<p>I second what speihei said, that was kind of a ridiculous thing to say, and also frankly is something there is no way he could guarantee. I realize that according to conventional wisdom you can be considered “starting late”, and that you may have a lot of work to do to catch up so to speak, but that is not a guarantee of anything. Based on personal experience (and Carter Brey is a good example, there are others as well) doors don’t close that tight even in the crazy world of music as it exists today.</p>
<p>If he had said you wouldn’t be a first class soloist a la Yo Yo Ma, I could respect that, because besides the ridiculously high standard to be a soloist, there simply aren’t a lot of them, you are talking maybe at best 10-20 people in the world in terms of the ‘superstar’ soloist…just based in statistics, and the advanced playing level, that one would be pretty easy to say.</p>
<p>And though you are approaching late in high school, there is still a long path ahead. About the only way he could be right IMO is if you were someone totally untalented, who was hacking around, etc, and hadn’t really done anything per se (which you don’t sound like; that description, on the other hand, described my skills or lack thereof in high school, I wouldn’t cut it in the really terrible orchestra at my best:).Getting into an orchestra is a weird path in many ways, that requires, besides a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time and the playing ability, other less talked about skills. Personality comes into it, musical interpretation and feeling, the ability to read others in a group and blend in, the ability to play in a group and bring something unique to it (technical mastery alone is meaningless, at least in a high level orchestra like the NY Phil or the Philadelphia). Being in an orchestra like that is a committment that is unlike simply playing. </p>
<p>Want to know a dirty little secret? Many of the hotshots you see, the ones winning competitions, have the teacher’s drooling and the like, playing the elgar at 12 and so forth, won’t make it into an orchestra and for many reasons. The problem is those kids focused on the solo repertoire, most of their training was about winning competitions, getting into pre college programs and then into a top level conservatory (all of which, I might add, can be done while having little or no orchestra or ensemble skills; I have seen those students do chamber and such, godawful comes to mind) (and here I am talking for the most part violin and cello, for instruments primarily ensemble based, like horn, woodwinds and so forth, it is different, but you are on the cello) and they therefore have a hard time, if ever, developing good ensemble skills (not to mention more then a few of them have egos that hurt them big time when they get out there). To give you an idea, the Curtis Symphony, composed of reputedly some of the best student musicians around, creme de la creme, played Carnegie Hall and the Times reviewer was not kind, he said they sounded like a bunch of soloists trying to outdo each other, and I have heard similar comments.</p>
<p>Maybe in some ways, because you know you have to ‘try harder’, kinda like the old Avis ads “Were #2 so we try harder”, it will give you an advantage over more advanced players who think they are going to have the world throwing themselves at them. If your goal is to get into an orchestra, then focus on that. Use every opportunity to do chamber and orchestra, if there is a youth orchestra as well as the conservatory one, do it, get that experience, pick the brains of the conductor and coaches, use it.</p>
<p>And also keep in mind that these days many orchestra positions are being filled by people with masters degree level degrees, who have more then college level study, which means you have extra time to catch up and also can ‘move up’ if you get into an undergrad program that is lower then you would wish, by going to a higher level grad program. </p>
<p>I am not telling you it is going to be easy, it isn’t, it is going to be a haul (but it is a haul for kids who do get serious earlier, that I know from personal experience), it just means you might have to put extra effort in to catch up, and obviously the whole thing for anyone is such a crap shoot about who gets in or not, all you can do is work towards it, have a thick skin and persevere.</p>
<p>My only other advice would be thinking about perhaps finding another teacher. I don’t know how good a teacher he is, obviously, but even if he is good, I am concerned that he would tell a student something like that, and more importantly, that subconsciously would label you as someone ‘not worth the effort’, to try and bring along,which is kind of self defeating. If he had said to you “You know, you face a tough path, and it will be a real battle to get yourself to a level where you have a reasonable chance of an orchestra career, do you think you can do that?” I would be more amenable to him as your teacher (and obviously, I don’t know the whole picture, your own instincts need to be the guide).</p>
<p>Again, I know only too well how hard a path music is, how relatively few orchestra jobs there are, how much crazy competition there is, how high the levels are, but I also know working musicians, including people in some high level orchestras, so I also know that the perception of what makes someone get an orchestra position is not always the truth, it is a mix of factors that along with refined technique that wins out…</p>
<p>I wish you luck, the one thing I know if you are serious about music, is you can’t let anyone get under your skin, there are a lot of people, some well meaning, some less so, who can shatter dreams in an instant (and often for no reason), you need to focus and go, because the one thing I probably can guarantee,you let them break your focus on the prize and you won’t get there:)</p>