Editorial: It’s time to change most orchestra auditions

Two posts this weekend about auditions in Europe and the US drew a tsunami of responses, mostly defending the current administrative practice of seeking to balance – that is, manipulate – new entrants to orchestra to assure a better general and ethnic distribution.

Worthy as that ultimate aim is, the rigging of auditions can be unfair to candidates who have expended money and time in pursuit of a position in a respectable orchestra.

In one case, the Minnesota Orchestra demanded demographic data from candidates. Why would this be necessary when the auditions are supposedly ‘blind’ and usually held behind a screen?

In the other, at an international European orchestra, candidates were told that two of their number had been pre-selected for a very shortlist. In other words, they might just as well have stayed at home.

Unfairness is embedded in the audition process. Our suspicion is that the situation is getting worse – at least for non-diverse applicants. The system desperately needs reformation. Some orchestras talking of scrapping blind auditions. Good idea, or not?

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