or five years old. I was a late starter; I started cello lessons at age 14. But it’s not just a matter of taking lessons over a long period of time. Generally speaking, the successful instrumentalists practice on average anywhere from three to six hours a day, every day. Think about that. What have most people been doing from the time they were five years old for three hours a day, or six hours a day. There are very few courses of study or careers that take that kind of dedication, attention to detail, concentration, and a general fanaticism over the course of ten, fifteen, twenty or twenty-five years. And that is before you get a job. A violinist who starts the instrument at five years of age will very likely study and practice that instrument for twenty years or more before getting a job in a great orchestra. That’s over forty thousand hours of practice.
 
Okay, so you’ve been practicing for 40,000 hours, and you apply for an audition for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. So do 149 other violinists. And your audition lasts somewhere between two (not a good sign) and fifteen minutes (a very, very good sign). You’re called back to the finals, along with two or three others, and low and behold, you win the job. Thank God, you can stop practicing. WRONG!!!!
 
When I was the lucky one on April 23, 1974 and got my job in the CSO, of course I knew that I was joining possibly the best Orchestra in the world. A year earlier Time Magazine had had a cover article featuring Sir Georg Solti, who was to be my music director, and called him “the fastest baton in the west.” The article also rated U. S. orchestras, and for the CSO it simply said “sine qua non.” I was excited. I was practicing. I wanted to earn my keep, so to speak. But I wasn’t prepared for what happened when I sat down in that great cello section in that great Orchestra. All around me, everywhere I looked and listened, there was such greatness coming from so many instruments. And they were doing it with such naturalness and ease, yet with an incredible intensity. I had the intensity at that time, but I didn’t feel as if I had the naturalness and ease, so I started practicing even harder.
 
You cannot rest on your laurels in the Chicago Symphony, or in any world-class orchestra. You never want to let your colleagues down,  yourself down, or, maybe more importantly, the music down. Now in my 42nd year, I still don’t want to let my colleagues, myself or the music down. It is a never-ending struggle to continually try to master a musical instrument, to keep improving, be it string, wind, brass, or percussion. And believe me when I say, twenty hours a week is just the beginning.
1 Comment
tom lovejoy
10/23/2015 06:20:14 pm

I can attest to that! Well done, and well written, David.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Backstage
    Benefit Concerts
    History
    Musicians Away From The Stage
    Musician Spotlight
    Publications
    Riccardo Muti

    Archives

    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2015 Chicago Symphony Orchestra Musicians, All rights reserved.
Chicago Symphony Musicians is not affiliated with Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. This website represents the views of the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and does not represent the views, positions or opinions of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.

  • Home
  • Donate to the Musicians
  • Press for CSO Musicians Strike
  • Features
  • Events and Activities
  • News
  • About
    • About the CSO Musicians
    • Riccardo Muti
  • Musicians
    • Orchestra Roster
    • Musician Interviews
  • CSO Videos
  • Travel Blog
  • Links
  • Contact