French horn principal Peter Solomon from New York. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"You can go to a very good school and learn how to play an instrument very well but not necessarily have lots of experience," Solomon says.

"Even a very good school orchestra is not as good as a professional orchestra. So to have an opportunity for a young pre-professional to play with a real professional orchestra is a very special thing."

Every year the academy recruits about 10 musicians through auditions. They play with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra eight to 10 times every semester, when students "learn from the experience of playing in an orchestra, which is the most precious opportunity", says Guo Zhongbao, the orchestra's principal French horn player, who also teaches at the academy.

One of those who has benefited from the academy's training is Daniel Remme, 25, a French horn player from Michigan, who says he had never previously played with a professional orchestra.

"Now I have two ... on my resume," says Remme, who performed with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra recently.

For a Shanghai Symphony Orchestra New Year's concert this year Remme played as assistant to Guo.

"There were a couple of moments here and there, when Guo would rest, and hopefully you cannot tell that Guo was not playing and I was playing.

"For those 4-8 bars here and there, all of a sudden I am playing the first horn with the Shanghai Symphony. That presents very interesting psychological challenges, but that was fantastic."

In March, musicians of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg taught at the Shanghai academy, and Remme was among the students.

"So many new doors have opened up," Remme said in a media interview. "I am extremely lucky to be in this program, and in such an exciting city, where you can go to a French horn solo concert and there are 300 people, whereas previously I've seen 40 or 50 at a horn concert.

"If I didn't at least try to make some kind of future in this very musical city it would be a waste."

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's conductor, Zhang Jiemin, says that in addition to the many foreigners who have played with it over the years, international influence on the orchestra has grown as a result of the number of Chinese musicians with it who have trained abroad.

In a recent audition, almost half the applicants were from abroad, thanks to the international hiring platform MusicChair (www.musicchairs.info), Zhang says, and more and more orchestras in China have begun to recruit musicians internationally, she says, citing as an example the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra with its many foreign instrumentalists.