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.
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.