Posted by Orchestral-schmorchestral on April 15, 1999 at 22:09:22:
In Reply to: colleges posted by Kevin K on April 15, 1999 at 18:08:51:
If you are determined that you are to become an "orchestral" tuba player, you should find a school that offers courses in personnel management, library arts, and Yoga meditation (staring into space for long periods of time while doing nothing).
Regardless of the fact that these orchestra jobs are very hard to get, set a higher goal for yourself. That is not enough to do with your one-and-only life. Tuba players have a "list" of "outstanding" excerpts that numbers way less than fifty, and none of which are more than about two minutes long. Think about it. How limited to you want to be? Also, the reason that most of those college tuba teachers ARE college tuba teachers is because they were not good enough players to get gigs (orchestral or other) in the real world, so they kept going and going and going back to school and ended up being Doctors of Tubaology. If you are determined to study tuba (please -- not just ORCHESTRAL tuba), do so with an artistically and commercially successful PLAYER (There are a smattering of these who teach in colleges.) and not with the typical college tuba teacher.