My local orchestra is hiring a new "player". The section leader's spouse is a "player" and is going for the job.
They have been given a private audition a week before everyone else and is now on trial. It is unknown if their spouse was on their panel, but their spouse was on everyone else's.
They were given a trial, but they are not the only one.
Pretty confident auditionee's spouse will have a big say who would win the job since they are the section leader, but is this fair at all? The panels throughout multiple days of audition have also changed from what I gathered. There is also the question of whether the spuse applying for the job help set the audition pack.
Feel free to share your thoughts or stories of similiar experiences.
Definitely sounds like preferential treatment of one candidate over the others, based on what you’ve described. If the orchestra operates under an AFM CBA, and this process is in violation of that CBA, you can (and should!) report it to your local union chapter.
However, it won’t surprise me if you say this is not a union gig. In my experience, many of the most egregious/unfair/inefficient/illogical audition stories all come from local or regional orchestras. Since they play together so infrequently and often have outdated or nonexistent labor contracts, often their audition procedures are not well defined (or well followed).
So to answer your question, yes it sounds unfair, but it may be unlikely that anything can actually be done about it. Sounds like a gig best avoided anyway!