 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ben
Date: 2004-09-18 07:39
Earlier today I auditioned for a couple orchestras in LA, the American Youth Symphony, and the Debut Orchestra.
http://www.aysymphony.org/
http://www.ymf.org/
They are considered the two top orchestras for pre-professionals in LA up to the age of 25, and both pay small amounts to the members for concerts and rehearsals. Anyhow, I have no problems with the way the Debut Orchestra did their auditions. They were ‘blind’ auditions in that the audition panel was seated behind a screen, and although everything was video taped for review of the conductor who was not present, the lens cap was left on. My audition was at the approximate time scheduled, and was conducted in a professional manner (having taken a couple profession auditions).
AYS however was a different story. I was scheduled to play at around 7pm, but they were running so far behind I didn’t play until 9:30! And there were still more people to go after me. One guy was so upset about the wait he decided to leave without auditioning. They ending up starting half an hour late for some reason, and then kept getting later and later. I can understand allowing some people to play longer if they are being more strongly considered, but to do this at the expense of allowing people to play even close to their assigned time seems inappropriate, particularly when the auditions are already scheduled so late in the day. Doesn’t this disadvantage some people unjustly?
Additionally, because it’s AYS’s 40th anniversary, PBS is planning a documentary on them, so there was a camera man there recording the auditions and doing some interviews. Since I had so much time to kill before my audition, I did an interview with him. Off camera he was discussing his perspective on how the auditions were being run, with a lot off stuff going on behind the scenes. As an example, he told me of a violinist whom he had interviewed before her audition; she ended up playing badly (the cameraman thought) during her audition and was crying afterwards. However, he said the conductor told him she would get into the orchestra anyhow (even though other people had played better) because he was a good friend with her teacher, and her teacher had told him how great a player she was….
So… I wont know whether I made either group for a while, and was quite happy with how I played, so I don't want this to come across as a bunch of sour grapes. However, I am curious for input from music professionals who may read this: is this sort of thing as common at a 'pro' level? Perrhaps in other ways? I have heard that many pro orchestras use blind auditions for most of their preliminary rounds, but could politics come to play in that last round or two? It seems like the audition process is hard enough without wondering if it is fixed from the get go.
Any comments or similar stories would be appreciated.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-18 13:06
It is hugely political. And you can rest assured that if there is a certain player who is "selected" in advance that the player can be heard and identified even though it is blind.
I'll give you an example where the higher degree cost the player the job.
Local University had a Clarinet Professor Job open. Came down to a player who had his Masters Degree and another player who had his Doctorate and had taught at that University for 10 years as an assistant to the main teacher.
The guy who had taught at the school was a very good teacher - he got along really well with the students, his instruction was impeccable (former Klug student among other great teachers) and to me he should have gotten the gig hands down. The Masters Degree candidate was probably the better player, but the other guy was most likely the better teacher. (I know both very well as I taught one of them at a summer music festival in 1997 and went to college with the other one).
But did he get the job?
Nope - the guy (15 years younger) with the masters degree got it. Word has it that he got it because the music school had spent $$ on giving the dean a raise and they wanted the less expensive teacher so the Masters Degree won out over the Doctorate.
To me that's some major Bull Shirt. However it is more typical than you may think.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2004-09-18 13:25
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> Word has it that he got it because the music school ...
Not that I don't think politics (or connections) has anything to do with selection in any career (if I'm hiring and a friend makes a recommendation we call it "networking" ...)
While this concusionmight be true, and in a lot of eyes is most probably true, we still don't really know, do we? Icould just as easily be that the board got along better with one than the other, and for some position s"getting along" is much more important than any absolute skill after a certain minimum criteria is met.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-18 13:43
Both guys were really nice and personable.
Networking is a good thing as the person is at that point a "known entity".
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-18 13:54
DavidBlumberg said:
> But did he get the job?
> Nope - the guy (15 years younger) with
>the masters degree got it.
In this era of tight dollars and reduced state aid in the public schools, I see it happening all the time in our local school districts.
Hire them cheap (Step 1 - BA) right out of college. (A personal connection to an administrator or board member certainly doesn't hurt either).
After being burned by the last few rookie music teachers who hadn't a clue what it takes to run a high school music program, our local school districts are finally getting wise and paying for experience.
One district out here went through 5 beginning teachers in 6 years before they finally decided that paying extra for someone who has proven themselves elsewhere was the better investment.
I saw some of these beginning music teachers in action. Their level of incompetence was indeed frightening ... GBK
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-09-18 14:02
even the most lowly high school band is prone to politics among it's membership...those who can't play first but want to...teachers competing among each other...sadly it leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth!
Welcome to the real world!
David Dow
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