Klarinet Archive - Posting 000232.txt from 1999/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] More about 'that' audition
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 07:09:59 -0500

On Thu, 04 Nov 1999 00:20:11 GMT, I said:

> I was recently the 'outside expert' in an audition that had its silly
> aspects (like using the Mozart Concerto as one of the test pieces), but
> it was an audition that ultimately turned up a very good, very musical
> player for the job in question (I immediately wrote down his name and
> contact details). And I found that the players I was working with
> showed great intelligence in arriving at this decision.
>
> I think there's a sort of myth (perhaps you'd like to develop the notion
> that it's the counterpart of similar myths about lawyers:-) that the
> people who run auditions *want to reject people*. On the contrary, they
> want to *find* people who can play, and are very happy when they find
> someone who might be able to do so.

Let me put a further edge on this discussion, by filling you all in a
bit further.

In this audition, there were two rounds that took place behind a screen.
At the end of the first round, it appeared that we had agreed to
eliminate (on the basis of the Mozart and something else, I can't
remember what, perhaps Stravinsky II) candidate number 14, say.

Candidate number 14 then turned out to be the freelance player who was
currently three weeks into a three month contract standing in as first
clarinet while the job was auditioned. According to everyone on the
panel who was involved with the orchestra, his playing was fine.

Now on the one hand this was simply a deficiency of the audition system.
Someone capable of doing such a job to everyone's satisfaction is not
someone correctly to be eliminated in a first round, with two further
rounds to go.

So since we happened to possess the information that he was much better
than he had seemed, it looked only sensible at least to pass him on to
the next round.

On the other hand, this could be argued to be unfair to the other
eliminated candidates, who equally might have been better than they
demonstrated on that occasion.

So, which argument is right?

And, what did we do?

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Ancient Greeks made dolphin-killing punishable by death.

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