I’ve been reading the discussion boards over at MyAuditions.com with interest over the past year. There have been a few auditions (flute in Detroit and harp in Cleveland are the most recent controversial examples) that have either drawn many, many applicants but not hired someone, or else they have hired someone who was already in the orchestra - in some cases without advancing anyone from the preliminary rounds.

There are the usual aspersions cast regarding the fact that the audition may have been fixed, that it’s defrauding the applicants if the orchestra clearly intends only to hire from within and not from the cattle-call pool of unscreened applicants.

I doubt that’s ever the case. If it is, it’s exceedingly rare.

Why? [Read more →]

This past week there was an inquiry on the message boards at MyAuditions.com about the results of a recent viola audition for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Apparently, there were two people who were finalists and who were going to be given trial periods before a hiring decision was made. The names of those two people were exposed on the boards. [Read more →]