Driving for Dollars

Scheduling conflicts seem to be one of the biggest problem with freelancing when you are depending on regional orchestras for the bulk of your work. In the Philadelphia area it seems that all the orchestras tend to schedule for the same weekends. Of course much of this is due to holidays, sharing concert halls with other groups, etc. Most regional orchestra players realize this early on, and I know more people than not who choose to just sub in some of these groups because subbing eliminates the whole minimum requirement issue.

In the Harrisburg Symphony our minimum requirement is fairly reasonable, and we are allowed to miss two rehearsals a season as long as they are not on the same series. Because we have two children in elementary school, we usually save our absences for childcare reasons, not to do other gigs. If I am using an absence to do another gig, it’s generally not another regional orchestra, since most of our orchestras have the same Thurs-Sat or Sunday schedule. At this point I only have the minimum from Harrisburg to fulfill…..contractually that is. Smaller non-contracted groups may not require a minimum but you always run the risk of not having your “spot” on the list after too many absences. In Philly Pops we have no minimum requirement but we also do not have individual contracts, so skipping too many series is risky as well.

In my husband’s case he has two minimum requirements that he needs to fulfill, Harrisburg Symphony and Reading Symphony. These cities are only about an hour apart (and there is another orchestra in Lancaster, PA which is right between those two cities), and many players have contracts with all of these groups. Some people need to take a year leave from one or another of these groups at various times because they can’t make their minimums.

Another issue is the time frame in which one must “bail” from the gig. Usually it seems to be 30 days. This is fine for bailing to do work that you know about, but not for the unexpected call for a gig that you really can’t turn down, financially or musically. In Harrisburg Symphony many of the players sub in NY Phil, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and National Symphony. Our conductor is usually pretty willing to let those players get out of a series inside of the 30 days as long as they don’t make it a huge habit.

It seems that violating the 30 days is a little more acceptable than not fulfilling the minimum attendance requirement.

Since most of the regional orchestras in this area are all within a 2 hour radius of Philadelphia, I don’t know many people who lie in order to do another regional orchestra since it would be easy to get caught.

When I was younger I preferred playing in regional orchestras as much as possible. Now that I have kids, I try to do as much work with as little driving as I can. Sometimes it’s not the most musically satisfying choice but I have learned to let that go when necessary.