Some musicians slide right into a symphony orchestra position like [insert image of smiling child on slide]. Joel Dallow is not one of those musicians. It took him five years of intense work (on top of all of the work he'd already done as a student at the Peabody Conservatory and as a freelancer, etc., etc.,) to get the position he's occupied in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra cello section for 22 years. And now, he's on the other side of that audition table as part of the panel judging would-be orchestra members. Which makes him the perfect teacher for cellists who aim to play with a symphony. And that's exactly what he does as the Cello Sherpa, and on his podcast. In this episode, Joel breaks it all down for us: what it's like to be on both sides of the audition table, what the audition process really entails, and what judges are listening for.