audition winners

[G-force]

well imo the smaller the enemble the more important they make themselves feel by emposing ridiculous criteria on applicants.
Sometimes things just don't have to make sense..

[kpo]

Originally Posted by blue flame

Someone recently posted that it's getting more difficult to get invited to audition unless one has a master's in bass. Anyone have more info on this? I understand things have only gotten more competitive, more people are staying in school longer, and it makes sense for orchestras to be more selective.

Do you think really good players are getting passed up in favor of degreed applicants?

The smaller orchestras are often more concerned at inviting "too many people" for various reasons, often including the amount of time they can rent a room to have the audition in!
I don't know why Louisville screened so heavily for this principal audition, but the previous section auditions there were far more open. I think they just take it even more seriously since it was the principal spot.
I'm not sure getting a degree should be motivated by *anything* but Getting To Be A Better Bass Player. A music degree doesn't mean anything more than that anyway; it's not like we're in the business world or something crazy like that!

[Martin Sheridan]

Ju-Fang is now first chair of the Indianapolis Symphony. I think it's been a year.

[kpo]

Originally Posted by Martin Sheridan

Ju-Fang is now first chair of the Indianapolis Symphony. I think it's been a year.

Yes, she won that position on St. Patrick's day in 2003!

[JGGBassPlya]

Here is KPO's audition winner list but I did some further researsh and found out most of the teachers they studied with for those who are wondering who they should study with and not just what schools are placing well........

-1997:
Minnesota Orchestra: no winner
-1998:
Cincinntai Symhpony: Boris Astafiev (Columbus Sym)
Oregon Symphony: Jason Schooler (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music) Al Lazlo
Minnesota Orchestra: Matthew Frischman (Curtis Institute) Roger Scott
Utah Symphony, Asst. Principal: Student of principal won
-1999
Los Angeles Philharmonic: David Moore (Houston Sym) Paul Ellison/ Ed Barker
Louisville Orchestra: Kingsley Wood (Peabody Conservatory) Hal Robinson/ John Hood
Houston Symphony: Ali Yazdanfar (Peabody, Rice) Paul Johnson/ Paul Ellison / Hal Robinson
New York Philharmonic: David Grossman (Student of principal/Juiliard)Levinson
Colorado Symphony: Jonathan Burnstein (Curtis/Rice U.) Hal Robinson/Paul Ellison
Charleston Symphony, Principal: Charles Barr (Curtis) Roger Scott/ Pete Lloyd
National Symphony: Ali Yazdanfar (Houston sym.)
New Mexico Symphony: Kathy Olszowka (Indiana University)Hurst
San Antonio Symphony: Zlatan Redzic (I.U.) Hurst
-2000
Kansas City Symphony, 1-year spot: Ju-Fang Liu (I.U.)Hurst/Bransby
President's Own Marine Band: Eric Sabo (Arizona State U.)
Seattle Symphony: Jonathan Burnstein (Rice, Colorado Sym.)
Buffalo Philharmonic: Edmond Gnekow (I.U.) Hurst
Tulsa Phil, principal: Dan Johnson (Iowa?)
Dallas Symphony, principal: no winner?
Columbus Symphony: Jena Huebner (Peabody) Hurst/Hal Robinson
Houston Symphony: Burke Shaw Roger Scott
Cleveland Orchestra: Charles Carleton (Juilliard/Boston Univ) Levinson/Barker
San Francisco Sym., principal: Ali Yazdanfar (not retained?@#$!)
-2001
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra: Kingsley Wood (Peabody, Louisville Orchestra)
Alabama Symphony: Long Luo (Juilliard) Levinson
Oregon Symphony: no winner (for 2 spots!)
Florida Philharmonic, principal: Shigeru Ishikawa (member of section )
Louisville Orchestra: Karl Olsen (I.U.) Bransby
Cleveland Orchestra: Eric Harris (principal St Louis) won, then left for SanFran; Homer Mench
the runnerup Charles Barr (Curtis), got the job.
Montreal Sym., principal: Ali Yazdanfar (now going back to National)
-2002
Charleston Symphony, principal: Scott Pingle (Manhattan) Jim Clutte/Pete Lloyd and Tim Cobb
National Symphony: cancelled; they welcome Ali Yazdanfar back
Baltimore Symphony: Mark Huang (Nashville Symphony) Roger Scott/ Hurst for 6 months before the audition
Oregon Symphony: Paul DeNola (I.U., U.S.C.)Bransby/Dave Moore
San Francisco Sym., principal: Eric Harris (not retained?!@#!?)
-2003
Indianapolis Sym., principal: Ju-Fang Liu (I.U.)
Boston Symphony: Ben Levy (Rice U., New England Conservatory) Todd Seeber/ Tim Pitts
Calgary Philharmonic: Jeff White (I.U.)Hurst
Grant Park Orchestra: Andy Anderson (I.U.) Sankey/Hurst
Nashville Symphony, principal: Joel Reist Paul Ellison (member of section)
resulting section spot was offered to runner-up, Ryan Kamm (I.U., Boston) Hurst/Barker
Louisianna Philharmonic: Colin Corner (I.U.)Hurst
Naples Philharmonic: Matt Medlock (Boston, Rice)Barker/Tim Pitts
New York Philharmonic: Satoshi Okamoto (San Antonio, Juilliard; student of principal) Levinson
Louisville Orchestra, principal: CANCELLED!@#$!
San Francisco Sym., principal: Hired noone again!@#$??
San Diego, Principal and Asst.Principal: Jeremy Kurtz, principal(Curtis, Rice)Hal Robinson/Tim Pitts, Susan Wulff, Asst. (member of section)
-2004:
San Fransisco, Principal, YET AGAIN!:Scott Pingel, on a Trial Year? Ira Gold Barker/Paul Ellison, runner-up
Detroit Symphony, Principal: They opted not to hire anyone...?!
San Antonio Symphony, Asst. Principal: Doug BallietTodd Seeber (Harvard)
Louisville Orchestra, Principal: Burt Witner Hal Robinson(SP?) (Curtis Institute)

[prelims222]

gee... look at all those Hurst students.

[NJL]

Originally Posted by TAShepherd

The San Antonio Symphony Assistant Principal Bass was won today by a great friend of mine, Doug Balliett. Doug is a fellow Bostonian and has been studying at Harvard with Todd Seeber. Congrats for him!

Doug is my new teacher. He's very open minded and was able to put a lot of things into perspective for me. In just one lesson, I learned more than I could of imagined. Studying with him (and a lot of elbow grease on my part) will produce results!

[JGGBassPlya]

Ottawa has the san fran bug I guess. Because after holding auditions this past week and taking Ira Gold and Travis Gore into the finals they opted not to accept anyone for this audition. What the hell is up with these orchestra's these days

[kpo]

Originally Posted by JGGBassPlya

Ottawa has the san fran bug I guess. Because after holding auditions this past week and taking Ira Gold and Travis Gore into the finals they opted not to accept anyone for this audition. What the hell is up with these orchestra's these days

San Fran turned folks down, Detroit turned folks down, now Ottowa turns folks down.

Dallas also turned folks down a few years back. Is it a trend, are committees just afraid at seeing so many young players after the screen comes down?

[Ben Joella]

And it's getting to the point where you wonder where the panels expect the players to get get this "experience" that they are looking for. I don't think anyone is ever totally ready for the position that they are about to step into, but I am sure a candiate who gets as far as a very slim final will fill into his or her respective shoes very quickly.

Also, I don't know the whole deal, but from what I have heard, Indy was helpfull in Ju-Fang Liu getting used to new shoes and that things are going well there. If this is true, then maybe other majors could take notice.

[G-force]

I kinda get it though...Just because bassist X gets to the finals somewhere means almost nothing today. One can determine how far a kicked ball will land based on many principles which are constant in this world. Kick a dog and the predictabiltity goes out the window as to what will happen. Auditions are not a guage in who IS the best player but who is the best for the job based on the level of reality perception of the jury. Once I understood this my nerves almost left me immediately. I have sat on many jurys and believe me that there is no objectivity on any level. Not to say that it is unfair and fixed but that people tend to seek the familiar and what they know , no matter how "good or bad"" it is. So of course a bassist comes in and probably knocks off the socks of the jury. Youth is great but I think people get freaked out sometimes when people play too well.
It's weird but I recently experienced this, No not my own playing!!!!

[dodgy_ian]

or do what I did, and get asked to come and play w/o and audition cos they are so desperately short of bass players that they begged me.

What they don't know is I haven't the first clue about bowing so they may be changing their minds quite soon!!!

Any quick tips on developing a passable bowing technique in4weeks?

[G-force]

Thats works real well in the UK , but in the North America there are hundreds of highly proficient auditioners being pumped out each year. Auditions are a neccessary evil. ALSO correct me if I am wrong the guild "AFM" requires most if not all positions to be filled by audition only. This is to combat nepotism and favoritism...I think it is a load of beureaucratic nonsense. In Europe many places these positions stay open for a while. BUT the orchestras many times are free to hire who they want after having at least one fair open audition. This sounds suspicious but in practice works well I feel. The amount of bassists here in europe in probably about the same as ni Nth Am. BUT because of the so many cultures and styles and whatnot they tend to stay within the genepool... thus creating smaller pools. Also Many Europeans are not used to shellng out cash to audition, the winners usually are reimbusred for their travel in full and in Germany I believe if one is invited to an audition they are paid their travel to the audition from their entrance in Germany.

To the bowing question- well, back and forth works real well...but when in doubt just say to follow the cello section or for the advanced say you need to ask the concertmaster for his/her opinion.

[Eric Rene Roy]

Too bad about Ira. He bought a bass from me once, and I had the pleasure of him playing the Bach Suites right in front of me in a 10K sq foot EMPTY warehouse....amazing.

I think there is some age discrimination going on...

[kpo]

Originally Posted by G-force

Thats works real well in the UK , but in the North America there are hundreds of highly proficient auditioners being pumped out each year. Auditions are a neccessary evil. ALSO correct me if I am wrong the [UNION] "AFM" requires most if not all positions to be filled by audition only. This is to combat nepotism and favoritism...I think it is a load of beureaucratic nonsense. In Europe many places these positions stay open for a while. BUT the orchestras many times are free to hire who they want after having at least one fair open audition. This sounds suspicious but in practice works well I feel..

Works well for whom? Someone's local buddies?
Combating nepotism and favoritism seems like a Pretty Dang Good Thing, plus you end up broadening your search, and end up having a Better Chance at finding the Better Players.

Audition procedures and contract language are set by each individual orchestra, but a broad guideline is released by the union, as suggested by other orchestral confederations ICSOM, ROPA, et cetera.

[Gold43]

A lot has been said about me in the past year or so in regards to Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, and Ottawa auditions, and I'm making myself available to discuss any of this in detail. If you have specific questions about them, send me a private message.

Thanks

[kpo]

Originally Posted by Gold43

A lot has been said about me in the past year or so in regards to Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, and Ottawa auditions, and I'm making myself available to discuss any of this in detail.

Thanks

Ira?

Would you be willing to comment on your experiences with various auditions and committees? Does it seem that the committees are looking for the same things, or very different things?

Sorry I missed you here in Louisville, I was hoping to meet you, but didn't get down to the hall until later.

[wandyrong]

Originally Posted by JGGBassPlya

Here is KPO's audition winner list but I did some further researsh and found out most of the teachers they studied with for those who are wondering who they should study with and not just what schools are placing well........

-2000

Cleveland Orchestra: Charles Carleton (Juilliard/Boston Univ) Levinson/Barker

Hi... um, actually Charles was at NEC, not BU. (In case anybody cares). =)

[JGGBassPlya]

I will fix that on my list. All I knew of charles was that he studied with Ed Barker. He must have been at NEC while Ed was still taking students there I presume

[Ben Joella]

Did St. Louis have prelims this week? If so, did anyone hear anything?