Viola Performance major decision help!

There are other very fine viola teachers at CIM that could prepare you for a career as an orchestral musician. Quite a few institutions have similar associations with orchestras, though with every single first chair (except one ) instrument in The Cleveland Orchestra teaching at CIM, the list of comparable schools is very short. The dual degree route has a dismal completion stat. Perhaps you should consider just getting an academic degree while studying privately. The first chair viola in the Chicago Symphony, for instance has a math degree. What sort of degree does Yo Yo Ma have? There are many ways to be a success.

@jb1966 -

Out of curiosity, I googled Yo Yo Ma. He attended Julliard pre-college and at age 16, enrolled in Harvard where he limited his performing and graduated with a liberal arts degree. Interesting.

There are various paths, but for example Yo Yo Ma was already performing professionally before he went to college (as did Gil Shaham, who went to Columbia, I believe Alisa Weilerstein did the same thing), but that is because they already were at a high level, they were already playing with major orchestras and such. I looked up the principal violist of the chicago symphony, he was studying with high level teachers young and likely continued that in college…but there is also a caveat with him, his orchestral career started in the early 1970’s, and that was a very different time in music, what was possible back then might not be today, the level of competition and playing has gone exponential, that much I am certain of, so you have to be careful when you talk about many paths and such, In that era one of son’s former teachers was a typical high school violinist, got into Oberlin, and out of school got into a high level regional orchestra, where they are a principal to this day…not saying someone can’t get an undergraduate degree in something other than music, not go to a performance program

No program can guarantee you access to anything but some programs are more tailored to orchestral playing than others (and obviously, this depends on the instrument, ‘orchestral instruments’ focus on ensemble playing almost exclusively). On violin much of the teaching is still on traditional repertoire, focused on soloing, but some programs offer classes in things like orchestral excerpts that could give a violinist (or anyone) a leg up on auditioning, other more traditional schools might not offer similar things, so a program can make a difference, make it easier, than another one might.

Then there’s the issue of orchestras that only invite to audition after looking at your resume and where and with whom you’ve studied with, but I’m sure that topic has a lengthy thread somewhere.

I would strongly caution anyone against discussing specific teacher’s personalities and traits in public forums. The music world is very small and you come into contact with the same people constantly so it’s just not wise and it can come back and bite you. Send a PM to someone instead please!

Second on that. Violaworld is a very, very small planet. We saw the same group shot of teachers, holding their instruments from some summer program on the walls of four different teachers. Everybody knows everybody.