<p>Just curious if there are parents/students here with experience with auxiliary instruments, particularly those that are common doublings in standard orchestral contexts.</p>
<p>There are obviously benefits to also being able to play piccolo/alto if one's a flutist, Eb/bass if clarinetist, English horn if oboist, etc., when it comes time to audition for spots in orchestras.</p>
<p>I'm wondering how well this pedagogy is integrated into the standard training, and if this is even a pursuit or consideration at the advanced high school stage when one is applying to college as a performance major. Obviously, this could be very fruitful if the student realizes early on in his/her performance training if s/he enjoys playing an auxiliary instrument. But often the case is that a student simply "picks up" the instrument during college studies because it "seems like a good idea" to do so.</p>
<p>Are there any parents or students here that have gone through (or are going through) this? Do you pick colleges as high schoolers depending on the faculty there with auxiliary focuses as an equally important consideration as principal focus?</p>
<p>There is awoman who holds the Asst position for Piano in the Cleveland Orchestra also has a chair in the first violin section, so she was able to utilize both. And you’re right when thinking that a flute player needs to be able to handle the alto and bass flutes as well as the piccolo, the same with oboe/ English horn and the horn and tuba players in the pit at the Met have to play some of the unique instruments required for Baroque music and some Wagner. Obviously, being able to double up makes a candidate much more attractive to smaller orchestras who just can’t afford to keep a Bass Clarinet specialist or someone who plays only the English Horn I know there are parents here in CC who have kids taking viola even though their youngsters are violin majors. At the top conservatories it doesn’t tend to be so much a case of “picking it up” but rather, if they are interested or come in playing that second instrument, opportunities are there for additional study and performance. I myself played three very different instruments well, but was a dual major on two of them. Make sure to find a way to include additional information on the application if your student is proficient in more than one instrument and definitely inquire as to what the school’s policies and opportunities are in this case.</p>
<p>Please excuse the few typos in my post above! It’s late, I’m battling insomnia and this site doesn’t allow for editing corrections when things are written on mobile devices ( and you all know about iPhone/iPad “autocorrect”, right?!</p>
<p>In the biggest symphonies, I believe it might be seen as a distraction to be regularly playing an auxilliary instrument. The audition committee might think you are not serious about your primary instrument.</p>
<p>Perhaps this varies depending on the instrument and/or people involved, but on oboe, once a student is viewed as a good English horn player, they are “stuck” with English horn, as one major symphony English hornist told my daughter.</p>
<p>Everywhere else, it is an advantage. My daughter liked the English horn so much that she bought a used one herself when she was around 13 years old. She’s had the opportunity to play English horn solos in big concert halls. Oboe plus English horn, along with saxophone and clarinet, have enabled her to find work with semi-professional orchestras, theater pit orchestras and a light opera company. </p>
<p>She is applying to colleges right now, but is focusing on two major instruments, not the auxilliary ones. Meaning, on oboe, she will audition on oboe only and look for oboe instructors who play principal oboe in major symphonies.</p>