Professional Identity and Classical Music: orchestra musicians, flexible work and career dilemmas

Abstract

At present, a significant share of musicians who work in the field of classical music have work arrangements associated with flexibility, instability, informal employment, and insecurity. Many professional musicians only find a position in the job market if they submit to such working conditions, practically having no other alternatives. Eventually this causes serious consequences on the musicians’ careers and ideas of what it is “to be a musician”, e.g., a constant feeling of uncertainty and insecurity. Based on these assertions, this article aims to reflect on these issues from a perspective of “professional identity”. From an ethnographic study conducted in 2017 with instrumentalists of the Orquestra de Câmara Theatro São Pedro (OCTSP) in Porto Alegre (Brazil) – an organization considered one of the principal orchestras in the state of Rio Grande do Sul – it was possible to track the musicians’ work activities both within the orchestra and other areas of professional work in which they were engaged. All 16 musicians interviewed were engaged in musical activities parallel to the orchestra, raising questions as to the objective and subjective meaning of their profession. We concluded that the diverse types of work performed by the instrumentalists contribute to weakening their sense of professional identity, as multiple occupations and work flexibility are factors that hinder specialization and the notion of integrity and identity cohesion.