as a finalist in the audition at the end of nov, i just wanted to write about the day and the way things were run.

both personnel managers were extremely communicative, friendly, and helpful, both before and during the audition. there was a table of food and drinks - water, nuts, bananas (cool!) etc which everybody found comforting. to know that these people are going the extra mile for my comfort put me more at ease.

what bothered me about the audition (besides the fact that they didn't hire!) lies both in the organization and timing of the day.

there was one hallway with 8 practice rooms, all connected with barely a wall and several large ducts/vents which made privacy virtually impossible in terms of sound. the player at the end of the hall behind a closed door sounded just as loud as the player right next to me. what made this particularly bad was the fact that the stage entrance to the audition was right by these rooms. there was virtually no peace or silence from my practice room to the stage, just huge swimming sounds of viola. now again, this doesn't make or break an audition, but it was a huge annoyance. also the rooms were incredibly boomy and then 20 seconds later on stage is very dry. that wasn't so pleasant.

when the four finalists returned at the assigned time for warm-up rooms, the list for the audition was not prepared. what's more, after waiting 10 minutes, it was not typed, so it was dictated to us. this took another 10 minutes at least of scribbling from everyone, not to mention a little panic. in light of the fact that it was preliminaries directly to finals, the entire list (except two little excerpts) was asked for in the finals, including both concerti and an entire mvt of bach. now when i walked out on stage, i played for almost 35 minutes, flipping one excerpt after another until the end, when i was asked to repeat a thing or two. this was extraordinarily hard on all of us, playing for so long under such pressure. i do realize that as a principal, one must be able to do many things: playing an entire list perfectly being just one of them. but auditions should not be about stamina. i played well but after a certain point one starts to break down a little!

after an hour of deliberations (ending at 9.30 pm) the first words out of the personnel manager's mouth are "the orchestra has decided not to hire anyone" NOT "the orchestra would like to thank you" or anything like that. after a grueling audition, i like it when people are personable and care about what we went through. i was a finalist at both recent principal auditions for LA and SF and at the end of those, the proctors were VERY kind, complimentary and said that the orchestra thanked us very much and thought the standard to be very high etc. there was much emphasis on this, and i think that at the end of a physically and emotionally draining day, we deserve this ! yes, it's coddling but more importantly, it comes down to respect for the person that flew out to audition. there were no such niceties displayed in Kansas City.

we are all disappointed that they didn't hire, but apparently they don't give trials either which is upsetting - especially in light of the fact that they have Yo Yo Ma booked in a few months for don quixote. instead of giving a trial to one of us, they still have no principal and their second chair will most likely play the solo.

as a participant in many summer festivals and 3 conservatories, i am extremely aware of all my colleagues/friends' thoughts and views on kansas city symphony, and i can say that nobody has any kind of desire to take their next audition or to be in the orchestra at all. there is an epidemic of orchestras not hiring and people are frustrated and bitter now, it can't be helped. certain orchestras have even been labeled as non-hiring, and guess what ? they don't hire ! if you're going to let that get in the way of auditioning, then you're not cut out for this. however, it is discouraging when you look at yourself and your awesome musician friends who sound incredible and nobody gets hired. i suppose there's nothing wrong with holding out for the "right person" but at their next audition for principal, kansas city should expect about half the number of applicants that they just had (18), if that.

Thanks for posting this! I've taken several auditions this year and know how frustrating it is when orchestras end up not hiring people.

Something very curious about your experience is that I heard from a few people that Kansas City's section auditions last summer were "the best run" auditions they had ever taken. (I believe someone posted that in this forum as well.) I'm wondering if anyone who took that audition can post more about their experience? It seems like it must have been much different.

Does anyone have any ideas or know anything about this "recurring" opening for principal viola at Kansas City?? I believe they didn't hire anyone last time either....they've had this audition several times already.

If anyone knows why this is happening, it would be helpful to know.

i do know that KC has had like 2 different principals in the past few years - one of them was there for a year (i think) before she decided to return to her current job, and from what i heard, the most recent principal was not granted tenure. yes, it sucks that they haven't been able to fill the position after having had a few auditions, but i don't think it's unusual for a title position to take a longer time to be filled.

Interesting post.

As far as the practice rooms, there is nothing you or they can do. Sounds like your typical audition in just about every aspect, really.

quote:

i played for almost 35 minutes, but auditions should not be about stamina.

I've played for hours. 35 minutes sounds like a breeze For a principal gig, I would hope that they would ask you to play at LEAST 35 minutes. As a fiddle player, some of our lists have 6 hours of music. On one title audition that I won, I played close to two hours.

As for the not hiring part, I have been there, as a player and a committee member. It sucks on both ends. Keep in mind that the committee doesnt want to do that, they really would like to hire somebody, honestly. They have to do the whole thing over again.

When an orchestra has a new conductor ( I think KC does?), he or she is very guarded for the first few auditions IMO. When I have been on a committee that doesnt hire, it wasnt that the players weren't good, we just felt that another audition was needed. Certainly the players could have done that job, but we felt it better to wait. Once you hire, it's often a done deal. Tenure? In most orchestras I have been in, most players got tenure. I have been doing this for a long time, and only one comes to mind that did not.

A big Orchestra can afford a trial period, orchestras in the KC budget range can't or wont bother, so it's imperative that the right player gets the gig. From what I have seen, "tenure" often has to do with showing up on time, wearing the right costume and being a reasonable human being.

BTW, Congrats on the finals, that is really an accomplishment!

yes, of course 35 minutes sounds like a breeze. but when you've been playing, practicing, waiting all day, it does come down to a matter of stamina when the most important event of the day (of your year ?!!) occurs at 8.15 pm at night. the body simply can't produce the kind of energy and focus needed under those circumstances. put me on the stage at 2 pm and i'll happily play for hours. obviously scheduling auditions is a virtual nightmare, and to please everybody to the fullest is impossible. and yes, the bigger orchestras with more money and better facilities will usually have happier candidates. at this point the only answer lies in the candidate being absolutely prepared for everything.

I normally dont post on forums but here goes:
I served on the comittee for the KC Principal viola audition and trust me our comittees really do want to hire someone! It is truly frustrating for everyone when things dont work out at the end of a long day. When I was actively auditioning about a decade ago I often suffered the same bewilderment and frustration about auditions where nobody was hired, smaller orchestras that seemed to have impossible standards, and the like. Since then, over the past decade I have served on about a dozen audition committees for our orchestra including 4 principal viola auditions (twice the positions were filled and those persons have since moved on...) It is indeed hard to understand how this can happen until you have been on the other side. Yes I know being an armchair quarterback is tempting, but trust me auditionees have the committee's sympathy generally!

Perhaps it is useful to explain our process as it currently exists. All rounds including finals are currently screened to protect candidates from discrimination based on anything (age, sex, pedigree, political controversy, wardobe malfunction ...bad memories of that time back in summer camp etc.) other than how the candidates play. Our audition commitees consist of 9 orchestra members who each have one vote in each round. Votes (yes/no) are cast without discussion in the first round. 5 of 9 votes are required to reach the next round. In the finals discussion is allowed but not required prior to casting the vote (yes/no). In the finals the committee answers the question "is this candidate qualified for this positon in the KC Symphony" We can each vote yes for as many or few of the candidates as we wish. Any candidate receiving a total of 5 of the 9 votes may be considered by the Music Director for hiring. There is no trial, the tenure process serving as the trial period instead. During our tenure process there are official channels for feedback to the candidate so he/she can become accustomed to the position and expectations and the music director and orchestra can be sure they have selected the right person.

I assure you our relatively "pure" and collaborative process was designed with fairness as a primary goal. Audition discussion generally is kept to a minimum throughout to maintain efficiency (and keep things on time) and also with the implied philosophy that allowing us each to listen to the candidates carefully is more important than potentially being distracted/manipulated by what someone else has to say about candidates, though in the finals there is potentially more room for discussion. As I have learned over time here and from friends in other places, audition commitees are made up of many different individuals sometimes with varying priorities. As such, even after hearing very talented and skilled players sometimes it can be difficult to reach consensus by vote and sometimes discussion doesnt help either. Despite this we usually DO hire at our auditions ...our track record is actually quite good. Principal positions are tougher to fill as they are in most places...an orchestra like our has been on a rising tide lately and there is always a question of where can reasonably set the level artistically and where we are going. We know do not pay enough to always expect perfection (whatever that is) , so we always have to take a chance. The question is when and with whom. Tough business, believe me. I am positive other orchestras who have found themselves in a similar situations would descibe their situation likewise.

Also I am sorry the finals preparation was so frantic ( I will try to see what we can do to encourage efficiency in this area next time) and also that the results were not delivered well...I am not aware that this has ever been a problem in the past, normally we have an excellent reputation for being organized and sensitive. Lately we (and maybe the candidates) have been thrown some curve balls which have resulted in some misunderstanding/miscommunications behind the scenes. And yes, the finals DID go on for quite a while...though that can be informative it was maybe a bit longer than optimal. I personally think so but was not in charge of the list. Hopefully we can smooth out some of these things prior to our next audition.

I can tell you that all our finalists are automatically reinvited to the finals of susequent auditions (within a time frame of 1 year , I believe) and are encouraged to attend. As I am sure you are aware, processes being what they are, a different outcome could likely result next time. Sadly it is a game we all have to play! I will say that while we are not allowed to give specific comments, I personally did like a lot of what I heard and would encourage our finalists and any new auditionees to come to the next audition. The audition commitee does not necessarily stay the same each time, so I may not be there but I wish anyone who attends the best of luck.

As our orchestra has grown so many fine players have come through, some moving on to bigger jobs, many who might have done so have chosen to stay on and settled in, raising families and so forth. (It is relatively cheap to buy a house here compared to many places, and there is more going on here than most people suspect.) Catching the rising tide here has mostly been worth it for me, even with the inevitable ups and downs of orchestra life, we have stayed fairly stable, and for an orchestra of our size that is an accompishment. It does take patience more than anything, though. We are not currently the most glamourous job, but better things are definitely in store for us in the near future.

AE

Thanks, KCScello3 for a very good explanation of what happened (and what happens at every other audition, to varying degrees). It's important that the other side of the screen be seen to be humane, and caring about the candidates. There is only so much that we players on the committee can do, however, and much of what takes place backstage is totally beyond our control. That being said, hearing from candidates about their experiences is the only way we can bring it to management's attention and make changes for future auditions.