I can just barely read standard musical notation but it’s far from fluent. I’m wondering if, with enough practice you can look at sheet music that you have never heard or seen before and sound it out in your head before ever touching your instrument?
Kind of? If I’m looking at a trombone part: sure, no problem. If I’m looking at the full orchestral score: no, not really. As the music becomes more complex and involved, my ability to hear it drops off. And I only have relative pitch – if you ask me to sing it I’ll start on the wrong note but I’ll sing it correctly relative to that pitch.
I wonder if anybody can do it for an orchestra? I suppose Beethoven was composing symphonies while he was deaf so he must have been able to!
Edit: Deaf not dead 😅
Composers totally do, they practice this. The skill is called audiation.