San Francisco Symphony Section First Violin & 4th Chair Second Violin Audition

Music directors have to be present in the final round so that they can hear who they're hiring. The controversial part of this is that some orchestras will hold their finals several weeks after their earlier rounds because of conflicts with a music director's schedule. It tends to be less of an issue when orchestras hold a bunch of prelims in a day or two, but some orchestras (especially top tier ones that have more money) spread out their prelims over several days to make it easier for their audition committees. When this happens, it's way more likely that some advancing candidates (if not all) will have to leave and come back to play in future rounds.

Music Directors only "have" to be at auditions if the orchestra's CBA requires it.

Olivia Chen won a trial! She was the only one

Thanks for clarifying! Do you know for which position the trial was given?

Section first and 4th chair Second