The ultimate gig economy: freelance life in the orchestra pit

The orchestra pit at Wexford Festival Opera

Seb Philpott

Verity Simmons

Orchestra Musicians, Edgar Degas (1872)

By Stephen Pritchard, 11 November 2024

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Stephen Pritchard

Stephen Pritchard began singing as a treble at the age of eight and progressed to become a tenor in Portsmouth Cathedral Choir, the Gibbons Consort and now the English Chamber Choir. Writing about music has been at the core of his 40-year career in journalism, chiefly at the Observer. He has been known to play a pretty mean jazz double bass.