The Demands of the Professional Orchestra Life: Strategies for Preparing Unfamiliar Repertoire before the First Rehearsal

Afonso Esteves

About this exposition

Playing in a professional orchestra is the dream of many young musicians, including myself. There’s no other sound equal to the sound of an orchestra. The emotions that this music evokes are something unique. But like everything that’s worthy, it requires a lot of work. One demanding aspect of this career is the amount of repertoire we have to prepare, in a short amount of time. Usually, orchestras change their programme every week, and even if we’re young and the repertoire is still new to us, we have to keep up. This research explains how to do this, how to be efficient in our practice so we are prepared in every first rehearsal. I interviewed professional musicians, collected information on practicing methods, and tested the strategies I’ve gathered to see if they would help in preparing orchestra repertoire. I’ve discovered that equally important to practicing with our instrument, is the part we do without it. By getting to know the piece and planning what we have to practice, the results improve, and we reduce the amount of practice time needed. Of course, how we practice the notes is of major importance, and it’s something I address in this research. I chose to present my work as an exposition because of the creative freedom that this format allows. Apart from having a lot of recordings from the testing process, I believe that is easier for the reader to understand the topic through media.

type	research exposition
keywords	Orchestra life, Orchestral repertoire, Practicing strategies
date	11/12/2022
published	04/07/2024
last modified	04/07/2024
status	limited publication
copyright	Afonso Candeias Ferra Esteves
license	CC BY-NC-ND
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1860411/2392826
published in	KC Research Portal
portal issue	3. Internal publication

name	Orchestra wallpaper
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name	Playing in orchestra wallpaper
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name	Partitura
copyright	Free of Copyrights
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name	IMG_0906
copyright	PNG Enterprise
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name	Haydn 93, 3rd movement
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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name	Haydn 93, 1st mov
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	picture

name	Practice session 1, WITHOUT, Haydn 93 3rd mov
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Haydn 93, 4th mov
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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name	Rest of Haydn 93 4th
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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name	Haydn 63, 4th mov
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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name	Practice session 1 WITH, Haydn 93 1st
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Arrow
copyright	Kiddo
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name	Arrow
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name	Haydn 93 1st mov
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	picture

name	Practice Session 2 WITHOUT
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Practice session 2 WITH
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Results - 1st excerpt
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Results - 2nd excerpt
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Results - 4th excerpt
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Results - 3rd excerpt
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Bernardo 1st practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Bernardo 2nd practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Begoña 2nd practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Anna 2nd practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Isabel 2nd practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Anna 1st practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Isabel 1st practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Begoña 1st practice session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Anna non-playing practice
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Bernardo Non-playing practice
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video, video

name	Begoña - Non-playing practice
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Isabel Non-Playing Practice
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Tour Schedule
copyright	Clive Gillinson and Jonathan Vaughan
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name	2nd Violin leader
copyright	Ana Milanović
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name	IMG_1036
copyright	Eli Epstein
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name	Different Rhythms
copyright	Eli Epstein
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name	afonso interview
copyright	Robin Veldman
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name	Die schweigsame Frau - Violin 1 interview
copyright	Beatriz Saglimbenis
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usages	pdf

name	Begoña’s score
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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name	Bernardo’s score
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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name	Begoña’s score 2
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	picture

name	Anna - Results 1st Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Bernardo - Results 2nd Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Bernardo - Results 1st Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Isabel - Results 1st Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Isabel - Results 2nd Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Anna - Results 2nd Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Begoña - Results 2nd Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
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usages	video

name	Begoña - Results 1st Session
copyright	Afonso Esteves
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

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The Demands of the Professional Orchestra Life: Strategies for Preparing Unfamiliar Repertoire before the First Rehearsal (2024)

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