I can think of several ways to deal with the issue of a music director being physically absent from the audition that would be far better than having him listen over Zoom. Why not simply record all the candidates playing the full round with their high-fidelity equipment and have the MD listen later? Or if you only have three finalists, why not give them each a trial week? The method they chose was destined to result in a no-hire and ultimately wasted the time and money of many people.
I wonder if the MD listening through Zoom had something to do with the no hire…