The Challenges of Finding a Job in the Classical Music Industry

We asked our community: what are the challenges you have when looking for jobs in the classical music industry? Thank you for your honest responses, which we’ve published anonymously here, organised into the most common themes. This covers a range of jobs within the classical music sector, including performing roles and admin positions. To take part in our next poll, sign up for our newsletter or follow us @alterclassical on Instagram. To find a job, visit our opportunities board.

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- The paradox of entry-level jobs requiring 2 or 3 years experience…
- So many jobs are posted as "entry level" with salaries close to minimum wage, but still expect 3-5 years of experience.
- I have experience but I always get: we’ve gone with someone who has more experience?!?
- Getting enough experience in music, but also in the relevant field (admin, marketing, etc.)
- Too many musicians applying for the same position
- Feels impossible sometimes!
- People staying in the same job for years and years, so little to no movement/opportunities
- More applicants than jobs
- Positions don’t come about very frequently - usually held down for a long time
- Working well into your late 70s and 80s is seen as an honour, yet that means there aren't opportunities for younger people to break through
- Difficult to get your foot in the door if you don't have an agent
- Auditions are hard to come by for newcomers or those who are not conservatoire graduates
- Constantly having to compete with musicians whose parents pay for their living expenses. Never having enough money, after paying rent, to spend on promotional materials and even the time necessary to do everything required. Having to move whenever the rent is raised, and losing one's focus and resources.
- The isolation of coming from a working class background. There's too much to explain.
- Trying to produce high quality recordings for audition applications can be very expensive and not accessible for all musicians.
- Jobs not advertised - the expectation that if you’re suitable you’ll find out they’re auditioning
- Teaching jobs are not obtained through applications but through who you know
- The backstory you don't know about - someone already in mind, or automatic trials etc.
- Nobody tells you how to get on a fixer's books as an orchestral musician - at least, not on a university music course rather than conservatoire
- If you don't know the right people, you're screwed!
- The salaries for head of department jobs, even at large organisations, are so low that I don’t even bother applying. It’s more lucrative being freelance.
- The pay is terrible! So many jobs are posted as "entry level" with salaries close to minimum wage, but still expect 3-5 years of experience.
- Really high workload for low pay
- My biggest challenge is the low pay. I feel that unless your family or partner can help you out financially in some way, working in the arts means you've constantly got too little money.
- Knowing jobs are so competitive can be really demotivating. Also means so many places can get away with incredibly low pay, unreasonable hours etc.
- If you want a pay rise (or just to get paid for the work you do on a project), you're the one who has to raise the money to make it possible
- With so little funding available for staff in arts organisations the workload can be too much
- You end up working a lot of unpaid overtime, not necessarily because it’s expected of you by SMT, but because you can’t get everything done within the hours you are paid, there isn’t enough funding to extend your hours and, as the majority of classical music organisations are charities, you feel a sense of moral duty to donate your time.
- Burnout. We put so much of ourselves into the industry because we care but for poor payout/salary
- The fatigue of applying to job after job and getting ruled out at the final stage
- If you don't know the right people, you're screwed!
- Persuading Universal Credit that searching for music jobs is valid
- A decline in public and private sponsorship worldwide
- Lots of published opportunities are ones you have to pay for
- Trying to produce high quality recordings for applications can be very expensive and not accessible for all musicians
- Obscure conditions/pay
- That apparently you’re either pop/contempo or classical - you can’t be and love both!
- Criteria being too rigid with little or no allowances for experience in other areas
- Being told that I'm not good enough to audition because I didn't go to music college - something I cannot change now in my late 30s
- They only want you if you went to conservatoire regardless of how hard you have worked since, you're often not even considered without it. Others that did go to college might not have picked an instrument up for 30 years and yet still get offered interviews & auditions.
- Sometimes it feels like those who are trying to return at an older age don’t get a chance
- Having children!!
- The sexual harassment; the Bros
- Racism
- Ageism
- Opportunities are hard to come by for newcomers or for those who are not conservatoire graduates.
- Gatekeeping due to political and/or financial favouritism. It is necessary to mention the sexual orientation based corporatism
- Brexit
- Finding ANYTHING outside of London/Home Counties
- Getting a visa to live in the country where orchestra is based
- Harder migration rules
- Most roles could be done remotely, but most organisations seem to have forgotten how we adapted to the pandemic but now require all employees to be 'office based'
- The abject cruelty from one’s peers
- Just the lack of humanity - the way one social error can cost you your livelihood
- So many automated replies of rejection when I’ve had to pay an application fee…! Zero respect
- Balancing the need to make money with the need to have a fulfilled portfolio career
- Balancing freelance work with something more stable, relying on invoices being paid on time
- How much personal stuff to share or not to share. Trauma seems to be a currency lately.
- The contrived, shallow and ruthless business bonhomie necessary to go out and get jobs is diametrically opposed to the feeling one has to cultivate in order to do music authentically.

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Hannah Fiddy is the Founder of Alternative Classical and a freelance marketing consultant, developing audiences for classical music. Described as a "classical innovator" by Classical Whisper, Hannah has created and promoted numerous concerts outside of traditional spaces, including warehouses, pubs, clubs and museums; interviewed some of the world's most famous composers; and guest lectured on innovation in the classical music industry. Hannah has managed the digital marketing for many music organisations and artists including choral composer John Rutter and The King’s Singers. In a past life she founded London Flashmob, producing quirky events from wedding proposals to cultural pranks for up to 1,000 people.