Recently played in a blind audition that had carpet down from the hall door to the music stand. However, because I am 6'4 220lbs 9%BF, I don't feel that the carpet concealed the sound of my weighty steps very well. Would it be appropriate to tiptoemaxx in this situation? Or do I tell myself that every audition will have some imperfections in the way it is run?
I noticed that some of the auxiliary winds have tenured musicians in those chairs. But their bass clarinetist retired in May of 2019 and they never had an audition to replace him. many other positions have vacated and been filled in the 7 years since then so does that mean it's not a tenured position anymore? It seems like a really long time to have a vacancy.
One of the concessions the orchestra musicians made in their collective bargaining agreement that ran from 2021 to July 31, 2025 was "During the term of this agreement the minimum number of musicians required is reduced from 90 to 83, increasing to 85 at the end of the agreement as of July 31, 2025." They are still playing on this expired contract, so I'm guessing bass clarinet is one of the 5 spots management has opted to keep open. Will be interesting to see what happens to the current vacancies once they reach a new agreement.
I appreciate that on Muvac they want your resume much more shrunk down no b.s. decades long CV. However it’s clear a lot of the labels for experience in the drop down menu are translated from other countries and I want to know what’s acceptable to put in my resume:
-School Ensembles: Paid ones associated with my school I label as “temporary” (idk if this is right) but do I use the “Youth Orchestra” section for unpaid school ensembles or just not include them at all? Normally I wouldn’t include school ensembles but deleting my other gig experience based in chamber music for a Muvac-ok resume is leaving me with room to mention these ensembles
-I imagine being in a sub-list but never performing with an orchestra due to other gigs shouldn’t be listed, but if that’s not the case let me know
-Is the “academy” drop down labels for…
I’m not super familiar with MUVAC, but I think a safe rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t list any experience from a school ensemble on a professional job application. Maybe if you sat Concertmaster or if you were a featured soloist it might be different. I’m not sure what you mean by “paid ensemble associated with my school” what is that exactly?
Definitely don’t recommend listing a professional ensemble that you haven’t played with. If you’re on a sublist but haven’t played any services, then you haven’t yet actually worked with that group.
I think you can say “Regular Substitute” when you’re playing around 30-50% of an entire season with a certain group.
I recently took an audition for a UK orchestra, and am unsure how to translate the experience to US audition format for a resume form. Would appreciate any advice from those familiar with the process!
The audition comprised two rounds, with the expectation they would offer whatever number of trials after the second round. And those trials could go on for months or years.
I submitted my resume, and I was shortlisted. Yay! I was invited to the first round, where there were ~35 candidates. However, I did not advance to the second round.
Translating this to a US form-- Should this functionally be viewed as not making it out of prelims? Or is it somewhere between prelims and semis? Or semis? I understand it was a relatively small invite list, so I was happy to make that cut at least.
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.
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Welcome to the reason for the carpet - making sure women aren’t picked out by the sound of their shoes. We are even told to walk softly and wear soft shoes. Maybe you should try walking more softly if you don’t want them to know you’re a dude.