I came, I saw, I... got my check back
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Hello Reader(s)!
And now for the exciting conclusion to my previous post on my personal audition policies. Or at the very least, a play-by-play of the audition.
So I showed up-- had I not been talking to my friend who just moved to Philly on the way up there, I might have just turned around. As it was, the conversation kept me distracted enough that by the time our conversation was over, it was too late to turn back.
I showed up and recognized a few people, which was good. I didn't want to have to sit in misery-- since I wasn't taking the audition terribly seriously, I thought it best that I catch up with some friends I haven't seen in awhile. As a general rule, I'm not too chatty at auditions. I'm there to win a job, not friends. The inevitable conversations or friendly chatting is alright with me, but sometimes I see people who can't distinguish the audition from the social event after it is over. But I digress. This time, I didn't mind being social. I wasn't there to win, I just wanted my check back.
Even though it was after 9 pm, they were still running late. I finally played my first round, though-- exposition of Mozart 4, Mahler 1 (the low thing in the 4th horn), and the opening call of Beethoven 7 (first horn.) Here's what I appreciated about this list: It was very short. Here's what I didn't appreciate about this list: Popping out pedal Fs and then having to play high B's not even a minute later is not cool. Auditions are usually completely unrealistic-- first of all, it is REALLY rare that you would have to play alone on a stage. Second, you would never have to play Mozart 4, Tchaik 5, Til, Mahler 3, and Tchaik 4 on the same concert. Again, I digress.
So from the first round, they were taking people into consideration for both principal and 4th horn. I advanced for both jobs. Now, regardless of being offered a job or not, I'd like to remind you that I can only make it to exactly one of their five concert series this year, and I have no intention of playing with the orchestra. I decided to play the second round and see.
Second round began with 4th horn. I played a very short Haydn excerpt followed by something... I can't honestly remember what.... I guess it went pretty well.
I waited around and played the principal horn second round, which was Til followed by a Prokofiev excerpt. It was a little underinspired, but it wasn't awful.
When we had finally all played, the personnel manager told us that he would EMAIL US the results. While this is a little nonstandard, it should be mentioned that it was 11 pm, and at least they didn't make us play again. However, I'd like to go on record right now that if that was the audition time that they had, then they should have made us play another round if they thought it was necessary to declare ONE winner. I looked for the personnel manager to tell him to take me out of consideration, as I'm only available for one show this year, but he was nowhere to be found and I wasn't about to bust into the hall where they were deliberating.
By the time I got home (after midnight), there was an email waiting for me telling me that there were two "finalists" for each job and an alternate. I was a "finalist" for the 4th horn job. They wanted each of us to play a concert series with the orchestra and THEN they would decide who they wanted. The alternate was "in case they couldn't fulfill their duties." So I wrote back to the personnel manager and politely told him that there was no way in hell I could make it work, and they would be better off asking the alternate to "fulfull my duties."
I think it is incredibly important for an orchestra to try out candidates in the context of the orchestra, but that is for orchestra that play more than SIX WEEKS A YEAR and that pay more than $2000 a year. If this ensemble can't make their minds up, they need to revise their committee, set clearer standards, and stop being wishy washy. Two finalists? Really?
At least I got my deposit check back.
Posted byL. at 10:05 AM
Labels: auditions
