He did not receive tenure from Nashville (their loss)

Someone tell Nikki to report to boot camp! Whoever “told” you this, don’t ever listen to again 😂

I believe 1 year of trials split between the two candidates, and a winner will be chosen at the end of next season.

2 finalists were given trials. 1 was Jake Ciulla, the other name I do not know

Nathan Little

This just happened with their trombone audition as well. People holding orchestra positions weren't invited, and the person playing the season as an acting member won the audition. Love to see it

Kevin Carlson, winner.

I assume Guangwei will have to make a decision on which position he would like to accept first. If it’s the Louisville tenure-track job, then NC likely has a runner-up in mind they would offer the position to. And vice versa for Louisville if he chose the NC 1-year. Either way it’ll take some time to get sorted and be official.

Finals are next week

But the majority of orchestras do this and don't see a problem, so good luck with changing their mind. Let's take this very specific example of the RPO though, which you singled out even though this is happening in nearly every full-time orchestra. The principal trumpet is about to take a leave of absence for a year (maybe forever?). I don't know know the timeline of events, but let's say there wouldn't be a fair amount of time to get an audition posting in the AFM journal before the orchestra disperses for the summer. What would you suggest they do to hold a fair, above-board, equitable audition that also works within the orchestra's means and timeframe?

Well, I'm sure your orchestra would love to hear you ideas on how to fix that issue. Every other orchestra will continue with their practices that save them money, and get them a professional musician they trust for a year before holding a fair, equitable, and union-approved audition.

I was simply trying to understand your viewpoint on this and if you felt you were being slighted by this practice and unable to take the audition. You're assuming this process doesn't result in young, non-white people getting hired or an opportunity. The orchestra I currently play in has a handful of 1-year appointments right now, about 3 from an audition (winner or runner-up) and another 5 from appointments based on recommendation. All these musicians are "young" (24-30), 3 of them non-white. I can think of other friends getting one-year appointments in other orchestras when they were around 25-26, also non-white. It is not impossible to be well-connected, respected, and talented at a young age. You may be required to have some level of privilege to be able to attend "X" school and "X" music festival and have those connections, but I'm not sure all that rests on the orchestra to be the one blamed for how they hire 1-year appointments.

Do you play in an orchestra? Are you upset that you didn't get invited? To me this is not that bad of a practice and simply is in the best interest of the orchestra for the situation they're in. Is it a wrong practice for top orchestras to screen resumes and not let every single person audition? Sometimes you need certain experience and connections to get certain opportunities, that's not going to change. A 1-year is certainly better than no job at all, but if there's a formal audition in a year I'm sure the people less established will still be able to audition.

Perfectly stated. This is super common and happening all the time, especially when there isn’t time to announce a formal audition 2 months in advance in the AFM journal right before the season is over for the summer. Auditions can be expensive to hold for the orchestra as well, this helps save costs when you need an experienced player and you’re just going to be holding the tenure track audition next spring (or not at all if the person is returning after a leave of absence).

Perfectly stated. This is super common and happening all the time, especially when there isn’t time to announce a formal audition 2 months in advance in the AFM journal right before the season is over for the summer. Auditions can be expensive to hold for the orchestra as well, this helps save costs when you need an experienced player and you’re just going to be holding the tenure track audition next spring (or not at all if the person is returning after a leave of absence).

sounds like the bass trombone and principal trombone auditions. They have a certain person in mind, and if that person doesn’t show up or advance…no hire!

Sounds fair enough, sign me up for that funding and healthcare any day

I’ve heard from a string player there that even though the orchestra is usually forced to by their operating rules or something broader for all Canadian orchestras (I’m sure someone here can clarify why they all have to), but they always want to get to the international audition for the best players. They said that a lot of the Canadian players don’t even bother with the national audition because they know it’s likely to be a no-hire

One repeated no-hire situation stealing the candidate from the other repeated no-hire situation, love it

Classic.