A Further Comment on Orchestra Auditions
How Objective is the Audition Process?
Quotable: “We are human beings. We cannot be totally objective, but we try to be fair (in reporting the news).-NBC National News Anchorperson, David Brinkley (1969)
I was reminded of Mr. Brinkley’s comment when a student recalled a particularly negative audition experience during a seminar on symphony orchestra audition practices at the Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale this past summer (2009).
In spite of the numerous seminars, books, written articles, organized practice (“mock”) auditions, et al., one element of the audition process has been conspicuous by its absence: the inordinately high level of subjectivity involved, an issue of no small significance in today’s symphony orchestra environs.
Audition panels are comprised of individual orchestra musicians and conductors, human beings all, each bringing personal musical preferences and other subjective considerations to h/her work. Additionally, as posited in the previous post on the subject, in any orchestra audition there is a pre-existing bias related to the needs or intentions of the sponsoring institutions (i.e. what particular types of instrumental musicians are they interested in hiring?). Consequently, paraphrasing David Brinkley’s comment, it would be naïve to expect objectivity, but candidates should reasonably expect fairness of process.
During the 1990s, a few months after “losing” an audition for a second chair position in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a musician “won” a principal position, subsequently being awarded tenure, in an orchestra generally regarded as being of equal or higher rank. A few years later, a musician who had “lost” an audition for a principal position with the LAP “won” a principal position in an orchestra of unquestioned higher rank. These two factual examples, both of which can easily be corroborated, are not presented here to embarrass one of my previous employers, but to illustrate that such nonsensical things happen. Indeed, orchestra lore is filled with similar anecdotal accounts, and in each and every one of them it would probably be impossible to draw definitive conclusions as to why they occurred because there are typically too many subjective artistic and procedural variables involved in the audition process, from the actions of those representing the sponsoring organizations to the artistic levels of the individual candidate’s performances during the auditions.
As was pointed out at Chosen Vale, it is important for young musicians to comprehend and accept that auditions, just like job interviews, are not only about one’s abilities, training, and performances. There is, always has been, and most likely always will be a certain level of subjectivity in the process. Consequently, those performers seriously interested in being professional orchestral musicians should train themselves not to let such negative experiences seriously affect their morale, self-esteem, or career aspirations. As one sage opined during an audition seminar in 1996, if and when musicians find themselves on the losing end of audition results, they should (paraphrasing the words of a popular song from an earlier time) “pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again!” Translation for trumpet players: Get off your butts, suck it up, and get back to work!
Quotable: “The only brass players who have never lost an audition are those who have never played one.” -James Chambers, (1978) former principal horn, New York Philharmonic, Juilliard Professor, and director of the wind /brass orchestra repertoire class at the school.
Update: Some colleagues have pointed out that I neglected to include one of my (our) favorite audition stories, included here as a coda/update:
During the 1990s, the then-music director of a so-called major American symphony orchestra (in such institutions, the designation “major” refers to the organization’s annual fiscal budget-not to the quality of its music-making) told some of his friends and colleagues about an audition for an assistant principal position in his orchestra, the results of which had surprised a number of those familiar with the list of musicians who had participated in the audition. The candidate who, in the opinion of everyone involved, clearly had “won” the audition and was obviously the most qualified musician for the post, was not awarded the position because the members of the audition panel were of the opinion the musician was over-qualified for the job, would probably be unhappy in an assistant principal position, and consequently could be a disruptive force within the section.
Musicians who have endured the required preparation and performance pressures, not to mention the financial considerations (travel and lodging expenses) to participate in auditions would have every right to be upset and angry if they were later to learn they had been eliminated from consideration because they were deemed musically “over- qualified,” or were otherwise dismissed as the result of some questionable and arbitrary psychological profiling by musicians masquerading as mental health professionals. It would be a humorous story were it not for the fact those types of things happen in the crazy world of orchestra auditions.
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