[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Gabriel Langfur]

---- Original Message ----
From: Jeff Albert <jeff at jeffalbert.com>

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.

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The Boston Ballet orchestra has an interesting system in their contract for filling vacant chairs. They convene a committee (which includes the music director) and meet to discuss the players in town, the frequent subs they've had in, etc.  Then they hold a secret paper ballot vote, and if they have a unanimous winner from that they don't hold an audition and simply invite that player to fill the chair. One dissenting vote means that they then hold an audition. 

Some might say it's unfair to do it this way, but I disagree. I think this takes into account the human side of the equation quite well, acknowledging the importance of knowing how well somebody actually does in the situation without pretending that a blind audition is the pinnacle of "fairness."

Gabe