[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Moran, Doug]

On May 26, 2007, at 9:42 AM, Jeff Albert wrote:

> On 5/26/07, JENKINS,JOHN J <posaune at ufl.edu> wrote:
>>
>> With all due respect, I feel that blind auditions are no doubt the
>> pinnacle of "fairness". It's the only way of selecting someone
>> based on their ability without any bias or trickery.
>
> The problem with that is that the skills needed to do well on a blind
> audition are not necessarily the same skills used to do the job well.
>
> Jeff

I like the Boston Ballet approach.  It makes sense to me.

We have an adult/community band here that is a high-end group.  There 
is an audition requirement, and we only invite musicians to play with 
us that we know can play well.  A couple of years ago we had the need 
to add a couple of trombone players, but our "waiting list" had 15 
names on it.  A good problem to have, but how do we go about inviting 
the right person.  My personal problem was that I manage the group, and 
about half the names on the trombone waiting list are former students 
of mine.

We decide to have a blind audition, 3 person committee behind the 
screen, candidates all played the same 2 etudes.  We then asked for a 
music resume, and a 3 person committee interviewed the candidate.  The 
two committees each rank ordered their selections, and then the 6 folks 
got together and came up with the folks we invited to join.  This 
worked well for us as we took into account the playing ability and the 
interpersonal skills.  Most of the candidates expressed their 
satisfaction with this process as they felt it treated them with 
respect.  (I facilitated the audition, and was not involved in the 
selection at all.)

Thanks for the comments on the Cleveland trombone audition.  I started 
the topic and I've enjoyed reading the responses.  Most have made me 
think a little.

Doug