One thing I admire about Charles Noble, principal violist with the Oregon Symphony, is the candor he brings to classical music from the perspective of an orchestra member. His most recent blog post tells of his failure to get a job with the LA Philharmonic. That's Dudamel's new band, if you haven't been keeping up with things. The baseline salary for orchestra members there is over $100,000, and Noble was aiming for the assistant principal violist job, which would pay a lot more.
The upshot of Noble's posting is that auditioning sucks. He doesn't go into a lot of detail, but if you've ever auditioned for anything, you know how nerve-wracking it can be. Trying for a prestigious position with American's hottest orchestra would require a sedative for most people. For a more in depth account of Noble's willingness to stress himself out to the max, you've got to read his postings on trying out for the assistant principal position with the Seattle Symphony. He almost nailed that one. (The links to that story are in the second paragraph of his current posting.)
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