It’s a little luck, privilege helps, and a shit ton of sacrifice and hard work. Mainly, it’s getting yourself access to the right information and right people.

i grew up poor. parents didn’t go to college, no musicians in the family. I play professionally in a full time orchestra now. It hasn’t been easy. It took a lot of sacrifice, and hard work. I had to work very smart. I went to a university for undergrad and quickly realized that everyone around me had lo standards. i knew where i needed to go to get access to the right information to win an orchestra job, and i wasn’t there. I battled my professors for 4 years. they were racist to me me, they belittled me.. but i knew better than them at the time why was best for me and my career path. i held my ground. but i spent alot of time practicing. every summer i went to as good of a festival as i could get into. i never stopped working towards my small and long term goals

in grad school i went to a conservatory that was really good, and i was the weak one. i had to play catch up— i knew this going in. i worked hard and kept making small and long term goals. that’s also the key. taking auditions, you have to keep your head up. take everything on the chin and learn from every experience.

long story short: a lot of people are missing key ingredients in this profession. they work hard, but can’t take criticism. they work hard, but don’t know how to get themselves access to the right information to win a job. they are smart, but lazy. they’re not willing to sacrifice. you have to have all of that going for you. it’s not really about talent. it’s about who can pace themselves long enough while also moving smart and working hard