Posted by Wade on January 14, 2004 at 12:22:07:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: President's Own Euphonium Audition posted by No on January 14, 2004 at 07:09:49:
Dear Anonymous Poster,
You sound like you think that an audition is some sort of a contest. Well, forget that noise. It is a job interview. Period.
Where did you ever work where resumes were looked at prior to the final round having been completed? That is a major "no-no" where I am working. It is a violation of standard audition rules. (And that would be malfeasance, you know? Are you saying that your purported committee experience included this practice?)
We are not allowed to view any resumes until the final round. We usually only bother to look at them when there are two or more finalists that cannot easily be vetted from the process. Only at that point are resumes ever considered. And then it is a toss-up between the older, more experienced player and the younger, less-experienced player. Both types of players have strong and weak points. That is why one gets asked to play an excerpt in a different style, or might be asked a few questions: We are trying to quickly figure out which candidate might be the better colleague over the next twenty years.
And regarding the fact that Dr. Bowman (a career DC military bandsman) is able to continually train euphers to play in a manner that pleases DC Military Band audition committees: you seem to see some evil conspiracy afoot! I ask you: Have you never heard of Arnold Jacobs? Jake (a career orchestral musician) had a marvelous way of teaching that enabled his students to sound and perform in a manner that pleased symphony orchestra audition committees.
His top students work all over the world. In fact, many times the finals at those auditions included more that one of his students. (But what about all of those other thousands studying in those other hundreds of studios? Malfeasance! Malfeasance! Foul! Jake must have been a glad-handing good old boy by your own definition!)
You act as though " the hundreds of studios and thousands of students in the country" are somehow being ripped-off due to the "gladhanding" [sic] and "malfeasance" of what you seem to think of as obviously corrupt institutions.
Dr. Bowman does the same thing as Jake: he produces some of the best musicians and job candidates on a regular basis. His students do well because of his abilities as a teacher of musicians, not as a DC military band politician/good old boy.
BTW – You misused the term glad-handing (misspelled it, too). Glad-handing has nothing to do with audition situations since the committee and the candidates never come into personal contact with one another; no glad-handing can take place without interpersonal contact.
And where exactly do you see malfeasance occurring during the auditions in question? In each case, the committee picked the demonstrable "best player" based on what came of the bell of the instrument during the audition.
Yes, resumes are sometimes checked during finals; but the finalists each had to get there without any help from their resume.
(Actually, resumes are really only submitted to enable the Personnel Manager to weed out people that obviously have too little experience for the particular job in question. No one wants to sit behind the screen listen to a bunch of people "getting audition experience" or playing badly; that is a really annoying and depressing way to spend a Saturday. (Hence the initial "resume round" to eliminate most players at the beginning of the process.)
Dr. Bowman is no "good old boy". Shame on you for making remarks that imply such a thing without having the moral courage to post your name and e-mail address. You are a bona fide coward and a cry-baby.
Post you name since you seem intent on showing your supposed experience by calling into question the reputations of others.
Wade "Malfeasance! Malfeasance!" Rackley