Symphony Notes — April-June 2023

By Melinda Whitley

While every professional orchestra has unique systems in place for auditions, much of the process is also the same. Anyone wanting to win an audition should make sure to familiarize themselves with the specifics of each individual process and pay close attention to any differences to make their experience as smooth as possible.

For example, some orchestras look carefully at resumés and only invite candidates they feel will have the best chance of success based on resumé content. This can be seen as a kindness, as travel to orchestra auditions is expensive and most musicians have to make complicated plans to miss work, spend time and their own money to attend multiple days, sometimes with more than one trip; not to mention time spent on preparation. This is cost effective to the auditioning orchestra also, due to listening to fewer candidates, saving time and money in the schedules of many employees, as well as not tying up the use of the space, costing the organization opportunities for income.

Other orchestras, like Nashville, no longer review resumés at all and invite everyone who is interested to participate in person in the full audition process. Unlike reality shows such as The Voice or America’s Got Talent, that usually means at least three rounds of competitive playing behind a screen over the course of several days depending on the number of applicants for the job. The process has often been described as being similar to rounds of a sports competition, such as the Olympics, and most auditioning musicians would enthusiastically agree with that characterization.

At the NSO, our personnel managers, with the help of many dedicated volunteers, organize and run the logistical process, while our audition committee runs the artistic process until the final round of the audition. In the finals, the process belongs to the music director and it is their decision to hire someone with the approval of a majority of the audition committee. All rounds of our auditions are decided by secret ballot vote, counted by the union steward, and double-checked by our personnel managers. It takes a majority of votes to advance from one round to the next. In the NSO, we use seven or nine-member audition committees of varied composition, depending on the vacancy.

WeAnonymity is a key concept in auditions in varying degrees around the country. Ayer (2005) reports that in 2001, we found proof that using a screen in auditions made orchestras more likely to be accessible to women. Only now, after 40 years of intentional changes to the process, do we finally have a professional top-tier orchestra like the New York Philharmonic with a slight majority of musicians that are women. Adjustments in the process continue to be explored as we try to balance the opportunities for musicians from underrepresented minorities in the industry. In Nashville, we are proud to be leaders in this effort, and use a screen in all rounds for completely blind auditions.

Picture 1

We’ve even considered the affect the screen might have on our audition candidates, so we put our screen out in the hall for the audition committee to sit behind. This allows our candidates to fully experience the acoustics of the concert hall instead of feeling swallowed up by a big fabric drape right in front of them eating their sound. We carpet the path onto the stage for the candidates so we hear no clues about their identity from the sound of their shoes on the stage. We have a proctor on the stage, out of the way of course, in case a candidate has a question during the process, as we cannot allow a candidate to speak directly to the committee at any time. In early rounds of the audition, the proctor is a musician in the orchestra, making it easier to answer questions from the candidates if needed. In the final round, the personnel manager is the proctor. This safeguards the anonymity of the process even further.

Picture 2

I’ve included some pictures here so you can see the set up I’ve described in our hall. That’s the table for the onstage proctor by the door in the second picture (2). The chair is for the comfort of the candidate and is not required to be used.

Picture 3

The third picture (3) is from my position as union steward behind the curtain with an audition committee. I sit at the rearmost position, making sure that no one on the audition committee can see who is on the stage. It’s even part of my job to check the curtain for gaps before each day/round of the audition.

I hope this helps answer some questions about our audition process here in Nashville, and that you’ll understand a bit more of what each musician in the orchestra has had to do to join us.

For more information on the developments in audition procedures in American Orchestras, I recommend Ayer, J. (2005). More than meets the ear: "How symphony musicians made Labor history," Syren Book Co.