Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how I can play as a pit musician at college? I’m applying as a Science Major and Music Minor, but I was wondering 1). how I can get involved and 2). if there were any schools I should be looking at.
I’m not sure if this is a big thing but I know there’s a chance they will give priority to music majors over minors. Any advice is helpful!
Are you interested in playing for musical theater shows, operas, or ballets? There is often a distinction between the pit of a show which is part of the university curriculum and those (more often musical theater) which are put on by campus clubs. I know at D’s old uni, music majors were assigned to the pit of certain shows as part of their major requirements (and received grades based on attendance), but there were plenty of opportunities to participate in other performances with student run groups. I would imagine it varies with the size of the university and how active they are with regard to performances! Perhaps you could ask about specific schools as you may get more accurate feedback.
You audition for it. If you attend a school with performance music majors, you’ll be competing against music majors. If you attend a school with no performance majors, you’ll have PLENTY of opportunity to play in the pit for the student-run musicals. My kid at such a school was deluged with requests to play in the pit for shows, from the day they arrived on campus.
For the most part- there are exceptions- you probably want to focus on schools that do not have a conservatory/school of music/BM program on campus, so that you can play in extracurricular productions (and without competition from BM sutdents). In addition, you can look for lessons and other performance opportunities for non-music majors, sometimes for credit or funded. Some schools have you find your own teacher. This does take delving into detials, and there are a few schools that do have conseratories where you might get involved in productions (possibly Oberlin for instance?). But overall look at schools that do not have BM programs.
One aspect of college that can be more difficult to figure out in the early phases of a search are extracurricular activities/clubs.
It is fairly easy to find the curriculum and requirements for majors/minors. You should check music minor requirements for any ensemble expectations. There may be opportunities built-in to the minor.
As you begin to get acceptances, you can ask to talk with current students about clubs/EC. These activities can have a high level of musicianship as well. Most schools should have these opportunities.
That’s a very specific performance opportunity to seek out. My son is studying voice at a school of music at a university. He also plays cello and piano and has taken two years of lessons on cello at his university. On cello he has accompanied one of the university choirs, accompanied extracurricular choirs, played for someone’s composition, been paid to play for a church, and did have an opportunity to play for the pit orchestra for one of the university operas—he passed on this one. I think it was announced that they needed players for the pit through the strings department at the beginning of the semester. He’s heard of most of these through people who found out he played cello and asked him if he could accompany—essentially networking within the music department. Same for piano. He has had various accompanying gigs that came about because people know he plays and needed a pianist.
Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all the advice. I’m looking specifically to play in the pit for musicals. I’m a percussionist and mainly play on drum set so it makes it a little harder to get opportunities but I’m starting to branch out to more marimba, xylophone, etc so I can be more diverse in my playing. I’m mainly looking at schools in the Northeast Area. My top two schools are Clark and Wesleyan (as a science major music minor). I’m looking at Binghamton right now but I’m not sure since it’s a party school. Any other suggestions would be great!
BTW, if you’re a conservatory level player, consider auditioning for College Light Opera in Falmouth, MA for this summer. You play NINE different shows over 9 weeks, I think 6 performances per week, a new show every week. If you weren’t a monster pit player when you started, you sure will be by the end of it! Apply to CLOC
Great school choices. For summer you can also check out So Percussion and also Oberlin, I believe, has a perscussion program in the summer.
My kid played in both school based musical productions and in community theater ones. The first time, she was recommended by her private instrument teacher (she took lessons and played in a college orchestra). After that, word of mouth got her asked. She was an oboe player and almost every musical orchestra needed an oboe player.
Kid was not a music major….or music minor. Her school allowed anyone to audition for their orchestra, and private lessons were offered at no cost if one played in that orchestra. She did that for four years. And loved it.