This level of shadiness has been present in their auditions for as long as I can remember. A significant percentage of their recent audition winners received auto advances to later rounds sometimes even to the finals. I even heard from a reliable source there, that in one instance the final round of an audition was postponed because one of the candidates was “sick”…. that orchestra really makes me question the point of paying into the union when stuff like this happens and I know a lot of people up here share similar feelings. It’s must be hard living in the shadow of Toronto and Montreal…
Now that the Timpani audition has ended in a no hire and they will only invite hand picked trailists does your point still stand? Just asking for a friend.
I disagree with your recommendation. It may very well be a smart idea to save some money and time in the short term, and you may have even extracted real information from what you perceive to be an orchestra's hiring patterns (you may find looking at an orchestra's CBA useful here as it contains all the info you need about audition procedure), however not doing the audition is poor advice if you want the job. To summarize: you have made the recommendation to not audition for certain orchestras. I am making the recommendation of: if you want the gig, you shoud do the audition.
I tend to agree - it’s not uncommon for string sections to promote from within their own ranks when they have title chair openings. After all, a section player has likely played most of the standard repertoire with the orchestra already, and would be intimately familiar with certain choices regarding tempi, volume, bowings, etc. There’s something to be said for winning an “entry level” position in a section and then “working your way up” to a title chair, as happens in virtually every other industry on the planet.
Additionally, I believe NACO just hired a new section violinist earlier this year and this person came from a different orchestra and had to start in the prelims. Whatever happened in the principal audition, it’s likely more nuanced than what’s being suggested here.
Yes and the person who won assistant principal second violin (I think) was from an entirely different orchestra as well. For the section violin audition, they did offer travel stipends to those who made the finals. Additionally, for the viola audition 2 years ago, they did actually auto advance 2 or 3 people but the person who ended up winning was not auto advanced and was not even in an orchestra before. For what it’s worth, NACO also has really large panels (12 people). If something as small as breathing is truly an issue (not saying it is or isn’t), not auto advancing or having video tapes rounds or something won’t change that. I have a very genuine question: what do you propose orchestras do to solve this situation? It’s very common for orchestras to hire title positions from within and travelling far away is relative to everyone so that statement could go for every orchestra.
This level of shadiness has been present in their auditions for as long as I can remember. A significant percentage of their recent audition winners received auto advances to later rounds sometimes even to the finals. I even heard from a reliable source there, that in one instance the final round of an audition was postponed because one of the candidates was “sick”…. that orchestra really makes me question the point of paying into the union when stuff like this happens and I know a lot of people up here share similar feelings. It’s must be hard living in the shadow of Toronto and Montreal…
For assistant 2nd, very likely that the person already sitting there will get the position.
Been sitting there for every concerts from start of the season, before the audition was announced.
Finals are on Feb 9.