Audition Results

I’m told that Austin Wu and Ladusa Chang-Ou were offered positions

Heard that no one was hired for Concertmaster. Not sure if a decision was made for Principal 2nd.

2 positions were filled

No-hire 🥶

Heard that Jasmine Lin won a position, but she won Chicago shortly afterward

Soomi Park

Therese West won this audition.

Hearing Annie Pham won the principal job

I’ve heard Ruoying Pan won the position

A trial was awarded to the current Assistant Concertmaster, Michelle Kang.

No hire

Jeongmin An also won a spot

Does anyone know who the finalists were?

Congrats to Igor, but if I'm not mistaken he was already in the orchestra. Did they offer a runner-up his position?

Congrats to Bradley Bascon!

Vlad Hontila was runner-up and will join the section.

Principal Flute is pending trials.

All three first violin section positions have been filled from a pool of seven finalists. The winners are:

• Ryan Ran Huo, a recent graduate of Northwestern University

• Lucia Nowik, currently a member of the Nashville Symphony

• Kayleigh Kim, a senior at Rice University

I heard Jory Lane won this!

This was a national round, I assume

No hire.

175+ resumes received; 31 invited to audition live; 17 showed up; 1 advanced to the semi-final round before the committee suspended the audition.

Have heard that Kimberly Durflinger was the winner and she will become the new Principal 2nd. Don’t know if someone else was chosen for Assistant Concertmaster as well

I’ve been told Jessica Hung won this

Glen Kuenzi for violin

Katia Tesarczyk has been offered the position

I heard there is one more winner. They hired three. Third person is a DMA student at Rice. Not sure of their name.

I’m told Yvette Kraft won a section 1st position, while Jane Cho and Kingston Ho won section 2nd positions.

Ziqing Guo and Fangming Shen were awarded spots

I know hands down that this had happened to me where I was thrown out of the first round of an audition with Utah Symphony. Where a section violinist of the orchestra who was checking in candidates just happened to have their iPhone out, and then after I immediately checked in, they got on it and looked highly sus and when I looked back they were texting on it. I saw the iMessage app open from a 6’ distance. Even if I could prove it, they’d cover it up and get away with it. From what I’ve heard from various colleagues that there’s a lot of BS happening in Utah.

Three people were awarded trials

Samantha Bennett won!

Four people won spots! The names are Heejeon Ahn, Elliot Lee, Yiran Yao and Jesus Linarez

I’m told these auditions were postponed as a result of ongoing contract negotiations. They were per-service, not core positions.

CONFIDENTIALITY BREACH - PLEASE READ & SHARE

Despite a clear confidentiality violation during the recent TSO section violin auditions, the finals on June 14 are moving forward. The TMA (Local 149) initially requested the finals be canceled due to the breach. However, TSO management intervened, and the process continues - compromised.

Unfortunately, issues like this can occur behind the scenes in any audition - but if a breach is blatantly exposed and deemed serious enough for the union to call for cancellation, allowing it to proceed undermines the integrity of this audition and potentially sets a troubling precedent. 

This raises serious concerns:

• Why is the audition proceeding despite the union’s initial recommendation to cancel?

• Does the TSO’s solution - replacing one committee member and assigning new numbers - truly contain the breach?

• What’s to stop the candidate from further leaking [or already having leaked] information to remaining committee members?

Attached:

📎 Report submitted via the AFM anonymous reporting app (this was not the first report)

📎 Response from an AFM representative via the same platform

I heard Julia Su, Jinu Suk, and one other person. Just clarifying this was for one-year non-tenure track positions.