Letter from London: Scarfie musos find it hard turning pro

By JOE HARROP

Stress levels are pretty high over here as hundreds of London's classical music students prepare for their end-of-year recitals. With the pressure coming on from teachers, deadlines for academic papers, and the problem of finding a piano accompanist who is available and knows your pieces, artistic temperaments are fraying. For many it will be their final act as a student before graduating into the ranks of professional musicians.

However, a career in classical music often turns out vastly different from the preceding years of study. Learning to play your instrument at a professional level doesn't guarantee a living - one must acquire new skills, skills required for, and most often learned in, life outside the conservatory.

Practice, lessons, performance and the odd academic paper do not prepare you for life in the big bad world (euphemistically termed by teachers as "the profession"). A performance outside music college involves finding a concert space, organising rehearsals, programming and publicity. Only the top venues and their management provide these services.

Add the social needs of a London music graduate and we have a modern-day definition of the "struggling artist".

For the elite - the top 5 per cent of student performers - things are a little different. From their discovery as child prodigies, through an inevitably awkward adolescence to early adulthood, the costs of their rather hermitic lives are covered in different ways: scholarships, self-sacrificing parents, trust funds. Often a benefactor or patron will take care of the blossoming talent's everyday concerns.

But unless they win a major international competition or look like a pin-up, even these people need professional management, and must plough the smaller venues in pursuit of performance experience and recognition.

For those less fortunate (or it could be argued, not as hard-working), a few options present themselves.

Commonly the first career choice is freelancing. This presents a wide range of possible engagements from musical furniture at weddings, gallery openings and similar functions, to being called in at short notice to record the latest Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack.

These are the extremes, but there really is everything in between. One percussionist friend featured in a Meatloaf rock video. Who said playing the tubular bells didn't have a glamorous side?

But, as with any profession, there are different levels of expertise and earnings. There are the lower-income musos, playing functions and in throw-together orchestras and there are those who specialise in recording sessions, everything from commercial jingles to contemporary commissions. Highly paid and scarcely out of the studio, their sight-reading is the stuff of legend.

West End musicals are sought-after gigs, as they mean regular pay cheques. Which points to the major downfall of being a freelancer - you never know when your next gig is going to be.

Most young musicians trying to make a living teach. A day's teaching can pay a week's rent. However, it is labour-intensive, and can prove frustrating for the graduate who has to relive and confront the distant history of learning their own instrument. And with very young pupils, the teacher is more babysitter than musical pedagogue.

But what of the other skills needed to make a living? Many colleagues speak of knowing how to fill in application forms for funding, writing programme notes and putting together a glossy CV with studio photos. These involve using a library, word processing, and dealing with people outside classical music - things that many students find confusing or boring, or both.

However, more schemes are appearing to help to make the transition from graduate to professional as smooth as possible. The London Philharmonia and London Symphony Orchestra hold auditions for (paid) students to play in rehearsals and concerts. Last year, New Zealand bassist Matt Cave was a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, a fully paid youth orchestra. In London, a number of schemes provide commercial concert opportunities for emerging soloists and chamber music ensembles.

Does this mean the age of the professional music student is upon us? As a student, I couldn't possibly comment. Let's just say the inherent irony of the expression is not lost on we scarfie musos.