Three Music alumni are performing in pit orchestras this fall: Mariana Ramirez plays electronic percussion and midi keyboard for SIX: The Musical on Broadway; Mikayla Bertelsen plays an array of orchestral percussion instruments with the Broadway Sinfonietta on a national tour of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Live in Concert; and Mesia Austin plays “a lot of equipment,” she says, for the first national tour of MJ the Musical.
Getting pit gigs is built around relationships that can start anytime and anywhere, says Austin. “Networking was always the word used while in school–but I think also about organically building relationships around a shared interest,” Austin explains. “Those relationships are all different, some colleague to colleague, student to student, teacher to student, etc. My mentors are really key for me.”