| Pianissimo User
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Posts: 141
| Boise Audition - YIKES!!
So, I just finished taking the 2nd trumpet audition with the Boise Philharmonic today. This orchestra is a smaller regional symphony whose position is salaried at $14,700.00 minimum (123 services) with a medical/dental/life insurance benefits package. The cost of living in Boise, Idaho is such that one could make a living supplementing this income with freelancing and teaching in the greater Boise area (population of 500,000). They brag on their website about being a top notch orchestra with members from Juilliard, the San Francisco Conservatory, etc. They clearly *want* to be a professional orchestra.
I’ll get right to the point though, this was the worst, most unprofessional audition I have ever taken. Granted, I’ve only taken a handful of auditions up to now, but considering the auditions with the President’s Own Marine Band, Buffalo Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony and the Toledo Symphony were very well run, I think I have a standard with which to make a judgment call here. This audition was so poorly run I will definitely be looking to the union to see if they can investigate what is likely a case of violating union regulations. This audition was every audition nightmare you could have...only it was real.
I feel cheated that I even spent the money on a plane ticket to take the audition. I regret wasting my time on a low-salary job like this when the audition process was run so poorly. I should preface by saying that, yes, I did not advance. But I know full-well that I made a glaring and unforgivable mistake in the Shostakovitch excerpt. I’m not upset that I didn’t advance, because my playing was not where it should have been today. I will continue to practice, improve and do better next time. But, I am still upset at the way the audition was run. Consider the following, and be warned…never take an audition with the Boise Philharmonic.
1. The order of auditionees was not decided by random choosing (which has been customary at every audition I’ve taken thus far). In the email confirmation I received from the personnel manager on September 5th, she said the following, “Please check in by 12:30pm upstairs at the academy and we can draw for placement at that time.” There was no drawing…the order was decided on a “first come first serve” basis. I showed up early, which meant I auditioned early rather than having an equal chance as everyone else at being first, last, etc. This seemed slightly unfair to me.
2. There were no assigned warm-up spaces. There were practice rooms in the basement, but it was a free-for-all to find space to warm-up. Since they were doing both the clarinet and trumpet auditions on the same day, there were literally no available rooms to warm-up when I arrived. Eventually when the clarinet auditions were over, rooms became available…but shouldn’t they have had assigned warm-up spaces?
3. No advance notice was given to any of the candidates as to when the auditions would start, or when it was their turn to audition. After the clarinets had finished, the personnel manager came out and said that it was time to start the trumpet auditions, asked who was “#1” and asked them to please come in and audition. They did not give that person a chance to warm-up, or give them any prior notification. They simply had to walk in cold. This meant that I had about 10 minutes to find a room and warm-up before it was my time to audition. Had it been announced earlier that the auditions would be starting “soon”, I would have known to go find a room…
4. They never “officially” announced who advanced from the first group. I stood around for almost an hour after I had auditioned talking with an old friend who was in the 2nd group. We were waiting to hear the results so that he would know how much time he might have until he needed to play. Instead, the proctor came up to us and asked where is “So-and-so” (my old friend) and told him that he was up next. I asked the proctor, “When did you announce the beginning of the second group and who advanced from the first group? I have been waiting for almost an hour to hear the results.” She replied in a snotty voice, “I announced them 15 minutes ago…where were you?” I said, “I’ve been standing right here…so if you announced them who advanced?” She replied with some name I didn’t know. Meanwhile my friend raced downstairs to try to at least blow some air through his horn before having traveled 900 miles to audition.
5. The excerpts for the first round were not given to anyone very far in advance, despite several of us asking for it repeatedly. They were announced by the personnel manager “by voice” right before the first person had to go on. Furthermore, there were errors in the list that remained uncorrected until after the first two people auditioned and the committee realized the people auditioning were playing measures they didn’t want to hear. It was only then (after two people had auditioned and played incorrect passages) that they wrote down the list and made it readily available for everyone.
6. The proctor announced people to audition by name rather than keeping it anonymous and asking for numbers. As I said earlier, she told me the name of one of the people who advanced rather than keeping it anonymous. The doors to the audition site were not sound proof, and based on how easy it was to hear the trumpet players in the audition room, it is safe to assume that the committee could hear who was being called before they went on. In general the proctor had no idea what was going on, and was completely and utterly useless. She was unable to answer any questions from any of the candidates, not because she wasn’t supposed to, but because she just didn’t have a clue (this was further confirmed through talking with one of the clarinet candidates who had dealt with her earlier in the day).
7. There were no parts on the stand in the audition room, despite the fact that most of the parts were available on rental only (Petrouchka, Bartok, Shostakovich). I used my own music, so I don’t know if it simply wasn’t available or if it was being held elsewhere as I was using my own parts. Either way there was no music, and at least one other person there verified there was no music on the stand when they auditioned as well.
8. The proctor and committee were rude. There is certainly nothing wrong with this necessarily, but considering all the rest, this is just adding insult to injury. Consider the following anecdote. One candidate (who shall remain nameless…it wasn’t me) played Shostakovich 5, 1st movement, rehearsal #27 (the march). After playing it the committee said in a rather rude tone, “Can you play that again, but this time less “pecky”?”. The candidate starting playing it again and half-way through the committee rudely yelled, “THANK-YOU” before they could finish. Obviously they wanted something different in the articulation…why not simply ask for shorter or longer?
Now, I am a member of the union, but I did not show my union card. I am wondering if there really are any audition violations here? It seems to be that the non-random distributing of audition position, and not keeping things anonymous might be violations. The rest of it is probably just annoying and not necessarily a violation. I haven’t checked the union regulations (nor do I know where they are posted). Anyway, several of us are fuming and based on the evidence above…the audition wasn’t exactly fair, and I’m hoping there is something here the union can do about it. The Boise Philharmonic ran a terrible, and unprofessional audition, and IMO, if this was any indication of what kind of ensemble they are, then they have a LONG way to go before they can all themselves a professional ensemble. |