I've taken a few professional auditions for tenure track positions (with prelims through finals), but never a sub/extra audition for a professional orchestra. I have a couple coming up soon, and was wondering how the process usually differs? Less applicants and rounds perhaps?

There are usually less applicants, but no rounds as far as semis/finals. I haven't experienced any, that is. They either tell you after your group (if there are that many) who was added to the sublist, or they mail/email you a statement.

I saw a post on another site indicating that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will have a subaudition for trombone. It will be 3 rounds including 2 solos, 15 excerpts on the list and
section playing and sight reading. This seems pretty excessive to me for a sublist. What do you think??

nothing the BSO does surprises me....

Phoenix, 15 excerpts does seem a bit excessive. Is it for a 1-year substitute POSITION (for example), or is it just to get on the sublist period? Usually rep lists for just sublists are about half that size, & like I said, there (usually) aren't any "rounds" involved but like drfiddla said...

The audition I had last week was with the Houston Symphony, for sub clarinet/bass clarinet. They announced the list about three weeks before the audition, and required 2 complete concertos and 8 excerpts. It was all pretty standard, and I had learned all except a couple excerpts before, so I focussed first on what I knew least well. At first I wished they had announced the rep earlier, but I realized that with a sub audition, they should want someone who can fill in on sudden notice if a regular player gets ill... and who knows what they might be performing then!

I ended up making it onto the sub list (YAY!!!), and felt like it was a really good experience in every way. There were about a dozen people who played, and they did everything in one round. We started with our choice of the two concertos, then went through the whole list, minus a few sections. My main goal for the audition was to stay positive through the whole process, and I feel like I achieved that. Win or loose in the future, I think I'll try to keep that as my main goal.

Good luck to everyone with your upcoming auditions!