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(Describer) Beside four different-size different-color circles connected by lines, title: Career Connections. Different-color stripes extend from a circle. Inside, title: Fine Arts.

(Describer) Under a global map, title: World Languages.

(Describer) Title: Musician. In an animation, a yearbook photo opens.

(man narrating) I was in music since I was a kid.

(Describer) In front of a band photo, a cartoon man plays a cello.

I played in the high school orchestra.

[playing classical music]

♪

I went to a concert of the Chicago Symphony playing Bruckner Fourth Symphony with Daniel Barenboim conducting.

(Describer) He conducts in a photo the cartoon man watches.

[orchestra playing Bruckner's Fourth Symphony]

♪

The minute I started hearing that, I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I said...

(Describer) The real man plays.

[playing classical music]

My name is Scott Haigh. I'm first assistant principal bass of the Cleveland Orchestra. I've been playing with the Cleveland Orchestra since 1978. If my math is right, that should be 36 years. My first job was in Mexico... [orchestra playing classical music] ...at the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, otherwise known as la Orquesta del Estado de México. I speak Spanish because I am of Cuban extraction. It was a great cultural thing. I got used to functioning in Spanish, playing great music. But I really wanted to play in what we call the Big Five,

(Describer) In an animation, title: The Big 5.

the top five orchestras.

(Describer) Titles: listed from oldest to newest. 1: New York, founded 1842. 2: Boston, founded 1881. 3: Chicago, founded 1891. 4: Philadelphia, founded 1900. 5: Cleveland, founded 1918. Photos are shown of each orchestra and its concert hall. Cleveland’s plays on stage including Haigh in white tie and tails.

[orchestra playing classical music]

♪

Well, I won the audition here, and I was offered the job. Of course, when you get offered a job in a great orchestra, you take it because they're so difficult to get.

(Describer) Earlier, they rehearse in civilian clothes.(start of music)

[conductor giving direction]

[playing classical music]

Erich Leinsdorf, a great conductor, used to say, "We begin rehearsing where other orchestras finish concerts." A typical workweek is usually four rehearsals, three concerts, sometimes four. It keeps us busy. I think we do about 175 concerts a year. We stay plenty busy. You are expected to know your part and to show up on time. When you come to the Cleveland Orchestra, you have to have a proficiency and knowledge of what you're doing before you start.

(Describer) He plays alone on a small stage.

We don't look for degrees. We look for ability. If, in the pursuit of a degree, you achieve that ability, that's fine. When I got in the Cleveland Orchestra, I only had three years of college. I got my degree later. You can't talk your way through an audition. In music, we think on many different levels. We're thinking about rhythm, about intonation, about the dynamic, how loud or soft. At the same time, we have to be aware of what our colleagues are doing. It's really total multitasking. The same group of people year after year, you develop that sort of sixth sense, that sense of ensemble. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Sometimes I take it for granted because I've been here so long. There are moments, though, when emotionally I well up because the music is so beautiful or the orchestra has just reached a point of magic. But that's what you live for, those moments. It doesn't happen that often. When it does, you go, "I'm doing the right thing. I'm in the right profession."

[playing classical music]

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(Describer) Titles:For more information, visit OhioMeansJobs dot com. Funding provided by Ohio Broadcast Educational Media Commission, in partnership with Ohio Department of Education and Ohio Higher Ed. WVIZ Ideastream. Copyright 2014Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.