Questions & Answers

Your experience will probably vary quite a bit by the orchestra's nationality and size. My take is that the platform is designed for European players' use, but it can be used by anyone. I used it for an audition at a major orchestra in Scandinavia, and I had all the information I needed, in English, including contact info for management. It really comes down to how thoroughly management prepares the information on the website. You may have more success sussing out immigration exigencies by word of mouth from foreign musicians in said orchestra or country. Don't be afraid to try it! It's can be fun to try a different system, and can open a whole new set of opportunities for you. -PP

I think your real question is whether or not an out-of-town musician's earned $ will cover summer living expenses and still leave enough $ leftover to be worth one's time. It really all depends on how lucky you get with finding affordable housing (or how connected you are in finding affordable housing), what you consider baseline as livable accommodations & in some cases a tolerable commute, and how much is enough net $. I've known musicians who want out after their first year because they think they lived wretchedly, but they think they still didn't make enough $ to make it worth their time. Others have been going back for decades because they always seemed to score affordable, safe, and livable housing that isn't too far from Millennium Park. For some, making a lot of $ isn't as important to them because they simply want a good summer music festival experience (which it is). It all depends . . . .

UPDATE: Finally got a response, and apparently I fell through the cracks and luckily they noticed in time and I finally got an audition time. I figured something like that might’ve happened, I’ve always gotten invitations/rejections like maybe a month in advance instead of a week.

It's a training orchestra, similar to New World, except it's a part of Bard College and they offer master's degrees. However there was a thread about TŌN awhile back and a lot of people brought up some problems with how its run, so I'd go back and check that out too.