I auditioned for the Baltimore Symphony in 1965.
Things were really different then. Most orchestras were still not year-round employment.
Union scale in Baltimore was less than $400 a week for a 36 week season.
I was not even sure I wanted to be in a southern city.
I was prepared though, for the audition. I had already been soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. I was, at that time, First trumpet for the Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia Little Symphony, Haddonfield Symphony, Princeton, and Trenton Symphony and many other small Philadelphia groups. I was playing at the Schubert Thearter and doing a lot of the pre-MFSB stuff in Philly.
I was busy
The repertoire was quite different then.
Mahler was just being discovered in this country, so there was none on the audition list.
Piccolo trumpet playing was still relatively new, so there was little on the audition.
I played Stravinsky, Brahms, Tchaikovsky,Respighi and many other really standard rep works.
There were only about a dozen guys at the preliminaries. The finals were held the same day.
I won.
The chairman of Morgan State College was at the finals. I was offered a job on the spot.
Looking back on that day, I think that offer convinced me.
I was doing better as a free-lance player than that symphony job would pay.
Peter Herman Adler was the Baltimore Symphony's Music Director at the time.
I was prepared.
Wilmer