Posted by Rod Mathews on September 15, 2001 at 15:04:35:
In Reply to: Colorado - what happened 1st???? posted by Steve on September 13, 2001 at 16:02:37:
I just have to comment that the concept of "fair" is relative. In ANY other industry, people are interviewed for a particular job and the person that the company wants to hire is hired. Orchestral auditions are the same. Folks show up to apply for a job, and the orchestra hires who they want to hire. It's that simple.
Why do people think that it is a right to show up and audition for an orchestra? If your local college hired a tuba professor, how many of you would consider it your right to apply? Why are orchestra auditions different?
I hear it said quite often that orchestras "have to have open auditions". This is far from the truth. Each orchestra has a collective bargaining agreement with their local union (with a few exceptions, Seattle being the most familiar). It is this CBA that dictates how auditions are run, NOT the union. Some orchestras, like the Metropolitan Opera, do it all behind a screen. Others invite very few people and don't use a screen at all. One year positions often don't have any kind of requirement for the audition process. It all depends on the CBA of that particular orchestra and the mood of the committee.
The burden of finding out about these unadvertised auditions lies with the people seeking the jobs. The tuba world is small, and it probably wouldn't have been that hard to find out that Colorado was having an audition a year ago. Getting them to invite you to the audition may have been a different scenario, but that's still within their right as an employer. Being at the right school or having the right contacts helps in finding out about these auditions, but is that really any different that ANY other industry? No, it isn't.
The best analogy about winning auditions I ever heard was the following, which I think came from Abe Torchinsky if memory serves correct:
Auditions are like going to Baskin-Robbins. If the committee is looking for Strawberry ice cream, it doesn't matter if you have the best Chocolate ice cream in the world. There are lots of flavors for them to select from, and they are going to ultimately select the one they are looking for. If you aren't that flavor and you played as well as you are capable of playing at that given point in time, there ain't much you can do about it. This is why "playing a perfect audition" just doesn't matter. Talk to any principal in a major orchestra and ask them if they played a perfect audition. I'll venture to say that all of them will tell you about something that they missed.
Note that my comments are based on a wide variety of experiences, on both sides of the audition curtain. I studied with Warren Deck at Juilliard and was pricipal tuba of the Sacramento Symphony for a few years. My other teachers include Bill Rose, Dave Kirk, Steve Norrell, David Langlitz, and Abe Torchinsky. I took LOTS of auditions, and won some of them, came in runner-up for a few of them, made the finals a few times, didn't get past the first round more than a few times, and couldn't get invited to some of them. I was fortunate enough to be around LOTS of folks who were, and still are, winning positions in major orchestras. I was also on several audition committees, the most memorable was on in Sacramento where we hired Craig Morris, a relatively unknown trumpet player at the time, to be our Principal Trumpet. Craig was recently appointed to succeed Bud Herseth as principal trumpet in Chicago, so I think we did all right with our selection!
I no longer play for a number of reasons, but still enjoy reading about the tuba community. I just thought I'd share some of my opinions and experiences.
Rod Mathews