Getting into the music business 2

By Natasha Evans
BBC Blast reporter, Bristol

Touring is something all musicians, whatever their genre, deeply desire to do

You're young, enthusiastic and want a career in music. You could join a band, go to college, try busking or enter a talent contest, but where do you start?

I've been looking at some of the ways to break into the music industry in Bristol. In the second part of this series I look at how to forge a career in classical music.

Often classical music is branded elitist - a high art, inaccessible unless you own a pony and play lacrosse every Wednesday afternoon.

But the thousands of young musicians involved in youth orchestras have a different story to tell.

The conductor shouting "couple-of-bottles-of-gin" at the orchestra to get the rhythm was a regular occurrence for Somerset County Youth Orchestra (SCYO).

Youth orchestras have seen wild parties, secret romances, tours worldwide and a healthy chunk of students now studying at music college.

Being part of an orchestra requires intense concentration

Touring Europe, and sometimes worldwide, is something all musicians, whatever their genre, deeply desire to do.

Annual tours for youth orchestras are the norm - SCYO returned from Germany in July '09.

I asked David Johnson, a student at the Royal College of Music (RCM), how he felt being in a youth orchestra had supported him.

"I started playing the violin when I was six… [The conductor] said he would lend a double bass for free if someone would dare take it up and play for the orchestra!"

David now studies the double bass at the RCM.

Pomp, circumstance and a few 'bottles of gin'

Brighton Youth Orchestra (BYO), conducted by Andy Sherwood (SCYO conductor) performed at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2008 as the finale for the Music for Youth Proms, all down to extremely hard work.

Without the experience, "my musical ambition would've fizzled out and wouldn't be in a conservatoire doing what I love best," says David.

DRINK, DRUGS AND CLASSICAL MUSIC Composers weren't always the popular artists of their day. Many suffered from depression (Tchaikovsky), others took drugs (Berlioz) and drank excessively (Beethoven). Their music is equally tragic and dark, quirky or just plain eccentric. The stories behind the pieces aren't said out loud in classical music.

Even if the performer decides not to pursue a career in music, the experience will be with them forever.

The audition process is not without rejection, and it only gets tougher the further musicians progress.

I was told by a flautist in a youth orchestra that your first rehearsal is the best and worst day of your life.

"You realise just how many people are simply better than you," a clarinettist responded, "but it drives you to work harder."

In the professional music world, you have thousands competing for one seat in an orchestra - musicians need a thick skin.

Rejection from music is heartbreaking.

"It's like a painful break-up", says the clarinettist, "the love and energy you have just isn't good enough."

And of course in the real world - there are only around three seats per wind-instrument in a professional orchestra, and diploma-level is standard.

Despite the often unforgiving competition, the results are entirely worth while.

Befriending other musicians opens up and entirely new social network, often riddled with post-concert parties.

Youth orchestras are intense places; intense in competition, intense in achievement as well as fun.

For an aspiring classical musician, there's probably no better, no more realistic, and truthfully no less than necessary place to start.