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 Professional auditions
Author: gsurosey 
Date:   2010-10-15 18:10

The post on Ricardo and the NY Phil got me thinking. How hard is it to actually land an audition? It may depend on the orchestra, but on average, how many clarinetists show up for these things?

I actually got accepted to a couple auditions based on resume (which doesn't tell me much since my resume I don't think is all that impressive; they were Cincinnati and Boston). I backed out of both auditions because I was too afraid to go.

I had problems auditioning at NYSSMA competitions for All-County groups in high school (at least instrumentally). I had the deer-in-headlights thing going on (the one-on-one audition freaked me out and I didn't play as well as I know I could have). When I did vocal auditions, at least I had an accompanist with me. That made me feel better and those auditions went much better. I made it to Area All-State twice vocally, so I had to do something right (especially since there are a TON of people that audition as sopranos). As far as All-County, I qualified 3 times instrumentally and 5 times vocally. Therefore, I know I'm somewhat capable. Unfortunately, auditions are a huge problem for me. I get very anxious and having almost no self-confidence hurts, too.

Rachel

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 Re: Professional auditions
Author: SteveG_CT 
Date:   2010-10-15 18:52

In general I think there is quite a bit of competition for any paid orchestral job. Heck, there is even a lot of competition for many of the unpaid orchestral jobs in the smaller volunteer orchestras.

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 Re: Professional auditions
Author: clariknight 
Date:   2010-10-15 18:59

I've heard of numbers around 80 candidates for the prelims, especially at big auditions like Boston and Cincinnati.

As to how hard it is to land a job, read http://www.facebook.com/#!/topic.php?uid=2402202261&topic=3746. Note that after all this, the person writing did not win the job.

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 Re: Professional auditions
Author: Paul Aviles 
Date:   2010-10-15 21:28

The numbers I have heard are usually 300 per round and sometimes there are several rounds of that many players (and then the usual top five are in the finals).

Competition is fierce, and many who show up are very good players.


HOWEVER......... here comes a story

Russianoff used to tell a story about the audition process at Eastman where one member of the adjudicating committee would (without fail) pick the ONE clarinetist of the bunch that sounded like "a train going over a trestle."

Point being: you NEVER know just what the band you audition for wants until you go........... you may be it.



...............Paul Aviles



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 Re: Professional auditions
Author: gsurosey 
Date:   2010-10-17 15:27

300?? Wow...

I read the audition story. Again, wow...

Rachel

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 Re: Professional auditions
Author: skygardener 
Date:   2010-10-17 15:32

I heard that when the Flute chiar opened up at NYPO a few years ago, about 400-500 people went to the live audition. These are the people that PASSED the tape audition- imagine how many people applied in total!

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 No Subject
Author: John J. Moses 
Date:   2010-10-17 16:07

More to follow...

JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist

Post Edited (2010-10-17 16:11)

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