This audition has been flagged as having a possible misconduct case. Audition Forum has no way of checking the validity of these claims and does not condone any public takedown of individuals. Please report all your evidences to the relevant organizations.Comments focused on the audition and results are allowed, but comments targeting individuals and naming them go against our guidelines and will be deleted.
I heard they were taking it seriously and looking into it. I can attest that the drums were totally different/tampered with in Round 1–So really anyone who played after “said candidate” should have re-consideration. Then it gets complicated on the Orch’s behalf, so it seems (to me) the most professional way forward is to hold another audition. Audition Coordinator/Should be on stage behind the players as is the procedure most often at auditions—additionally to answer questions & assist auditionees. Just my opinion.
Last thing I heard from several professionals was that a couple candidates twisted this whole thing and have told many lies about it. Including candidates who were cut before this “issue” even arose…
Sad to hear that people are trying to take advantage of a bad situation. I know the candidates actually affected in this audition are going through official channels, and not spreading the “many lies” you mention. I imagine the game of telephone has created the misunderstandings and/or blatantly wrong information that is being circulated.
As someone who has been on a committee of an audition that had some drama, I would like to just inform those who took the audition that if you want something done with this, you need to send a formal letter to the AFM and/or to the orchestra themselves. I suggest sending one to the person in charge of the audition. Although forums like this can get the ball rolling at times, most committees can’t do anything without formal complaints. So please do yourself a favour and put a formal complaint out if you feel like you’ve been wronged in this audition.
I played everything in the prelims and the gauges were nothing like the previous night when we were given 6 minutes to get familiar with the drums—which were spot on. Audition day gauges were way off to tune A& E. These were not micro adjustments, so I tuned the first three excerpts by ear with forks, but couldn’t make adjustments on the fly for Bartok. Unfortunately this is not surprising to hear.
I understand how some non percussionist would question if any rules were broken, but this would only be done to make it much more difficult for the next player to tune and pedal accurately in pedaling excerpts.
Yes, I’ve had auditions where the orchestra provides the drums where we were told to not touch or move the gagues (which are the note indicators), you’re allowed to make micro adjustments with the fine tuner, but this was not the case. This happened at the end of the semifinal round with 2 people left to play, all the note indicators were pushed down and the fine tuner was cranked up to the point where the head is cracking.
Yes 100% agree, bad drums is part of the audition circuit, but it’s still a fair level playing field, but moving the gages all the way down and cranking up the fine tuner is clearly sabotage and cheating
Wow, I guess trombonists are lucky we can control the instrument. I guess everyone is equal though if they all played on those tympani, but then they got changed….seems like the orchestra should make sure the variables are equal right?
Just want to second @grcassa423. when I played in the first half of the Semis, the gauges were all in the correct spot, fairly accurate, and the fine tuners were set normally.
Question to anyone who took the audition: Did anyone there specify any rules about adjusting gauges or fine tuners? If nothing was said about it, I wonder if any rules were truly broken
I’m not a tympanist, but in an audition, does it normally have to be explicetly stated that you cant drastically change the actual tuning of the drums? Or whatever the “fine tuner” is?
For really big jobs people bring their own drums so this won’t be a problem. We are allowed to touch and/or change the gauges and the fine tuner to make the drums “in tune” for our own ears.
This audition has been flagged as having a possible misconduct case. Audition Forum has no way of checking the validity of these claims and does not condone any public takedown of individuals. Please report all your evidences to the relevant organizations. Comments focused on the audition and results are allowed, but comments targeting individuals and naming them go against our guidelines and will be deleted.
I heard they were taking it seriously and looking into it. I can attest that the drums were totally different/tampered with in Round 1–So really anyone who played after “said candidate” should have re-consideration. Then it gets complicated on the Orch’s behalf, so it seems (to me) the most professional way forward is to hold another audition. Audition Coordinator/Should be on stage behind the players as is the procedure most often at auditions—additionally to answer questions & assist auditionees. Just my opinion.
Does anyone have any further updates on this audition? Still curious to see how this all unfolds…
As someone who has been on a committee of an audition that had some drama, I would like to just inform those who took the audition that if you want something done with this, you need to send a formal letter to the AFM and/or to the orchestra themselves. I suggest sending one to the person in charge of the audition. Although forums like this can get the ball rolling at times, most committees can’t do anything without formal complaints. So please do yourself a favour and put a formal complaint out if you feel like you’ve been wronged in this audition.
I played everything in the prelims and the gauges were nothing like the previous night when we were given 6 minutes to get familiar with the drums—which were spot on. Audition day gauges were way off to tune A& E. These were not micro adjustments, so I tuned the first three excerpts by ear with forks, but couldn’t make adjustments on the fly for Bartok. Unfortunately this is not surprising to hear.
I understand how some non percussionist would question if any rules were broken, but this would only be done to make it much more difficult for the next player to tune and pedal accurately in pedaling excerpts.
Yes, I’ve had auditions where the orchestra provides the drums where we were told to not touch or move the gagues (which are the note indicators), you’re allowed to make micro adjustments with the fine tuner, but this was not the case. This happened at the end of the semifinal round with 2 people left to play, all the note indicators were pushed down and the fine tuner was cranked up to the point where the head is cracking.
Look in to this audition.
Question to anyone who took the audition: Did anyone there specify any rules about adjusting gauges or fine tuners? If nothing was said about it, I wonder if any rules were truly broken