Posted by Steve Dedman on October 01, 2003 at 10:29:57:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Audition Trends? posted by ok, ... but..... on September 30, 2003 at 22:58:08:
They're not. Hence the thought about the resume. If committees are looking for experience, then your resume better show it. I've never been on a committee, nor will I likely ever be, but if I were, here's what I think. The resume round is going to weed out a LOT of very qualified players. Might even be better players than the one that eventually wins the gig. On the resume, I'm looking for some continuity, because that means they probably can get along within the section (especially if they've made tenure). The playing audition will decide who eventually gets it, but the resume part is every bit as important if not more so if you want to be given the chance to play.
Look back at the list of semi-finalists. There's a lot of years of experience represented there. Sure, 9 of those are invited to the semis, but more than nine have major or large regional orchestra experience. 90 out of 220 were invited. That means that 60% didn't have the experience that the committee was looking for as evidenced by their resume.
I suspect that we will see this trend continue. The fact is, back when many of the Wunderkind were hired fresh out of the practice room, they were in the vanguard of what was happening in the tuba world in general: the bar was being raised every day by people that chose tuba as their instrument and became excellent at it at a relatively young age. Think about it. Now, everybody auditioning is in that league. When everybody stands out, nobody stands out. So the committees get to look at experience before wasting their time behind a screen with someone (like me) that is patently unqualified.
SD