How competitive are the non-major orchestras at U-M? What the difference between the symphony orchestra and the philharmonia orchestra? Is one more competitive/difficult than the other? I am a flute player and I love playing in big groups but I don’t want to be involved in something that will consume too much of my life or be too big of a source of stress for me, if that makes sense. Thanks in advance! :)>-
Are you talking about POPS?
The Campus Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras (CSO and CPO) are primarily composed of non-music majors and are way less competitive than the similar University Orchestras (USO and UPO) which are near exclusively music majors. There are also Campus Bands that you can play in.
USO is more elite than UPO, but my D (music major) was not positive if CSO is similarly the more difficult of the non-music major orchestras. In any case, CSO/CPO auditions are held jointly at the beginning of the semester and they place students in one of the orchestras as a result of that singular audition. See https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/campus-orchestras/home for more info and a contact form for questions.
Hope this helps!
@MomOf2TeenGirls Thank you! I guess I will just have to go to campus and audition to see what happens!
@billcsho What is POPS?
@zeedoq pops is the Michigan Pops orchestra!! It is student run and student directed. It it mostly non music majors
Wow this looks awesome! I’ll definitely look into this when I get to campus
does anyone how competitive the orchestra FOR majors are? i won’t be a music major, but I was kind of hoping to be able to play with an orchestra that is actually good (unlike my high school orchestra lol).
@willowhearted I looked on the website that has the descriptions for all of the orchestras and it said that nonmajor students are allowed but it is not recommended because of the “excessive time commitment” read here:
http://www.music.umich.edu/current_students/perf_opps/orchestras.htm
I’m sure that at the collegiate level all orchestras will be fairly competitive and professional because I feel like at that level only people who really love music and playing their instrument will join the orchestra programs. Just my opinion though
The USO and UPO (for music majors) are top-notch and very difficult for non-majors to join, as UM has an excellent music school. If you audition for them, keep in mind that you are competing against students who practice daily, take private lessons with their professor, etc. Also, USO and UPO rehearsals are scheduled for 10:30-12:30 MWF which can be a challenge with your other classes. There are as few as two weeks to prepare for some concerts. See http://www.music.umich.edu/current_students/perf_opps/orchestras.htm for more info, including the syllabi. Fall auditions take place in the days before the semester starts and have specific repertoire requirements.
You may find CSO, CPO, and POPS (all open to non-majors) to be higher caliber than you suspect, and easier to manage schedule-wise. Good luck - I hope you find one of these outlets allow you to continue your music!
Even the high schools in Ann Arbor have very good orchestra and music program. One of them won Grammy Award multiple times.; )
My daughter is a music major…but voice performance. She has played cello in the CPO and really enjoyed it. It is certainly nowhere near as good as either of the top orchestras, but she had fun it. CSO is more advanced than CPO. Both are run by graduate students. The girl who shared a stand with her was a piano major and my D ended up hiring her as an accompanist. But there were kids from all different majors in the orchestra. The concertmaster, a good friend of my D’s from HS, was an engineering major.
^ Interesting. The former POPS concert master was also an IOE major.