Recorded Preliminary Round
San Francisco Symphony just sent out a message saying that their committee has opted to do a recorded preliminary round in February, with semis and finals in April for their Section Viola audition. As far as I'm aware, this is a novel approach to have a time-limited recording period, and one that I hope other organizations emulate to respect the time and financial constraints of applicants.
Below is from their message to applicants:
Here is how the Recording-Only Preliminary Round will function:
Candidates will receive the preliminary round repertoire list at 12pm (Noon) PST on Tuesday, February 24.
Candidates will have until 12pm (Noon) PST on Thursday, February 26 to submit their recording.
The recordings must be done in one take and in the order of the list with no editing.
As this is a blind audition, only audio will be accepted, and candidates must not speak in their recording.
For the best possible audio quality, it is highly recommended that candidates record their preliminary round audition using an external microphone.
Any submission that does not follow these guidelines may be ineligible and not reviewed in the preliminary round.
No late submissions will be accepted.
We expect to inform candidates by Monday, March 2, 2026 whether they have advanced to the live semifinal round taking place at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall on April 13, 2026.
Please note that the bolded excerpts for the full repertoire list will be sent to candidates invited to a live round. These bolded excerpts will not be requested for the recording-only preliminary round.
I like the recorded prelim a lot, actually. And audio only reduces the barrier to entry even further in my opinion, since requiring video either necessitates the candidate to have either a. a good combination video/audio device, or b. knowledge and software required to combine a video source with an external audio source. With audio only, an entry level field recorder and the sanctuary of a local church or high school auditorium will yield impressive results. I've advanced multiple times in recorded prelim submissions using this exact setup.