It is never a sure thing who an orchestra is really considering when they are looking for a new music director. Some conductors don’t want to be seen as ‘auditioning’ for the gig, and orchestras are often competing for the same scarce resource: a good conductor. So it pays to be cagey about just who
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Once again I made the mistake of reading the auditions forum at the myauditions.com website. Once again, there are conspiracy theories being proposed about the results of another major audition – in this case the recent Boston Symphony percussion auditions (one of the winners is a current member of our section here in Oregon). This
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Matthew McKay, who just joined the Oregon Symphony percussion section this season, has won a position in the venerable Boston Symphony. He will be joining former OSO cellist Adam Esbensen, who left for the BSO in 2008. Problematic for the Oregon Symphony percussion section is that the runner-up in the audition that Matt won here
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Gotta love those rejection letters! And, as if I didn’t know right after I left the stage and they said “You’re done”, that I hadn’t won the job. Hello, Cleveland!
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I just heard from a friend who took an audition for a smaller orchestra, and her story really appalled me. What bothered me the most was the fact that the person who should have told the candidates of the decision chose only to tell the winner of the audition, and simply punted an notifying the
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There are some clever people in this world. Do you remember the “Yo-Yo Shreds at the Inauguration” vid that popped up on YouTube? Then there was the “Perlman Shreds Winter”: Now, there is the “Berliner Philharmoniker Masterclass”: I was in tears for the last one – it’s a great job of dubbing over what the
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David Lau, who was a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic and a winner of the Young Artists Concert competition, has won an audition to the august ensemble, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. You may have heard of one of their earlier music directors: Felix Mendelssohn. David studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Juilliard School,
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After a series of auditions held this past Fall, the Oregon Symphony will welcome four new musicians to its ranks after the winter break concludes Friday. With violist Silu Fei, timpanist Jonathan Greeney and English hornist Kyle Mustain already here (and sounding fantastic), this brings our number of new musicians this season to six seven.
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We had a spate of auditions at the end of last season, and the results netted us three new musicians who are all now settled in Portland and playing with the orchestra. They are Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney, oboist and English hornist Kyle Mustain, and violist Silu Fei. Here’s a little info about each: Jonathan
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I just stumbled on to an online virtual panel discussion at Polyphonic.org from several years ago centered on the subject of orchestral auditions. One of the panelists, Fergus McWilliam is a member of the horn section of the Berlin Philharmonic – I thought his thoughts on the nature of how auditions are conducted in the
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If you feel the earth tremble beneath your feet starting Thursday Friday afternoon, don’t be alarmed, it’s not an earthquake. It will be the sound of dozens of timpanists vying for the timpani position being vacated by the retiring Paul Salvatore at the end of this season. A timpocalypse! Did you know there are two
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The past two days we held viola auditions for a section viola position here at the Oregon Symphony. Turnout was relatively low, around 40 people actually showed up for the preliminary round. A position has been offered to one of the finalists, but I can’t give any more information than that at this time. It’s
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The reentry into life after an audition is often a difficult period of transition. One has been so focused upon a goal – often for several months on end – and then in the time it takes the personnel manager to say “thank you” it’s all over. You gather up your stuff and head out
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Well, it’s been quiet here at the blog for some time, so I thought it might be a good thing to tell you what I’ve been up to. I went down to Los Angeles this past Sunday to take the audition for the 3rd chair viola position (Assistant principal) of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on
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There was an orchestral audition that took place this weekend at the local opera company. It was an audition for nine violin positions. There were twelve applicants. Of these twelve, two were advanced out of the preliminary round to the finals. It isn’t clear if anyone was offered a position at the time this was
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