CALL FOR GUEST MUSICIANS

The Charleston Symphony is accepting video auditions on a rolling basis from qualified applicants for all orchestral instruments for our Guest Musician call lists. Guest Musicians are engaged on a per-service basis to expand the 24-member professional full-time Core Orchestra to present large-scale symphonic works.

While engagement lengths vary by series, a common Masterworks series requires Guest Musicians to be in Charleston from Wednesday through Saturday and pays $890 ($540 in W-2 service wages and $350 in non-taxable travel reimbursement) with free housing with a host-family available upon request (note that musicians staying with a host family will still receive full travel & per-diem reimbursement).

Auditions should be submitted per the instructions below. All applicants must already possess all documentation that allows them to work legally in the United States (for foreign nationals, such documents might include a green card or an F-1 student visa with ability to do Curricular Practical Training, etc). Successful applicants will then be contacted as we have need for your services.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CSO GUEST MUSICIAN VIDEO APPLICATION

Application Requirements: Please submit 3 contrasting standard orchestral excerpts and the exposition of a standard concerto (accompaniment not necessary). The three excerpts must be recorded in one continuous take. All recordings must be unedited, have a stationary camera angle, and should have been recorded in the past 6 months. We strongly recommend that your selections be recorded at the highest quality possible. For Wind and Brass players wishing to be considered for auxiliary instruments, please include 3 additional excerpts for each auxiliary instrument. Percussion and Timpani applicants, please see below for audition requirements.

Once your video is uploaded to YouTube or a file-sharing site, you will need to visit one of these pages:

https://charlestonsymphony.wufoo.com/forms/cso-guest-musician-application/

https://charlestonsymphony.wufoo.com/forms/kfp6iwf0u21mtu/

Enter contact information as well as the URL for your video; you will also need to upload a pdf of your resume (the file name of the resume pdf should be your name and instrument, e.g. “SmithJack_trumpet.pdf”). When you complete this process, you will get an auto-generated message from the system saying your submission has been received, and an email will be generated to the personnel manager. (Submissions without working URLs or with no resume attached will not be considered.) If your audition is successful, you will then be contacted by the orchestra when we have need of your services. [Please note: some applicants have had difficulty with this link working correctly; some systems/browsers are adding a second hyphen in between each of the words “cso-guest-musician-application” at the end of the URL.

For Percussion and Timpani applicants – please submit the following excerpts with your resume:

PERCUSSION

Snare Drum – Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade Mvt3, Letter D-G; Mvt 4, P-U
Xylophone – Gershwin: Porgy and Bess: Opening
Cymbal – Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, E-F
Tambourine – Dvořák: Carnival Overture, Beginning-C, 6 before R – 7 after R

TIMPANI

5 standard orchestral excerpts of your choice

Note that you DO NOT need to submit a ‘standard solo concerto exposition’ or any other solo piece for either Percussion or Timpani auditions. And if you have a somewhat recent pre-existing video which approximates our list (i.e., orchestral excerpts, not a recital, and ok if excerpts are not in one take), you may submit rather than making a whole new video; please let us know when the video was made and for what purpose (e.g., preliminary audition for River City Philharmonic)

If you have any questions, please contact:

Tom Joyce
Personnel Manager & Bass Trombone
Charleston Symphony
personnel@charlestonsymphony.org

APPLY HERE