Auditioning the Audition Process

I first interpreted this idea to mean (as some others did as well) that all candidates would go to one (or perhaps one of several) location and play an audition of standard repertoire to be taped and sent to any orchestra holding an audition that season. Nathan Kahn pointed out the difficulties of standardizing a repertoire list among dozens of orchestras for such a process. My concern would be that one bad day would kill a whole year of auditions for a candidate.

Now that the process has been clarified to mean that a candidate could choose to tape an audition at one of several locations, playing the repertoire for a specific orchestra’s audition. This would save candidates the inconvenience and expense of traveling to the actual audition only to be dismissed after the preliminary round. An interesting idea in theory, but in practice, a nightmare to administer. Instead of one audition in one location taking place over a period of a few days you would have multiple locations and multiple days each requiring a hall, a recording technician, stagehands, administrator and expensive standardized equipment. The big question that would need to be answered is, what’s in it for the small number of orchestras who would be doing the recording. I expect that the fees that would need to be charged the candidates might exceed the candidate travel expenses saved.