Becoming a professional musician

[Violastia]

Hello! I am a 30 something mum of 3, qualified accountant but after watching the RSNO play a few weeks ago, the musical spark in me has been relit and I’m wondering what are my chances of becoming a professional orchestral violin player?

I have my grade 8 and played in NYOS (National youth orchestra of Scotland) for a few years but this was probably 12/13 years ago now.

What are my chances? I mean with a good few years of lessons/ intense practice, would I even stand a chance at my age having not been to music school?

I don't know but good luck to you.

Have you thought about how you juggle 3 dc with touring etc. I’d say it was near impossible to become professional now. You could always go to some auditions to see how you get on.

From a musician turned accountant...
most of the people I know in orchestras or professionals went to a conservatoire and started younger.

Btw that doesn’t mean you can’t join amateur groups and thoroughly enjoy your instrument still though!

Pretty hard to be professional, most players will have been grade 8 at school and then gone on to study music.

Maybe have a few lessons again and see if there are orchestras you can join in your local area.

Almost impossible to be a professional at this stage I would have thought but no reason why you can't play in a good amateur orchestra then take it from there.

There are so many ways you can enjoy music without being a professional musician. Do your children play? Some of the best musical moments in my life have been playing quartets with 2 of my kids and my husband.

You can take lessons again, start practising, find a group to play with, or even audition to go study at one of the conservatoires, as you are serious about really working on your playing. Getting an orchestra job is very difficult, though.

If you would like a week in a spectacularly beautiful spot on the Maine coast, (either as a family holiday or on your own) playing chamber music, sight-reading, rehearsing in a group with a young professional mentor, meeting other amateur musicians, and getting some coaching with wonderful teachers, I can recommend this programme:

kneisel.org/acmi/

There are lots of opportunities in the UK, of course. I just thought this was a wonderful place when I visited it recently.

Thanks everyone, looks like an amateur orchestra is the way to go for me!

Good luck OP how exciting to get back into music and see where it will take you! (And apologies for my post on the AIBU thread which over identified with your position). In case you are based in the West Midlands the CBSO are doing a string play day on 2 March which might be fun to join.

I'm not sure about getting into an orchestra but maybe look into becoming a session musician? They are hired to perform during recording sessions or live performances.

I'm a huge fan of dance music and I know that live dance music is becoming a thing and they have different elements to each performance and I've seen violinists on a couple of occasions.

Sorry but although I like your ambition this reminds me of a letter that a top London orchestra received in their audition process for a brass player who wrote a letter saying how they have "never played the trumpet but like the sound of it and will try very hard". It did the rounds of the orchestra in no time, as you can imagine.

Though if you're looking into amateur orchestras there are plenty of excellent ones around. Where in the country are you?

Look into the Rehearsal Orchestra. They exist purely to rehearse orchestral repertoire. You need to be at grade 8 or above and they do some really exciting stuff. Google them.

The top music colleges generally say you need to be Grade 8 distinction standard as a starting point but even if you are there is no guarantee of acceptance. They are looking for potential virtuoso players for classical orchestras.

However I know many who earn a decent part time income from playing in amateur theatre company pit bands etc (but you often need to be multi skilled and be able to double)

Hmm, I remember my violin teacher being painfully honest with me when I was about 17. Her summing up: "you could scrape into one of the 4 or 5 major music colleges (and if you can't get into one of the top colleges, forget it), you'd come out the other end with the equivalent of a 3rd, then you wouldn't get a job." Hurt like hell at the time, but she was right.

Sounds like you were a bit better than me, but I can remember friends who were better than me (knew a lot of NYO players when I was a teen) who did indeed go through music college only to find they couldn't get a job at the other end.

@FermatsTheorem that sounds similar to what my teacher told me. Made me more determined. Got into the music school that I wanted, achieved a first class honours degree then went on to another top international level college and achieved my Masters with Distinction.
BUT I was young enough at the time to make drastic improvements to my technique etc and I worked extremely hard. When you're young I believe you have more time to dedicate yourself in a way that is more complicated when you're older (how old are you OP?). I can't imagine how one would 'compete' (though I hate that word) with musicians who have been perfecting their craft since they were very little.

(Yes I've got a job!)

(Sorry just saw OP is in 30s)

That's brilliant, Writer In my case, sadly, my teacher was spot on. (She'd already built my technique back up from the foundations - did a really good job too. I'm now a very rusty amateur, but my technique remains rock solid). I think I'd really got as far as I could. I always read that bit in Malcolm Gladwell's book about 10,000 hours to achieve mastery and how "there are no grinds in classical music" and think "nope, mate, I was the grind - 5 hours practise a day and I just wasn't good enough..."