This level of shadiness has been present in their auditions for as long as I can remember. A significant percentage of their recent audition winners received auto advances to later rounds sometimes even to the finals. I even heard from a reliable source there, that in one instance the final round of an audition was postponed because one of the candidates was “sick”…. that orchestra really makes me question the point of paying into the union when stuff like this happens and I know a lot of people up here share similar feelings. It’s must be hard living in the shadow of Toronto and Montreal…
Not 100% true. The recent timpani trialists were not among those who auto-advanced. Auto-advances are typically given to candidates who've played a considerable amount of times as subs in the vacant position. If you've subbed with them enough, you can write in to request an auto-advance (I think this only applies in the case of a principal chair) and they can accept or deny at their own discretion. NACO has a very particular orchestral
In the case of a candidate being "sick", that's actually really benevolent of them. It's not any indication that they're fixing the result, but rather that they actually want to invest their efforts into properly selecting a winning candidate from the best available pool. If I spent months practicing for an audition, got to a final, and got sick, I would be pretty happy that the orchestra is giving me space to play at my best. If I were another candidate I don't think I'd feel very miffed given that they're paying for me to travel there in a final round.
Have there been some complaints about their audition procedures? Not significantly more than for any other orchestra. Sometimes the name of the game is to accept that an audition is not totally fair, try to do your best regardless, and stop holding onto the hope that you will win a particular job because you practiced hard.
I tend to agree - it’s not uncommon for string sections to promote from within their own ranks when they have title chair openings. After all, a section player has likely played most of the standard repertoire with the orchestra already, and would be intimately familiar with certain choices regarding tempi, volume, bowings, etc. There’s something to be said for winning an “entry level” position in a section and then “working your way up” to a title chair, as happens in virtually every other industry on the planet.
Additionally, I believe NACO just hired a new section violinist earlier this year and this person came from a different orchestra and had to start in the prelims. Whatever happened in the principal audition, it’s likely more nuanced than what’s being suggested here.
Yes and the person who won assistant principal second violin (I think) was from an entirely different orchestra as well. For the section violin audition, they did offer travel stipends to those who made the finals. Additionally, for the viola audition 2 years ago, they did actually auto advance 2 or 3 people but the person who ended up winning was not auto advanced and was not even in an orchestra before. For what it’s worth, NACO also has really large panels (12 people). If something as small as breathing is truly an issue (not saying it is or isn’t), not auto advancing or having video tapes rounds or something won’t change that. I have a very genuine question: what do you propose orchestras do to solve this situation? It’s very common for orchestras to hire title positions from within and travelling far away is relative to everyone so that statement could go for every orchestra.
This level of shadiness has been present in their auditions for as long as I can remember. A significant percentage of their recent audition winners received auto advances to later rounds sometimes even to the finals. I even heard from a reliable source there, that in one instance the final round of an audition was postponed because one of the candidates was “sick”…. that orchestra really makes me question the point of paying into the union when stuff like this happens and I know a lot of people up here share similar feelings. It’s must be hard living in the shadow of Toronto and Montreal…
For assistant 2nd, very likely that the person already sitting there will get the position.
Been sitting there for every concerts from start of the season, before the audition was announced.
Finals are on Feb 9.