Professional Musicians most popular request!
After performing for three New Year’s Eve concerts, led by an amazing conductor and surrounded by eighty highly trained musicians, the volunteer usher asked “So, is this a professional orchestra?” If the multiple standing ovations, the program filled with the biographies of the award winning soloists and the $65 ticket prices wasn’t enough to make it clear that it was indeed a professional music ensemble, then there must have been another question or two that needed to be asked and answered: “Can you make a living playing music or do you have a ‘real’ job?” Maybe the misunderstanding is complicated by the fact that professional musicians GET to do what they love and get paid to do it. We understand that people appreciate what we do even if they don’t understand what it is that we do.
The great answer is that YES! We do make a very good living playing music and YES! it is a real job with real taxes and bills to be paid just like everyone else with a “real” job. As professional musicians, we are held to the music industry’s highest of standards – we not only have to play each note perfectly but we also have to have experience for many other events as well. If only our music teachers had told us that we could make our living at this and have this much fun, we swear we would have practiced more!