[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Gabriel Langfur]

----- Original Message ----
From: Tom Gibson <tbonegib at bellsouth.net>

This all just lends more credence to the habit of "living in  
the Now", as far as I can figure. That ability, coincidentally, leads  
to great music making, peace of mind, kindness towards others,  
pleasant demeanor, healthy perspective......all of which leads to  
more work in the real world and so the cycle goes.

Achieving that mindset is difficult. Maintaining it is nearly  
impossible.
Why is that, I wonder?
===========================

And there's no better way to walk into an audition. 

in my experience, music-making in general, and audition performance most specifically, happens at the highest level with a 100% commitment to this moment - no distractions, no thoughts of past or future, consequences or outcomes. Just a full immersion in the moment. Charlie Vernon talks about concentrating 100% on the note you are playing RIGHT NOW. 

As Tom suggests, if you can do that, you can be successful in music or any other endeavor.

This is much more difficult than it sounds. 

In an audition situation, the only thing you can control is what YOU do - not what the committe thinks or what the music director thinks, or what anybody else does. If you can stay focused on that and nothing else, and stay in the present moment, and you have done your homework to learn to play your instrument to the best of your physical ability and learn the music at hand for the audition...well then you stand about as good a chance as anybody of winning. 

This is also more difficult than it sounds. 

"The Zone" has been defined as the state of mind in which failure is not even in your realm of consideration. Michael Jordan has been quoted to say "I know the Zone. I can put it on like an overcoat."


To get back to orchestral hiring practices...let's all think for a minute from the other side of the curtain. The word fairness keeps coming up. Fairness is an admirable goal, but it's not the primary goal of an audition committee, nor really should it be. They are selecting somebody who will be a close colleague for probably decades to come. Of course they want somebody who can play the instrument and demonstrates knowledge of the literature, but they also want somebody who will be a good colleague, who will listen and adjust, who can both follow and lead, who can blend into the texture or sing out above it. You don't learn all of that from a blind audition - there's no way. 

You can say that that's what probation periods are for, but how would you like to be the one to tell the player who picked up his or her family to move to your ciyy that they haven't gotten the job, after a year of playing with them in the orchestra? Taking this into consideration, it's probably ultimately more fair to take every factor you can into consideration before awarding somebody a job.


We haven't discussed the Vienna Philharmonic 2nd trombone audition here much. It was won by a master's student from the U of North Texas. He had been invited to audition based on a tape he made for an ITA solo competition that had been heard by Ian Bousfield. A friend of mine had also been invited, and he told me that a few days before the audition, the candidates were given a 3-hour mock audition and coaching session by Mr. Bousfield and other members of the VPO. They were given a thorough understanding of what was expected of them and what the committee would want to hear. How about that? My friend felt that the money he spent to go was well worth it for that session, even though he didn't afvance past the first lilve elimination round. 


There's clearly something wrong in Cleveland, and I don't think any of us know what it is.

Gabe