- Page-turners help
musicians by turning the pages of their sheet music while they perform. - Michael Graham, a freelance composer and conductor, gets up to £100 ($135) per engagement to turn pages.
- This is what it's like,
as told to Hugh Morris for Insider.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Michael Graham, a freelance musician and page-turner. It has been edited for length and clarity.
A page-turner is someone whose job is turning pages of a musical score for another musician, usually a keyboardist, who is constantly playing so can't turn a page themselves during a performance. You're there as a third limb.
I'm a freelance conductor and composer. I also work as a church organist in Edinburgh, Scotland.
My page-turning work is always very ad hoc, booked a couple of weeks in advance, although you do tend to get repeat gigs from friends and colleagues. I would usually do a handful of page-turning gigs a month pre-COVID.
There are generally two ways people get into the profession: They are either students page-turning for teachers or peers, or musicians with mates who are performers.
Most of the time you're asked to turn as a favor, in exchange for a drink or meal out after.
But when you have a music degree or are a well-established musician, you start getting paid a flat rate of 320 ($27) or £50 ($67) per recital, which usually lasts around an hour. This is dependent on the type of engagement.
Being asked to turn at the Edinburgh International Festival was the most I've been paid for a single page-turning engagement: I got £100 ($135) for a two-hour rehearsal and two one-hour performances. I've done recordings or recitals that you might get £50 ($67) for.
It's easy cash, and you get to be a part of these amazing musical experiences.
My first page-turning foray was in my late teens. I was getting organ lessons, and my teacher asked me to turn for a performance later.
I was so nervous, the first thing I did was stand directly between the organ player and the conductor. I got barked at immediately. But that experience gave me the confidence to volunteer to turn while I was a university student during concert seasons. By doing various turning gigs, I got my name out to fellow performers.
It's important not to interfere with the performer too much when you're turning. Your job is just to turn the pages when they want - normally a nod of the head or a small vocalized gesture indicates precisely when to turn, because you're working at their reading speed.
You don't want to turn the page too early, but you don't turn it too late either, so you really have to be on the ball with what's happening both on the page and with the performer.
The main skill that you need is a high level of music literacy. You need to be sensitive, too; you might be the last person to know that you're doing this gig and the last to actually see the music, but you have to adapt to anything - that includes any repeats in the music - not just turning forwards but turning back too.
One of the scarier page-turning gigs was at a conference on historical instruments. The performer was using a very badly photocopied facsimile score that only they could decipher. I was looking at 17th-century squiggles.
Other times you turn up and the sheet music has completely decayed. One time I turned to the final page mid-performance and it was upside down.
The score could be a bad print, or something really contemporary and difficult to follow, but you have to make the performer feel as relaxed as possible.
I think it's an unsung part of music. It's uncredited on a lot of concert programs and recordings despite being one of the most agile and difficult jobs in the industry.
It is always a new challenge because you're being flung into something at the last moment. The performer has had a few months to get familiar with the piece, whereas you probably have just enough time to have a chat with the instrumentalist beforehand.
As much as the money is welcome, I think the best thing about it is coming across new repertoire and meeting fellow performers. Being a keyboardist myself, it's always interesting to see how other people perform, looking at markings to see their methods and finding the ways they get into the music.
It's also improved my methods and practice and exposed me to music I wouldn't have come across if it wasn't for turning.
Now that freelance music work is slowly returning to normality, I am hoping there will be more turning gigs on the horizon.