No one picked at Seattle Symphony audition
The Seattle Symphony had a recent audition for a section position. No one was selected out of the finals to fill the position.
This is nothing new in orchestral auditions. Orchestras across the professional gamut (from the Chicago Symphony to the Rockport Community Orchestra) frequently elect not to fill positions during the course of an audition.
There are rational arguments to be made on both the player side and the committee side when this sort of thing occurs. I have been on audition panels in the past, and when there isn’t a player that a committee feels confident in offering a position, there isn’t really much that can be done about it. Committees make decisions collectively (with widely varying degrees of Music Director influence), and even if these decisions seem ludicrous to auditionees, if one could be a fly on the wall on the other side of the screen one could at least somewhat understand the decision to not fill a position.
On the other hand, not filling an orchestral position after having dozens (sometimes well over 100) of musicians fly out on their own dime to take an audition demonstrates a level of arrogance, disregard, and disrespect toward one’s fellow musician. I personally know the playing of several players who took this audition (some with major orchestra experience), and not at least offering a trial position to one of these player (or one of the many other well-qualified players) is simply unacceptable in my book.
This kind of search for employment (flying out at your own expense to a position with 100 other colleagues to take a brief audition for a position that is subsequently not filled) is something that would be considered completely unacceptable in the majority of career fields, and it demonstrates three things to me:
- Going into music is a decision of passion rather than practicality.
- Most studies show that around 5% of musicians land full-time employment, but with orchestras (like Seattle) that choose to not even give anyone a chance, the chance of employment is dropping even further.
- We musicians need to think long and hard about the realities of this business before sacrificing thousands of dollars on an opportunity with a 0% chance of return (like this Seattle experience).
Again, I have been on the committee side, and I understand how these decisions are reached, but this demonstrates to me the insanity of the contemporary orchestral performance business.
I am launching a new multi-part series tomorrow about this very subject, and I hope you all check it out! I hope that it will be both thought-provoking and entertaining, so let me know what you think.
In the meantime, I have written extensively about the kind of experiences those bassist who went to Seattle just went through. Checking out my article Musical Entrepreneurship will give you an idea of the kind of cost that the collective group of double bassists just faced at this audition, and my story Auditioning is a Rotten Pastime (featured in the Winter 2007 Double Bassist Magazine) gives you an idea of just how tough this kind of situation can be on a musician.
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Jul 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 am
Thanks so much for putting this point of view out there, Jason. I agree wholeheartedly with your statement. The level of disrespect manifested at this type of audition is simply startling. If the type of player the committee is looking for is of such a specific type that none of the best and brightest players from across the nation fit the bill, why in the world wasn’t the audition run differently? They could have invited only a select number of players who they knew in advance had the potential to meet their criteria. In fact, Seattle did have a tape round, which makes their failure to hire anyone even more mysterious. If an organization’s search process is so flawed that even out of dozens of highly qualified candidates they cannot succeed in identifying a suitable player, I would think they would retool it from the ground up. Of course, they won’t. Detroit seems inexplicably tied to the same process by which they have failed to hire a principal for years now. Of course, I would love have a job in one of these orchestras. Increasingly, though, I am deeply skeptical of bothering to prepare and put out my hard earned cash. Like you said, there is no other field in the world that would view this situation as tolerable.
Jul 3rd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Dear Jason,
A small point of clarification: the recent Seattle Symphony bass audition was for assistant principal bass and not for a section position as noted in your post.
As far as your comment about the SSO’s “arrogance, disregard, and disrespect toward one’s fellow musicians” I surely hope you are not serious. While I do not wish to comment on a specific audition, I can tell you that I’ve participated in several auditions in different orchestras where no one was hired. After being a candidate, committee member, or proctor in these situations, it has been my experience that decisions on hiring are never determined frivolously. Often (and not just in auditions) there is no clear-cut decision, and we are forced individually and collectively to choose between several different difficult scenarios.
Also, nearly every orchestra has specific contractual guidelines for auditioning which must be followed to the ‘t’. Please understand that while this or that particular orchestra may have a certain hiring process that is ‘not working’ according to some, it would be a profoundly complicated if not impossible thing to alter in their CBA.
Kudos to you on your “Road Warrior” series which I have enjoyed very much. In my opinion it takes real intellectual courage to come to such a well articulated and independent assessment of one’s situation.
Best wishes to you and your readers!
Jonathan Burnstein, Seattle WA
Jul 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Jonathon,
Thank you for the comment and clarification. My comments were intended to echo the frustration that audition candidates feel when participating in an audition for which no one is picked. I do understand how an orchestra committee decision can result in no clear cut winner for an audition, however, and I was trying to portray both points of view in this post.
I am sure the audition committee for the Seattle Symphony was hoping to find a qualified candidate for the assistant principal position, and that no one was hoping to finish the process without a clear winner. An orchestra’s CBA (as you obviously know–this comment is just for the benefit of readers) dictates certain specific terms (number of votes, etc.) which must be met for a candidate to be selected, and that this process did not produce a candidate who met those terms.
From the perspective of an audition candidate, it can seem crazy and, yes, arrogant on the part of the organization, that so many players would travel to Seattle for an audition in which no one was selected. Musicians are often demoralized and extremely frustrated by this result. Again, I know that this is just the way things play out sometimes on the other side of the screen, but it is an insanely frustrating thing for an auditioning musician to deal with.
I auditioned for the Seattle nearly a decade ago, and I remember it being an extremely well-run audition, with a great deal of consideration and hospitality given to the candidates. I recall having a generous amount of time in a warm-up room, having the audition list and procedure clearly spelled out to me, and having the advancement (or non-advancement in my case) of candidates handled in a civil and compassionate manner.
My post was intended to highlight the frustration and discouragement that audition candidates feel when an audition does not produce a winner, not to rip on the Seattle Symphony or their process in any way. My apologies if that is how the comment was taken by readers, but I do feel that this situation is one of the most frustrating and disheartening things that auditioning musicians must deal with.