Re: Re: Re: Professional Quintet


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Posted by Scott Roeder on April 23, 2003 at 15:41:44:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Professional Quintet posted by Rick Denney on April 23, 2003 at 14:52:43:

First off, I think you need to figure what kind of professional brass quintet you want to have. Do you want to do primarily gigs or are you looking to do recitals and tours like an Empire or Dallas Brass. If you want to do mostly gigs, first you need a book of tunes that can be pulled up at a moments notice and have enough variety in them to cover any type of gig that you could imagine doing. You will need music for churches, weddings, funerals, outdoor pops concerts, and other songs that you think people might want to hear. I think in this type of group, being flexible and able to play in many styles is a necessity. I as far as getting gigs, you might have to do a lot of calling to get the first few gigs and do a couple of freebies along the way. Once you get some work, make the most of the opportunity. Show up on time and be enthusiastic. Act like this is the most important gig of your life even though it might only be to play at a mall for fifty bucks. Try to accomadate whoever hired you as best you can. When doing gig work, it is not always the people or groups who play the best that get the most work. You need to make the people hiring you want to bring you back again.

As far as the latter type of group, since I don't play in that level of quintet, I don't have a large amount of experience to share. However I would say that you would need a management company, some people to open the first few doors, and a few breaks. I would say to break into that league, either you need to win some serious competitions and have a mentor (coach) to get interest created. In addition the "show" that is performed needs to have enough audience appeal that the general public would want to attend. Oh yeah, you also need to play at a world class level. If you want to know more about this kind of group, I would try to contact the people that are playing in these groups.

I hope this helps, if you want to chat about specifics, email me and I we can arrange a time to chat.

Scott Roeder
Midland/Odessa Symphony
Lone Star Brass Quintet


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