Anyone who knows me well knows that I am one of the biggest J.R.R. Tolkien junkies on the planet. Whenever someone else tries to show off their Tolkien trivia knowledge I will look at them with a steely gaze and say: “I’ve done research at the Tolkien archives.” That usually shuts them up. So when we held Principal Trumpet auditions up here in Edmonton this week the analogy immediately came to me: we have peered into the Mirror of Galadriel and are not sure of what we have seen.
For those of you not up on your Tolkienalia (shame on you!) – The Mirror of Galadriel is the pivotal scene from The Two Towers where Frodo and Sam get a chance to peer into the future via a bowl of magical water which has ben bewitched by the Lady Galadriel. It is an important scene because the Mirror gives glimpses of all possible futures – a very dangerous situation for future decisions. Up until this moment our good Hobbits really aren’t committed to the quest, but what they see in the Mirror puts them firmly on the path to Mordor to destroy the Ring. This is rather similar to the audition process.
To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill: “Auditions are the worst way to pick a new member of an orchestra – except for all the other ones.” The procedure that auditionees and orchestras go through is just plain ridiculous. You have 10 minutes to prove that you are the best person to anchor a section of this orchestra for, say, the next 40 years? The procedure itself:
1. Play the exposition of a concerto.
2. Play four excerpts (rarely more than 1 minute long) of a contrasting nature.
3. Sit around and find out if you’re in the second round
4. If you’re not in the second round skip to #10
5. If you’re in the second round prepare to play another 4-5 excerpts.
6. Sit around and find out is you are in the third round.
7. If you’re not in the third round skip to # 10
8. If you’re in the third round prepare to play another 4-5 excerpts.
9. If there is no third round find out if you’re one of the few chosen to play an in-orchestra audition period of 1-2 weeks.
10. Drink heavily
#10 is especially apropos since this is a Brass audition.
Well, we had a very interesting audition. 14 players from all over Canada. One interesting quirk – we are required to do a Canada-wide audition, which means that only Canadians or landed immigrants can apply. If we didn’t find anyone we could then hold international auditions. The theory is that they don’t want Americans coming north to steal all the positions. Of course, there is no similar ban on Canadians coming south to steal American orchestra jobs, but be that as it may.
We actually had one poor guy crash and burn. He got half way through his second excerpt and just stopped, then announced that he just couldn’t go on. I really felt for the guy. We also had some other folk dealing with serious nerves. I’m a little jaded about Trumpet playing. My first two big jobs were with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony. Manny Laureano at the first and the legendary Bud Herseth at the second. I was also one of the crazies who served as an accompanist for my friends in the Eastman School of Music’s Trumpet department. During my tenure the great teachers Charlie Geyer and Barbara Butler were there. I know from good trumpet playing.
A couple of things struck me during the auditions – first, if you can’t just roll outta bed, put the horn to your mouth, and play the exposition of the Hadyn trumpet concerto pretty much note perfect and with great élan, than why are you auditioning for a major job? Second, do people teach the opening of Mahler V in trumpet method class anymore? Some of our auditionees didn’t have a clue about that piece, and it’s on every audition list. Thirdly, trumpet players carry around a lot of crap. They’ve got all the horns they have to play, the various mutes, mouthpieces, ancillary equipment (hats for the 2nd mvt. of the Gershwin Concerto in F), and only God knows what else. The ubiquitous zipping and/or velcro-ing of the gig bags became something of a running joke amongst the committee. Last – listening to auditions all day is an easy way to become an alcoholic. It just really beats down on your psyche and things have a tendency to verge towards extreme silliness. Being on an audition committee is a labor of love – may whatever God there is bless our committee members. They are sympathetic and looking out for the future of the ESO, and they all did yeoman’s jobs.
We ended up having two rounds. It was pretty clear after that there was just one guy we wanted to try out in the orchestra. The “in-orchestra” audition is something that I’ve instituted up here for Principal positions. I’m just not comfortable handing someone a job of such import after hearing them for all of 20 minutes. It’s important for all of us to hear how that person works and reacts within the orchestra. So this gentleman is coming for a couple of weeks at the end of February to play with us. The rep he’ll have to prepare will show us a lot: Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Ellington Nutcracker; Shostakovich Cello Concerto #1; Dvorak Symphony #7. I think we’ll find out all we need to know.
One scary note – the only downside of this particular guy getting the job is that he’s from Montreal!!! Now, I have nothing against Montreal or those from Quebec. I happen to love that area of the world. But 3 of the last 4 people to get jobs at the ESO are from there. We are being overrun!! Pretty soon we’ll have to do all the rehearsals in French.
Stay tuned. We hope to announce that we have a new Principal Trumpet in about two months time. Until then, would someone please come up with a better way of finding a new member of an orchestra?