Frequently Asked Questions about the CSO
How long has the CSO been around?
What kind of concerts does the symphony perform?
How long does the symphony season run?
Is playing with the symphony a full time job?
How much do CSO musicians get paid?
What type of training do the CSO musicians have?
How much do instruments cost?
How does a musician get a job in a professional orchestra?
How are the CSO musicians involved in the community?
How long has the CSO been around?
Charleston's rich orchestral heritage began in the year 1918. Thirty to forty musicians made up the city's first symphony orchestra and performed mostly for friends and family. In 1936, Miss Maude Winthrop Gibbon and Mrs. Martha Laurens Patterson founded the organization now known as the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Since it’s founding, the CSO has grown throughout the years to become the largest full-time performing arts organization in South Carolina today.
What kind of concerts does the symphony perform?
The Symphony has 3 subscription main series of concerts: Masterworks, McCrady’s Pops, and Backstage Pass.
Masterworks Series
The Masterworks concerts feature the full orchestra performing the great orchestral works from the Baroque period to contemporary music.
McCrady’s Pops Series
McCrady's Pops concerts are lively and entertaining. This season is filled with exciting programs featuring world-renowned guest artists. If you like fun, McCrady's Pops is for you!
Backstage Pass Series
The Backstage Pass series provides an intimate and up-close experience of the CSO in the newly renovated Memminger Auditorium. This series focuses on contemporary music that is paired with classics from the repertoire, in addition to highlighting CSO musicians as soloists.
Holiday Concerts
The CSO offers a range of fun and lively holiday performances ranging from the CSO Gospel Christmas to performances of The Messiah and the Holiday Pops concert.
Family Concerts
These lively one-hour Saturday performances feature music for children of all ages. Each performance takes the audience on a symphonic adventure that explores new musical territory with lots of fun along the way!
Education and Outreach Concerts
For these concerts, we perform in smaller ensembles of trios, quartets, and quintets
for over 18,000 children in 75 different schools throughout Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties. This gives our Lowcountry children
an informal, up close and personal experience with our orchestra musicians.
How long does the symphony season run?
The symphony season kicks off every September, and runs for 36 consecutive weeks through the end of May with different concerts every week.
Is playing with the symphony a full time job?
Yes, being a professional musician in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra is a full time job. It is not a hobby but a vocation – something we are called to do with our lives. We are all musicians because we share a love for music. Playing as professional musicians in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra is our chosen career. Our work involves more than playing concerts. It includes spending numerous hours each week practicing on our own, rehearsal preparation, and rehearsals. All combined, it equals at least a 40 hour workweek. We must be available for CSO services morning, noon, and night as many as 6 days per week.
How much do CSO musicians get paid?
Our yearly base salary is approximately $22,000. Some musicians make less than that based on how frequently they are needed for performances throughout the season, while other musicians make more for titled positions (Principal, Associate Principal, etc.).
What type of training do the CSO musicians have?
All professional musicians have studied their instruments seriously since a young age. They have had countless hours of lessons, and have also put in countless hours of practicing to improve on their instruments.
To become a professional musician, you must also acquire a music degree on your specific instrument. The majority of the musicians in the CSO have also earned Masters and a few hold Doctorate degrees on their instrument as well. Our musicians hold degrees from these prestigious institutions:
Cleveland Institute of Music
Carnegie Mellon University
The Juilliard School
Eastman School of Music
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
Rice University
Indiana University
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Mannes College
Manhattan School of Music
New World Symphony Orchestra Academy
Northwestern University
Curtis Institute of Music
DePaul University
Peabody Institute
Duquesne University
The instruments owned by the CSO musicians are all professional instruments of the highest quality. Many of the musicians own multiple instruments, and in many cases, they cost more than our cars. In some cases, they are worth more than our homes!
How does a musician get a job in a professional orchestra?
Once there is an opening in a professional orchestra, the orchestra will advertise that they will be holding an audition to fill that position. When the audition is announced, musicians from around the country will submit a resume to apply to take the audition.
The orchestra will then determine which applicants they will accept to audition and tell them what excerpts of music they would like to hear at the audition. At a single audition, there may be as many as 100 people (or more) auditioning for the single opening in the orchestra.
At the audition, the first round is considered the preliminary round, where each musician gets approximately 5-10 minutes to play the requested excerpts of music behind a screen so the audition committee cannot see who is playing. Then the audition committee (usually made up of 5-10 members of the orchestra plus the conductor) will cut musicians they feel are not qualified, and will pass on some candidates to the semifinal round.
Those candidates will then have another 5-10 minutes to play behind a screen, cuts are made,
and very few people will be passed on to the final round.
Usually in the final round, there are fewer than 5 candidates, who will then play a final audition that could last up to an hour. If no winner is chosen at the audition, the audition committee may ask the top candidates to play a “trial period” with the orchestra to see how they sound in the orchestra itself. Then a winner is chosen.
How are the CSO musicians involved in the community?
The musicians in the Charleston Symphony are extremely active in the community. In addition to orchestra performances and rehearsals, most of the musicians teach private lessons to music students out of their home or go into the local junior and senior high schools to teach sectionals or private lessons. Some musicians in the orchestra currently teach at, or have taught at the College of Charleston, Charleston Southern University, and the University of South Carolina. Many of the musicians in the orchestra also perform at local events, including church services, weddings, and private concerts.