 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-02-22 23:47
There's an interesting blog post at http://www.ncsymphony.org/blog/index.cfm/2010/2/19/here-come-the-clarinets on clarinet auditions for the North Carolina Symphony.
In the first round, each of the herd of auditioners gets five minutes to impress the committee. Those who make it to the second round get 15 minutes, and the finalists play for the conductor, who will ask them to play an excerpt in several different styles.
Ken Shaw
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2010-02-23 06:22
--"In the first round, each of the herd of auditioners gets five minutes to impress the committee." --
If they choose to play John Cage's 4'33" would they lose marks for padding it out to 5 minutes?
;-)
Steve
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Author: Bartmann
Date: 2010-02-23 13:49
It's amazing that they got 122 players who are interested in the position for a regional orchestra. How many clarinetists applied for Stanley Drucker's place?
One clarinetist has been at the NoCarSymp since 1969 and another since 1973 so the turnover is glacial.
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Author: srattle
Date: 2010-02-23 15:02
The audition process for orchestras is such a backwards concept. It basically shows whether someone is technically proficient on their instrument, and almost nothing else.
There are so many aspects of music making, and orchestral playing that are missed in the audition process, and means we end up with a lot of proficient players in orchestra, but not the right people for the job.
Orchestral playing as also chamber music, it is also blending and weaving, it is intonation, and contact, and phrasing, and colors and sightreading and story telling. Not just fingers and rhythm and 'tone' whatever that really means in an orchestra audition.
What can anyone learn from 5 minutes of hearing someone, other than basic proficiency, 5 minutes being not enough for 99% of the world to get past the initial stress of an audition. Auditions are more a test of nerves than anyone else, so hope that you ate bananas before hand.
This is such an unmusical approach, and isn't that what we want foremost in our orchestras? Musicians? I will take a musician in an orchestra over a craftsman anyday.
These concepts depress me all the time!
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-02-23 19:51
Bartman said "It's amazing that they got 122 players who are interested in the position for a regional orchestra. How many clarinetists applied for Stanley Drucker's place?" I'd be surprised if there weren't a lot more interested in the job that were either turned down because of lack of experience of just realized that could not prepare the repertoire. It may be a regional orchestra but it has a long enough season to make a living, and it's a principal position. It wouldn't surprise me if well over 200 were interested in it but did not audition for any number of reasons.
As far a Druckers position, I'm guessing that the Philharmonic screened the applicants to only listen to a relatively few compared to NC. It's not uncommon for orchestra's to screen out players so they didn't have to listen to 200-300 players is some cases. Some orchestra's use pre audition tapes, some screen by resume's. I know it's hard to determine how someone really plays in the first five minutes but you can hear tone, intonation, phrasing, rhythm and general technique in just five minutes. It's not perfect by a long shot but how else are you going to listen to over a hundred players? At ten an hour, accounting for time to get on and off the stage, and taking a few breaks, your already talking about well over 7-8 hours for the first round. It's far from perfect but would it be better not to give most of them a chance at all. The problem is that we have to many applicants and not enough jobs to go around, and were producing more and more every year in our conservatories, more players for fewer and fewer jobs. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2010-02-23 21:44
srattle- you can hear a LOT in five minutes. If somebody plays musically convincingly, then you can overlook minor "imperfections" (within reason). It's when nothing is going on musically that the jury pick out all the little rhythmic and intonation details (which are almost always possible to find). It's not a perfect system by any means, but do you have a better suggestion that could realistically be put into practice?
Some orchestras require the candidates to play chamber music in later rounds, or even in the orchestra. British orchestras typically try out several players in the orchestra over a period of time. This obviously also has it's disadvantages too.
Don't forget that winning the audition is just the first part of getting the job. Being appointed is usually followed by at least a year of probation, in which the candidate really has to prove that they can play in the orchestra and show all the qualities that you are referring to. If they don't pass the probation then they don't keep the job, and the orchestra start looking for someone else.
But don't forget too that much of what playing in a woodwind section is about requires to "simple" task of playing the right note, in the right way at the right time. This also has to be done under pressure in concerts and rehearsals, so it's important to show that you can do it at an audition. Another one of the biggest challenges of playing in an orchestra is showing what you can do in the few bars where the clarinet is really heard. If you can't pull it off in 5 minutes, then how are you going to pull it off in a few bars?
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Author: Paul Miller
Date: 2010-02-23 22:32
Given the results of several recent auditions here in the US (ahem... Chicago), it's often hard to have faith in the process. How to improve this?
The AFM should insist on much more transparency in the audition process, and completely disallow "private auditions" for any player, no matter what their stature in the music world happens to be. There should never be any automatic advancement to semis or finals for any player who is not currently in the orchestra. Notes on all auditions should be made public without naming names, and there should be a non-orchestra AFM representative at all these auditions who will be tasked with ensuring player anonymity in the screened rounds. Is it more work? Yes. Does that matter? Not in the least. Will high profile candidates be upset if they get cut in the first round? Who cares?
Point is, auditions are already inherently problematic, but if there was oversight and a truly level playing field, candidates wouldn't have as much room to harbor suspicions about the process...
That said, I heard that the NC Symphony audition was pretty legit, so I know they're not ALL jacked up situations.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-02-24 00:37
I think most US major orchestra auditions are legit. In Baltimore, we always have the union stewart there to assure fairness. We do behind the screen auditions all the time until the finals, at which point the conductor if there and has a vote. If someone, or two, players are chosen they have to perform for a week with the orchestra, for which they get paid, and then the section, the audition committee and the conductor determine if the player will be given the position, on probation of course. As with some other orchestra's, if they don't hire anyone after a national audition we reserve the right to invite players to play with us for a week that did not attend the audition, but only after we have a national audition. Some times we will invite someone back that did play the audition but did not move on but has a good reputation. Most of the time a player has not been hired this way but it has happened at least once that I know of.
Auditions are so subjective. I know of several over the years in different sections that a person did not make the finals, or did but was not hired, and a few weeks or months later wins a job in one of the big five. James Chambers, former principal horn in the NY Phil. when I was a student told us in orchestra rep. class that he played 20 auditions before winning the Philharmonic job. It takes great skill and a bit of luck as well being at the right place at the right time. ESP
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