review…
So the concert was amazing 
Love listening to yo-yo ma, he is a lot of fun to watch too actually. Most musicians aren’t that interesting for me to watch, mostly listen to. But he always has a lot of fun with his music (of course he is an amazing player and has probably played this song a million times so he can afford to relax some ). The concert started off with the overture to william tell by rossini, which is always a fun piece to listen to. Then they played shostakovich’s symphony No. 15, which was an interesting piece - parts of it were note-for-note from william tell (I guess that was one of the composer’s favorites). Then intermission, then they ended on Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, which was the part yo-yo ma played in. It was really good, it was funny too cause during the parts when he wasn’t playing he would turn around and look at the orchestra and wink at them and make funny faces and stuff, it was funny Has more personality than most soloists, guess that’s why he was on sesame street Also, they had a new tuba player, first female in a major US orchestra I guess.
Anyways, as I was watching the concert it reminded me of some striking differences between college/community orchestras and professional ones (besides the obvious playing ability thing):
Similarity: String players in both orchestras are told to have their bows all go in the same direction. Difference: Professional orchestras actually do it.
Similarity: Conductors in both orchestras point to people/sections to let them know when to come in. Difference: In professional orchestras, you always know the person pointed to will play the correct notes at the correct time (it helps that professional musicians actually watch the conductor too 
)
Similarity: Both orchestras (hopefully) have audiences for their concerts. Difference: The audience for a professional orchestra is actually large. People actually pay and stuff too.
Here’s one that I noticed last year when I watched the cleveland orchestra:
Similarity: Let’s say both a college orchestra and a professional orchestra were to play in an outdoor concert, and then let’s say a bat flew through the viola section several times (actually happened). Difference: Professional musicians keep playing and no one screams. In a college/community orchestra I don’t see that happening, I have no incentive to keep playing and to keep myself from screaming (it would be a reflex!)
Two things seem to remain constant though:
1) Its inevitable that if the dress code is black and white, at least 1 woman who is seated near the front will wear a shirt you can completely see through in the stage lights (this may be why my current orchestra’s dress code is all black ) and….
2) Conductor hair - with the exception of two women conductors I had in one of the three orchestras I was in in hs, all of the conductors I have had or seen have had odd hair…like bordering on mad-scientist-odd. No idea why that seems to hold true…
Anyways, despite all the things that are better about professional orchestras, I still really enjoy college/community orchestras - way less of a time commitment and are more fun/relaxed.