Bill Eddins, music director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, wrote a post a few weeks back about the mixed experience that is being on an orchestral audition committee. He wrote about the process and frustrations of being on the principal trumpet audition committee in Edmonton.
He got a lot of feedback – some good, some bad, some very ugly.
I think that Bill is a heck of a class act – and these statements from his response to those comments only reinforces my opinion:
Well as I said, I was surprised, and I have some explaining to do. For those who took the post in the tone intended: Thank you. For those who didn’t but who felt the need to use it as a way of working towards a better audition process: Thank you as well. To those of you who were offended by the post: My heartfelt apologies. That was NOT what was intended at all. I would hope that if you re-read the post you would see that I am trying to comment on the process itself. Obviously I failed miserably for some folks. My apologies to them, the candidates, my colleagues @ the ESO, and the audition committee. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
and
I am committed to making sure that the ESO runs the best, cleanest, and fairest auditions in the business. If anyone can legitimately claim that something that our staff has done has had a negative impact on their audition I will personally refund their audition fee out of my own pocket. Someone has to be responsible and I think it should be the Music Director.