Questions & Answers

You are correct, functionally it should be viewed as not having made it out of prelims.

Typical US auditions will follow this format:

1) Resume/Application submission

1.5) Prescreening Recording submission

2) Preliminary Round

3) Semifinal Round

4) Final Round

5) Superfinal Round

At the conclusion of the audition there are several possible results: one or more candidates will be offered a position in the orchestra outright; they may be offered a trial, which means they’ll come play with the orchestra for one or more weeks before a hiring decision is made; or nobody will be offered a position nor a trial, resulting in a “no hire”, after which the orchestra will hold the audition again in the future.

That said, there are a few small differences in some procedures, usually based on orchestras’ schedules or specific needs for a particular audition.

For example, most orchestras will not require a prescreening submission, and will invite most (if not all) candidates who submitted an application. Some orchestras, due to having a massive pool of candidates, opt to make their prelims a recorded round, after which they invite candidates to a live semifinal round. Other orchestras will skip the semifinal round altogether, and candidates who advance from prelims go straight to finals. Having a superfinal round used to be rarer, but seems to be a more common practice nowadays.

I will also add, for most orchestral resumes, the committee is looking for a very general “Does this person have experience with a professional ensemble: Yes/No”. With more and more auditions being fully screened, your education, who you’ve played for, competition results, etc. don’t matter nearly as much as how you sound in the audition and subsequently how well you work with and get along with your colleagues.

There are exceptions, but for the most part, you don’t need to follow their bowings or fingerings unless it specifies that you must (and I’ve only seen that demanded upfront with a few very regional orchestras or schools). Much more common is something along the lines of “you may use your own music, but be prepared to use our parts,” so you should always practice their bowings just in case, though I’ve never seen that applied to fingerings. General rule of thumb is to play how you sound your best and be ready to adapt if they ask you to do something different. If they like your playing but want to hear it a certain way, they’ll ask.

Almost every packet I’ve ever received has either been totally clean or just a photocopy from the part they have in the library. Those markings are generally how the orchestra played the piece last, which might be how they still play it. Or it could have been from 20 years ago with a different conductor/principal/concertmaster. 🤷

Probably the list is still being talked about by the committee or something...have you reached out to their personnel manager? Or is it possible that info on list release date was communicated in a followup email after application? I'd be antsy too lol.