<p>And as if there weren’t enough barriers, look at age of the musicians in the major orchestras now; they are not retiring, so seats aren’t opening up. More opps in the string sections, but there are amazing woodwind players who can’t catch a break, and then there are the poor harpists… Even if the very best schools only have 7-8 undergrads,top orchestras only have 2 harpists on the roles. But the instrumental system does “self-weeding” at least;So many singers head off to schools clueless and can’t see reality until its too late.</p>