Robby Garrison won trial weeks for the fourth trumpet position in the Philadelphia Orchestra on January 16th, 2024. Finalists included George Goad and Jack Farnham.
Privately auditioning and appointing candidates is unforunately becoming more and more commonplace in the top tier orchestras these days and I’ve yet to hear a good argument for this being a fair, equitable or good way to choose players. This happens after they’ve ‘exhausted’ the public audition process which was either not held in good faith or held to an impossible-to-meet standard (after all, these players theyre privately auditioning/hiring almost certainly auditioned and didn’t meet the public audition standard and are going to be hired anyway). Im not saying this audition practice leads to bad players in the chairs but it’s impossible to claim this is a fair/equitable practice or unequivocally leads to the best appointees. More orchestras should follow the METs lead of totally blind auditions where they are essentially required to hire. Especially for orchestras of this caliber, you cannot possibly claim you’re not already hearing the best, most qualified candidates the US has to offer in a blind, public audition.
I am not familiar with the Philly Orch CBA, but based on how this audition and the principal trumpet audition have went, it kind of feels like they are exhausting what they are required to do under the CBA so that they can handpick who they want in the orchestra outside a formal (public) audition process. Hope I am wrong.
I know some sources close to this. While your suggestion is not impossible and they certainly have no reason to talk to me candidly about it, it does sound like every audition and candidate has been in good faith. Several people have done private auditions for principal in recent weeks there is a “winner” that is not public knowledge and I do not believe they would appreciate me saying who.As far as 4th, I’m told that this was a routine example of a great player who just wasn’t quite right for the group.
Appreciate the detailed post and I hope you are right. Fully acknowledge that my post was more "perception" than anything else. Process just smells funky.
Privately auditioning and appointing candidates is unforunately becoming more and more commonplace in the top tier orchestras these days and I’ve yet to hear a good argument for this being a fair, equitable or good way to choose players. This happens after they’ve ‘exhausted’ the public audition process which was either not held in good faith or held to an impossible-to-meet standard (after all, these players theyre privately auditioning/hiring almost certainly auditioned and didn’t meet the public audition standard and are going to be hired anyway). Im not saying this audition practice leads to bad players in the chairs but it’s impossible to claim this is a fair/equitable practice or unequivocally leads to the best appointees. More orchestras should follow the METs lead of totally blind auditions where they are essentially required to hire. Especially for orchestras of this caliber, you cannot possibly claim you’re not already hearing the best, most qualified candidates the US has to offer in a blind, public audition.
Any update on if the position was fully granted to Robby?