However, herein lies the ultimate frustration: subjectivity. Because one's musicmaking is judged by human beings, the analysis of any performance is mainly subjective. We could never rate our musicians as we do our athletes, whose performances are computed into statistics and averages. As a result, many candidates who feel they have performed extremely well are often eliminated in the preliminary rounds. Any attempts to prove that favoritism was shown by a committee or conductor towards a certain candidate tend to fail for obvious reasons. Thus the charge of unfairness is never a matter for public debate but nevertheless may be in reality truly justified.
Orchestra personnel are often dissatisfied with the outcome of auditions which follow the present legal procedures. Frequently the winners of such auditions fail to meet the unique needs of a section in a particular orchestra over the course of an entire season. This is probably the result of certain conceptual weaknesses in the system itself.
An audition is not able to uncover three extremely crucial qualities that are inherent in every truly great orchestral musician.
The first is consistency. A musician never achieves his/her reputation on one performance, but rather on a series of concerts encompassing many different styles of music. Obviously, because of the brevity of most auditions (sometimes as short as five minutes), the factor of consistency can never be revealed.
The second quality is the ability to adjust. One can easily see the absurdity of a criticism, given at a major American orchestral audition: "Your tempo on the Bruckner was too slow. Maestro would surely have taken a faster one." It is interesting to note that a quicker tempo was never suggested by the committee during the audition. Certainly one must face many different concepts in any one season and the ability to adjust quickly to a given conductor's musical ideas is most important. It is therefore ridiculous to expect a musician to walk into a totally unfamiliar hall (or in some cases, a hotel room), and perform orchestral music without the rest of the ensemble, suiting the taste of a conductor he/she does not know. At the very least, one must be given the chance to adjust.
Thirdly, an audition can never show improvement or potential in one's playing. Only time and experience will truly show that. Instead, many successful auditionees are often merely "excerpt robots" who can play great auditions every time. When heard over a long season, however, these winners never seem to improve with each performance but continue to play their parts the same way time after time. These "excerpt robots" are usually weak section players because they have only one concept, one style, and a very cool manner, producing a mechanical and unexciting sameness concert after concert.
As a result of the ineptness of the current audition system, orchestra committees and conductors are beginning to take steps to insure that they will find capable musicians who are compatible with the other musicians in personality and musicality. Often these are persons who are well-known by the members of the orchestra or the conductor.
Since open auditions are required by the union and federal government, the practice of deception becomes a reality. One of the more subtle methods of masquerading a rigged audition is to have the candidates and judges out of sight from one another by means of a barrier or screen. Each candidate enters anonymously and performs his requirements. Meanwhile, the "favorite" has already won the local audition on a previous day and is placed into the finals. At the national, or open audition, other candidates are selected for the finals. This is when the deception occurs.
All candidates who play as well or better than the "favorite" are eliminated before the finals and only borderline players or students are passed. Therefore, when the music director hears the choices at the finals, the "favorite" should have no trouble winning due to the lack of any real competition. This deceptive and illegal method is very effective and many candidates who have spent their hard-earned money to compete were never truly under consideration. They were used merely as pawns to satisfy a legal requirement.
This practice must be stopped but until the music directors decide to hear all candidates, it will continue to be effective.
Auditions held merely to fulfill union guidelines often prove costly for the candidate. As the United States is a large country, one must rely on airline transportation for most auditions; e.g., if one lives on the West Coast, the airline fares for taking two or three auditions can easily cost $1,000.00 or more. Consequently, the financial burden one must face to attend an audition is another added stress to an already tense situation.
It is the opinion of many musicians who spend their savings on transportation fares that if audition committees have predetermined whom they wish to employ, they should simply hire that musician. This practice would satisfy the orchestras that have someone in mind for the position. If they have no one under consideration, however, and decide to hold a national audition, it would then be truly open.
Several years ago such procedures were common, until the unions insisted upon holding national auditions for all positions. However, reality and experience have proven that the unions have not fulfilled their intention. Auditions are no more "open" now than in the past and it is the musicians who are being deceived and used.
Since both the orchestral associations and the auditionees are dissatisfied it is imperative that a more effective method of hiring orchestral musicians be found as soon as possible. The existing system is no longer effective because of the number of applicants competing for each opening.
Until a greater number of Americans support classical music, there will continue to be an increase of qualified, conservatory-trained musicians who are unemployed and have little hope of winning an audition. Many more musicians will emigrate to Europe and Asia in search of work and artistic satisfaction.
May American musicians ask for your tolerance and understanding, or even some suggestions, for a fairer audition system? If such a system should become a reality, you would then see fewer Americans at your auditions.