Another audition for this position is finishing up today. Any word?

Still wondering about this one. Anyone aware of a result?

Agreed. I don't expect an hour long lesson's worth of detail, but I want to know what's happening on the other side of the screen. "Msr 46 wasn't clean" is better than nothing, but many orchestras find ways to do better. I once had a personnel manager schedule calls with candidates to share the committees notes after fairly a large audition. As an example of a posture that bothers me, the St Louis Symphony says the following in its audition information: "No electronic devices are allowed on stage during your audition including, but not limited to, tuners, metronomes, phones, tablets, and recording devices. (this is common, and somewhat understandable when it comes to phones, tablets, metronomes and tuners) The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and its members do not critique auditions, nor offer comments." 1) I'm going to record my audition, and you should let me do it. 2) This is especially necessary if this is how you feel about offering feedback. Like I said: it doesn't need to be much. It's easy to imagine several different systems that would make this fairly manageable.

Any updates?

Of course I agree that committees ought to do everything in there power to permit candidates to play their best, but two counterpoints: 1) It's no secret that you should prepare in such a way that some of these things are non issues. Someone will be able to play well in a terrible space or under unexpected conditions. It is possible and desirable to account for these things in your preparation. 2) Maybe there are a handful of individuals out there who sit on committees and vote to cut anyone who makes a few mistakes, but almost everyone I talk to who has either won auditions or sat on a committee says that this just isn't a thing. We need to differentiate between a) errors that happen because we're human and b) errors that sound like they're happening because we don't have control over our instrument. I know the difference between these in my own playing, and a committee does as well.

It IS fairly easy to imagine that only one person would advance at an audition of that size, especially if that one person blew the rest of the candidates in the prelims away. It seems to be hard to find people who can: 1) Demonstrate good principal playing 2) Demonstrate good Eb playing 3) Demonstrate that they know how the music goes/that they're a quality musician 4) Do all of this at an audition

It should be available by email.

https://theviolinchannel.com/beatrice-chen-appointed-to-chicago-symphony-viola-section/