The Orchestral Pathways Scheme
by Graham Sheen
Principal Bassoon, BBC Symphony Orchestra &
Academy of St Martin in the Fields,
teacher, composer & arranger.
I’m
sitting with two colleagues in a room high up in the Royal College of Music. It’s 11am and we are about to start an
audition marathon: we will attempt to hear and adjudicate thirteen woodwind
candidates before 1pm. It means that each candidate will play for around ten
minutes, allowing only just enough time to evaluate the relevant Mozart
Concerto and a handful of orchestral excerpts. By the conclusion of the session
we will have selected four of the candidates, a flautist, an oboist,
clarinetist and bassoonist to take part in the Orchestral Pathway Scheme run
jointly by the Royal College of Music and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
The Pathways Scheme is now in its fifth year. The
BBCSO and RCM have long operated a sit-in programme to enable students to
experience the life and work of a professional orchestra. Before Pathways,
however, students would probably come for one or two rehearsals at most before
another student would take their turn. There was little continuity therefore
and it was quite difficult to match the students’ availability with suitable repertoire.
Another problem was that this arrangement was open to students of all ages and
abilities. It was decided to formalise the scheme by choosing a single postgraduate
student who would then visit the BBCSO on around half a dozen pre-planned
occasions throughout the academic year. Each section in the orchestra nominates
a mentor or mentors and students attend most, if not all, rehearsals for each
project. Mentors offer advice and guidance on aspects of professional life and
often prepare the repertoire with students in advance of rehearsals. Free
tickets for the performance are always available and each student is encouraged
to attend the concert. The students are asked to learn and shadow most of the
parts (not just the principal player) and are encouraged to prepare all
relevant material. We try, whenever possible, to let our students play one of
the parts on their own so that they gain real experience of playing with
professionals. At the end of the year each student is invited to play one or
two pieces as the sub principal player in (usually) a Radio 3 studio concert.
This is not obligatory but I haven’t
heard of anyone who has refused this opportunity. A report on the whole year’s work is then written by mentors for the
students to see.
The Pathways Scheme is an exciting development, though
not always comfortable for members of the orchestra. Doing the job itself is
one thing, but quite another when a keen and able young musician is sitting
next to you and watching your every move! We usually keep some of the rehearsal
time for ourselves, especially if the repertoire is a complex contemporary
piece with excessive technical and rhythmic demands. There can also be problems
created by having an extra player and chair in the section: if the student sits
between principal and sub principal contact between them is naturally impaired,
but if the student sits further down in the section then the student might have
little contact with the principal. We usually seem to find some sort of
compromise which takes into account the nature of the repertoire and best role
on any particular occasion for the student. Now and then, if these logistical
problems are too great, students are asked to come on alternative dates. The
whole scheme is reasonably flexible and all our bassoon students so far have
been very sensitive to our fundamental professional task of preparing for the
performance.
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| Onstage with Pierre Boulez for the maestro's 80th birthday |
Meanwhile, back at the audition, I’m struck by the many challenges we face on
these occasions. Indeed, I begin to reflect on the whole process of learning
and communicating. Nothing like orchestral sit-ins, let alone a comprehensive
course such as Pathways, existed when I was a student. Worse still, it often
felt as if we were actively discouraged from contact with professionals. I
remember having to lurk in the shadows at the back of Goldsmith’s College hall in order to hear Giuilini
and Stokowsky rehearse the (then) New Philharmonia Orchestra. Approaching
Gwydion Brooke, who was principal bassoon at that time, would have been
unthinkable and having students sit in professional orchestras would have been
considered almost ludicrous. At college, our lessons tended to feel quite
disconnected from the actual business of music making. Not the fault of
professors I hasten to add, but the system. However, despite the many
opportunities available to present day students, the gap between individual
tuition and ensemble technique is still a challenge. It is still not easy for
teachers to hear their students in the orchestral or chamber music situation so
that basic technical problems can remain uncorrected. It is difficult to assess
the strength of flexibility in someone’s
tone without comparison with a larger ensemble. I learn a great deal about
students on all instruments from my own repertoire and chamber music classes at
the Guildhall School of Music. Think, for instance, of the skills necessary to
produce a single perfect chord from, say, a woodwind section: every player must
simultaneously produce their note at the required volume, pitch, tonal colour
and at a precise predetermined moment. That is a fascinating mixture of
technical and aural abilities. It can be prepared in the teaching room but
actually achieving it mostly happens in the teacher’s absence. Then there is the whole subject of being aware of what is
going on in the ensemble around you and reacting to it. This can be taught in
repertoire classes, of course, but how much more effective in a sit-in. When
students are asked about their Pathways experiences, the most common response is
twofold: professionals play together and for each other and the dynamic
range of a professional orchestra is a very great deal wider than the students
had been prepared for. I would add that concentration levels are very high
also. All these things were a shock to me too when I first started out in the
English Chamber Orchestra. Back then, whatever strengths you possessed as
player, you had better count quick learning as one of them! Thankfully, my
senior colleagues were tolerant and I went on to survive four decades and more
in the profession.
Finally, an anecdote about student sit-ins. This
is one of those events about which I often wonder whether it really happened.
Did I dream this? My colleague Sue Frankel and I often laugh about it. It was
way back in the pre-Pathways Scheme days. Let me say that some of the students
were more accomplished than others and that one of the less bright ones came to
us on a day when we were rehearsing Dvorak’s
New World Symphony. Anyone familiar with the work of the BBC Symphony Orchestra
will know that we don’t play concert classics like this all that
often: our brief is to present a high proportion of new, unusual or neglected
work, though that has changed a little over the years. So, the Dvorak
represented a bit of a treat for us. (Yes, I can hear my colleagues in other
orchestras guffawing over such an idea!) I encouraged the student to join in
the louder bits and just leave the exposed stuff to me. That was the normal
plan until I had established how good they were, after which I would try to
hand over, if appropriate, some of the more important passages. Despite all my
persuasive powers, however, I couldn’t draw anything more out of the student than a mousey
pianissimo. In fact, much of the time I didn’t
know whether he (gender is the only clue to his identity that I will give) was
playing or not. I decided to leave well alone for the time being, but it wasn’t
long before Sue and I noticed that the student had fallen asleep between us!
Even the loudest full orchestra passages failed to rouse him. Peaceful slumber
continued until the very moment at which conductor announced “break”.
At this point our young colleague immediately sprang up, looked around and
said, “Is
it always this boring?” I just couldn’t
have made that up, could I?
LINKS
Royal College of Music
BBC Symphony Orchestra
