[wheelie]

Hi Everyone

i'm new here but desperately need your help.
I'm principal alto sax player in a military band and am trying to move into musical theatre in the west end and work in a pit orchestra?
i know not everyone needs 'just a sax player' but how do i apply for jobs or even find out about them?
I've searched every where on the net and contacted every theatre but no one can and wants to help me!!
do i have to audition or do i have to be part of a union etc?
i appreciate i need that experience to play in big musicals but how do i get that experience?!

hope you guys can help

[Iskweldog]

I don't know how it works in West End theater but for most Broadway and off Broadway shows you must first become a part of your local musicians union to perform in a production.

[Amy_Vocalist]

Just to let you know, most woodwind parts will call for Alto/clarinet/piccolo or flute/alto/cor anglais or something similar to that. Lots of doubling invovled, so if you can only play sax then you are very limited.

[music is my life!!!]

i played clarinet first then moved onto sax and i got upto grade 4 or 5 in 6 weeks. also, i hear that flute is really similar to sax, but i've tried it and it's hard but my sax teacher plays cl, sax and flute AND pic and he recommends it. keep on practising but i'd get myself a good clarinet book to teach yourself, if i were you

[maninchair.com]

Again, this is Broadway pit advice, not West End, but it's likely similar.

You have to know someone to get started. A friend of mine, Steve Freeman, played in the pit for the early 90s production of Grease on Broadway. He invited me to sit in the pit with him one night just for fun. Afterwards, I told him I thought I could play the score, so I joined the musicians' union, and started subbing for him. And because he was the associate conductor, I often got to play when Steve was out, or when the conductor was out.