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In Reply to: RE: Do you audition classical recordings blind? posted by Analog Scott on November 17, 2014 at 08:26:06
I should interject one very important correction into this conversation - almost never are the finals of an orchestral audition "blind." Only the preliminary and semifinal rounds are. Once the finalists are chosen, the screen comes down, and the committee also receives the candidate's resumes at that point as well. Particularly if the audition is for a key principal position, but often also for section positions, there are often trial weeks for the finalists.
There are currently only two orchestras in the US that have a screened audition all the way through even the final round - the MET opera orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony.
It would be more accurate to state that the main reason competitive screened auditions got started in the first place was to give the musicians in the orchestra more of a say in the hiring process, in addition to making the process more fair. Before the modern audition system started, a music director would merely appoint someone he knew, or at best listen to a few private auditions alone, with no input from anyone else. Now there is always a committee of musicians from the orchestra that gets one vote per person, and then the conductor gets as many votes as there are other committee members. So screened auditions got started for more fairness to all, not just the women and minorities, though that of course, as Chris said, has been a beneficial side effect. Even back when they first started, however, the final round was not usually screened, just the earlier ones.
I think I will go ahead and stop this post here, as explaining more about how orchestral auditions work should really be a different thread, and I don't want to hijack this one.
Follow Ups:
Interesting to hear that the Met Opera Orchestra has fully blind auditions. Principal clarinetist Anthony McGill, an amazing virtuoso, is African American. Yes, I remember the Obama inauguration "scandal", when they mimed to a recording due to the cold weather, but I've heard him play up close and in person. Principal flutist Denis Bouriakov is also an amazing virtuoso, in fact from a purely technical standpoint he may be the greatest flutist in the world right now. But visually, he is often very expressionless and motionless when he plays, so as a soloist he isn't great in the on-stage charisma department.
Maybe the blindness of their auditions helped take some irrelevant prejudices out of the picture.
Hi rbolaw - the Met orchestra is one of the very best in the country. People still talk about the classic "Big Five" orchestras as being still the best, however almost no one in the orchestral world would still agree. The Met orchestra certainly is in actuality a top five orchestra not just in this country, but in the world.
Of course, being the highest paid orchestra in the US and working with James Levine for many years didn't hurt. ;-)
nt
I was thinking further about your post relative to my Krips story below, and there are two possibilities. One is that Krips was dismayed because so many of the finalists (rather than winners) were women. The other is that, at that time (late 60's), the screened audition process was being rolled out for the first time and they could have used screens all the way through the process, later refining the process to what you've described as the rule in the vast majority of orchestras.In any case, thanks for the good and interesting information!
In my own experience, I've accompanied two of these types of auditions: one for the SF Symphony and one for the SF Opera Orchestra, both in the early 80's. I accompanied a person in a double-bass audition for the symphony - the part I played for (which could have been a preliminary round - I don't remember) was conducted behind a screen in Herbst Theater. (My guy, Steve Tramontozzi, ended up winning the audition and is still in the orchestra!) I also accompanied a flute audition for the opera orchestra, which, strangely enough, was held in a small rehearsal room at Davies Hall (still behind a screen). This was a cattle call preliminary round, with over 500 applicants! (I don't know how many of these actually got to play.) The person I accompanied, although she was an excellent player, did not get past this screening round.
Edits: 11/18/14
Hi Chris - nice stories. However, I would tend to doubt that those were preliminary round auditions, as those are almost never accompanied. Probably the ones you played for were semifinal rounds, since you say they were screened. I do know that the SFSO has used piano accompaniment as early as their semifinal rounds, but I've never heard of it being done there in prelims - even doing it for a semifinal round is very unusual. I was acquainted with Tramontozzi when I used to sub with SFSO, he was a very nice guy. He probably wouldn't remember me, though.
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