[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Daniel Cloutier]

John Jenkins wrote:

>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.

I was hoping to let this whole Cleveland audition
subject go by without comment, but I could not let
this particular point pass.

Although it is probably true that "blind" auditions
are *considered* by most to be the "fairest" way to do
it, having a blind audition does not necessarily make
that particular audition fair.  The screen does not
guarantee anonymity on the part of the auditionees.

When I've sat on audition committees, from behind the
screen I have been able to tell players whose playing
I knew (through professional or student-teacher
relationships).  And there are plenty of other
audition committee members I've spoken to about this
subject that have said the same thing: they can
recognize individuals from behind the screen.

As such, blind auditions do not ensure that all
candidates are unknown to the committee.  Therefore,
in that vein, blind auditions are not necessarily any
more fair than "sighted" ones.  In fact, in my opinion
blind auditions can actually be less fair than sighted
auditions, because the audition committee members can
hide behind the fact that the audition is blind, all
the while showing significant bias and evidencing
copious amounts of trickery.

All that said, I add three final points:

1) Auditions are capricious at best, and Machiavellian
at worst.  The word "fair"--in the current (and rather
juvenile, in my opinion) understanding of the
term--should probably not be applied to auditions,
because auditions are about preference, not
"fairness."

2) In my experience I have found that those audition
committee members who speak the loudest about having a
fair audition are often the ones who are doing the
most unfair things.

3) The screen is not always there to protect the
candidates; sometimes it's there to protect the
committee.

'Nuff said.




 
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