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chibinoi t1_j7y4mmm wrote

Ray, thanks for the AMA:

My question for you is how does one become a professional classical musician in the capacity that you are? Do you get picked up by a talent agent or scout or something?

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raychenviolin OP t1_j7zovn8 wrote

Great question.

Just to give context to those wondering. These days, there are 4 main categories of musicians in the classical music world:

  • Orchestral musician
  • Pedagogue/Teacher
  • Chamber musician
  • Soloist

Many musicians do a combo of these. Mostly Orchestral + Teaching, Chamber + Teaching, or Solo + Chamber. The rarest mix is orchestral + soloist, where currently I've only seen members of the Berlin Phil able to pull this off. There are also many full time quartet players and full time teachers (like my teachers Prof Zhang and Robert Lipsett) who fully commit to their category.

This doesn't factor in social media/content creation which in today's digital age, has become an extremely valuable asset to have and created a new category in itself. You could be a teacher and market yourself online. You could be an orchestral musician and take on an additional social media role within the orchestra. A chamber musicians who offers online courses, or a soloist who records albums, creates content, or builds an app.

The possibilities are endless with many paved paths, but the best part is being able to create a world in which you are placed at the top and are happy with.

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