Good news----My son is now a doctor!!
 

After 10 years of post high school education,, my youngest son has been awarded his Doctor of Musical Arts in Tuba performance. His lecture recital, last month, was called the best ever at Rutgers. The faculty all say he is " brilliant"; not a description we are used to hearing about a student who never studied while in high school. They also say that he will go to the top of his field, once he gets that first job.
Anyone know of an opening for a Tuba player? How about a school looking for a Tuba / low brass professor? He is free-lancing this summer, and has a lot of gigs on the book, but still needs a full time position, somewhere. Student loans will need to be paid back.

Congratz!

Congratulations! I wish him well, lots of luck, and may he be principle in a major orchestra before you retire. :)

Thanks,
The nice thing about the Tuba player is that since there is only, the Tuba player IS the principle.
The bad thing is there is only one per orchestra.

Well it's hard to get jobs in most fields these days, so in that regard he's probably not much worse off than anyone else.

As a tuba expert (for lack of a better term) he will probably have a lot of opportunities to travel around the world and play with different people. Sounds like an exciting life to me. Maybe I shouldn't have given up on the viola after high school!

It's a wonderful thing,, being able to brag about the kids to the whole world. Not everyone can do that,,,,, congratulations,,,, you are a very lucky person.

Congrats!:cool:

Good job !!
 

Congrats !!

Awesome! Nice to hear a proud parent! :) :) :)

Nice to hear a proud father. I am sure he will audition well and end up at the Kennedy Center soon!!

Thanks, everyone.

It is not normal for me to brag like this, but its a rare event. I actually have 2 artistic, right-brained, left-handed sons. Both are very talented, but one is unable to focus that talent, and works with me in soils and foundation engineering & inspections, so I see him almost every day. Thats cool, too.

The musician has taken several auditions and always seems to place second. When they only take one, second just doesn't cut it. He gets down after losing like that, but after a day or two is back to himself. I did sales for a while and know all about rejection.
If he takes a teaching position, it will be at a college/university. He was looking at a HS position, but it would have required him to leave his position at the Haddonfield Symphony, and quit all his free-lance work. Since playing his horn is his chief joy, that position would have killed him, inside.

I have confidence that he will hook up somewhere. I'm just an impatient parent who wants success right now!

Thank you all for listening, and sharing my joy.

Congratulations to your son and to yourself for being a great parent! Very few people are lucky and devoted enough to pursue a love through a PhD. That is an awesome achievement! He will succeed at anything he sets himself to, and I’m sure will always thank you for helping him get there.

A former room mate auditioned for about 20 symphonies before getting a gig. She said that in the end familiarity with folks in the symphony were of equal weight with performance and credentials.