Posted by If Roger Bobo... on September 08, 2003 at 09:40:45:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Going Pro??? posted by Sean Chisham on September 06, 2003 at 11:36:22:
If Roger Bobo, Gene Pokorny, Arnold Jacobs, John Fletcher and Chester Schmitz (add any names you like) all showed up to the same audition and each played a representative audition of their abilities, there could only be one winner. By your theory, the losers should change the way they play at the next audition. Playing an audition has been compared to being a salesman who goes to a city, opens up his case and presents his wares to the potential buyers - they either buy it or they don't. There are players in big five orchestras who would tell you that they didn't change the way they played from audition to audition, they just found an orchestra that would buy what they were selling. Some major orchestra players have said that the audition(s) that they won were not always their best playing and that they felt they played better at some auditions where they didn't win.
This isn't about giving excuses to players who can't play the excerpts perfectly with a beautiful sound and beautiful interpretation. Those players aren't getting past the first round - if they did they'd be very lucky and would probably not go any further.