[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Jeff Albert]

On 5/24/07, Robert Holland <publisher at briarmusic.com> wrote:
>
> The Cleveland Orchestra isn't alone in failing to select a
> winner after an audition, but it is a notable offender. It is a true
> rarity, IMO, when an audition is held and no qualified candidate(s)
> emerges, and the apparent waste of everyone's time, effort, and money
> on both sides of the screen is an egregious insult.
>
> I can't guess what the errant motivation behind such shenanigans must
> be, but the notion fostered by the news report that putting off
> selecting a winner of an audition somehow burnishes an orchestra's
> reputation because a certain chair is so critical is utter nonsense.



If they (Cleveland) do something that defies all understanding by the rest
of the orchestral community, it shows that they  (Cleveland) have a depth of
understanding that the rest of us lack.

On a simpler level, if they hired someone the first time, it might have let
on that there are easily 15-20 or maybe even 50-75 people in US alone that
could do a fine job as their principal trombonist.  That realization that
the special job isn't as special as they'd like us to believe is bad for
their ego.

Last year there was an audition in Florida (Jacksonville maybe?) for a
principal job, and no one was hired.  I know a few of the auditionees,
having sat in a sections with them when I subbed here in the LPO in New
Orleans.  Really fine players and nice people.  People I would love to sit
next to every day.  I don't even know if one of them was the best player
there, but I do know that either of them would have done a wonderful job on
the gig.  Something is wrong with the system.

The LPO just had principal oboe auditions.  The woman that is tenured as the
second oboist has played principal 5 out of the last 12 seasons dues to
various illness and leaves.  She has done a marvelous job, but she didn't
win the audition, so they couldn't give her the job, even though everyone
knows that she plays great and gets along well with the conductors and other
wind principals.  Something is wrong with the system.

Jeff


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