<p>Hello! Congratulations on your acceptance!
I’m a second year student at UC Berkeley, and even though I’m not a music major, I still have so many opportunities to play music. I’m also a violinist, and this semester I’m playing in the UC Berkeley Symphony as well as a chamber group (just for fun!). </p>
<p>Before coming to Berkeley, I played in several youth orchestras, and let me tell you–the University Symphony Orchestra has the most encouraging and supportive environment I have yet to encounter in the music world. We’re one big family, and we’re here to achieve the same goal–to have fun playing music! Professor David Milnes is one of the best conductors I’ve ever worked with in my, hmm, 12 years of orchestral experience? I just discovered this, but he studied at the Yale School of Music. Impressive, huh? Needless to say, he’s extremely knowledgeable and has some great ideas about music. The environment is pretty relaxed but he definitely has high expectations.
Despite the fact that we come from all different backgrounds, musically and otherwise, I think we make high quality music together. We pull together concerts in about five weeks, and I think that goes to show how devoted and hard-working we are…and we genuinely love what we do :)</p>
<p>The music teachers at Berkeley are top-notch. If you are a music major and sign up for Music 150A, you can get a set amount of lessons with a member of the faculty. If you’re not a music major, like me, you can still ask for lessons on your own. I prefer this because I’m a science major, and when I have too much schoolwork, practicing can’t always be my first priority. Freshman year, I took lessons every other week to accomodate my busy schedule.
I think you can find a list of teachers in the music building, or you can ask Professor Milnes in the beginning of the year for suggestions. </p>
<p>As for performance opportunities, you can audition to play in noon concerts, which are held on Wednesdays and sometimes Fridays. I believe the auditions are held twice a year, and you can play whatever you want. I actually have a noon concert coming up with my chamber group. By the way, joining the University Symphony is a great way to meet people! It’s so easy to put together chamber groups–you just have to ask around. </p>
<p>I hope that helped! If you have more questions, feel free to ask me! 
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<p>By the way: We’ll be playing on Cal Day (April 21), so you should stop by the music building and check us out. We’ll have several soloists playing concertos with us, so it will be a lot of fun!
Also, on May 4th and 5th, the University Symphony Orchestra is going to play Mahler’s 9th Symphony. It will be awesome.</p>