What is the latest time a final round of an audition could possibly go until, if one full day was allotted for the finals in advance? I need to take a flight out the night of a final round to make something by the next morning.
I know each orchestra is different so just getting an idea of an average or others' extreme experiences, all the ones I've experienced/seen have been around late afternoon at worst.
I have personally been dismissed once after 11 PM and hired once after 10 PM. If I have a tight schedule I will generally make a backup travel plan and/or book with an airline like Southwest which will let me change my flight at no additional cost.
If there's a dedicated day for finals, that doesn't guarantee it will conclude early. It's possible that due to their working schedule or venue restrictions they will start in the late afternoon or evening. It's always a good idea to check with the personnel manager in advance.
if there's a full day for just finals, i would imagine they would conclude with plenty of time to take an evening flight. whenever i've seen auditions go late, it's due to having multiple rounds in a day with more candidates than expected. i saw one audition where it was semis/finals in one day and they didn't conclude until about midnight, but that's definitely on the extreme end of things.
but yeah, as mentioned, asking the PM about a relative timeline would (hopefully) clarify things!
You can always ask the personnel manager if they have an expected time of completion for the final round, but even they might not know the answer to that. Many orchestras allow for additional rounds beyond the finals (commonly called "super finals"), and committees generally don't have any time limit on how long they can deliberate.
So you could book that flight out on the night of finals, and if you're eliminated in an earlier round then it's a non-issue. Or, if you're fortunate enough to be still in contention late into that evening, you might not mind missing that flight after all. A change fee or a new plane ticket is peanuts compared to a moment that could change your life and your career.
Personally I'd probably email the PM and ask if, contractually, there is a time by which the audition has to be finished.