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Double Bass Double Bass Audition Winners

#183
Hey KPO.

So Paul won National and Oregon has invited Sammy Hagar to drive 55 in the pearl district next year??

If memory serves me correctly that audition was something like 5 years ago. Thats kind of odd - that someone who was runner up half a decade ago would be offered a position after such a spell. This isn't a judgement at all against sam and his moaning endpin, but I know I was sure looking forward to a trip to the Rogue Brewery in the upcoming year.

It's kind of strange (in my mind, at least) that Oregon would do things this way - but then I don't know whole story.
 
#185
prelims222 said:
Hey KPO.

So Paul won National and Oregon has invited Sammy Hagar to drive 55 in the pearl district next year??
Click to expand...

Until they can have the full audition. Oregon has had a series of "weird" contracts; they may be waiting until the weirdness subsudes. Not uncommon.

It's also not uncommon to name a sub or former finalist to a lengthy spot. E.g., Louisville is always low on percussionists, and offers season-length contracts to subs, so personnel mgr. doesn't have to call the same people to play every two or three days. We've also filled partial and whole-season fill-in spots (brass and winds, lately) based on unfulfilled auditions, even on other major-orchestra audition finalists.
 
#187
Umm, to make this even more interesting. Iwas actually offered the spot first.
I was reccomended by someone and I made a cd.

They liked the disc and asked if I could do the year but I couldn't get off until January 2007 plus the fact that it would have been a difficult move for such a short time.

G
 
#190
September 2006 update

****************************
-1997:
Minnesota Orchestra: no winner

-1998:
Cincinntai Symhpony: Boris Astafiev (Columbus Sym)
Oregon Symphony: Jason Schooler (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music)
Minnesota Orchestra: Matthew Frischman (Curtis Institute)
Utah Symphony, Asst. Principal: Student of principal won

-1999
Los Angeles Philharmonic: David Moore (Houston Sym)
Louisville Orchestra: Kingsley Wood (Peabody Conservatory, Louisville Orch.)
Houston Symphony: Ali Yazdanfar (Peabody, Rice)
New York Philharmonic: David Grossman (Juiliard)
Colorado Symphony: Jonathan Burnstein (Rice U.)
Charleston Symphony, Principal: Charles Barr (Curtis)
National Symphony: Ali Yazdanfar (Houston sym.)
New Mexico Symphony: Kathy Olszowka (Indiana University) :bassist:
San Antonio Symphony: Zlatan Redzic (I.U.) :bassist:

-2000
Kansas City Symphony, 1-year spot: Ju-Fang Liu (I.U.) :bassist:
President's Own Marine Band: Eric Sabo (Arizona State U.)
Seattle Symphony: Jonathan Burnstein (Rice, Colorado Sym.)
Buffalo Philharmonic: Edmond Gnekow (I.U.) :bassist:
Tulsa Phil, principal: Dan Johnson (Iowa?)
Dallas Symphony, principal: no winner?
Columbus Symphony: Jena Huebner (Peabody)
Houston Symphony: Burke Shaw
Cleveland Orchestra: Charles Carleton (Juilliard/Curtis)
San Francisco Sym., principal: Ali Yazdanfar (not retained?)

-2001
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra: Kingsley Wood (Peabody, Louisville Orchestra)
Alabama Symphony: Long Luo (Juilliard)
Oregon Symphony: no winner (for 2 spots!)
Florida Philharmonic, principal: Shigeru Ishikawa (member of section )
Louisville Orchestra: Karl Olsen (I.U., U-Wisconsin) :bassist:
Cleveland Orchestra: Eric Harris (principal St Louis) won, then left for SanFran;
...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)
National Symphony: cancelled; they welcome Ali Yazdanfar back
Baltimore Symphony: Mark Huang (Nashville Symphony)
Oregon Symphony: Paul DeNola (I.U., U.S.C.) :bassist:
San Francisco Sym., principal: Eric Harris (not retained?)

-2003
Indianapolis Sym., principal: Ju-Fang Liu (I.U.) :bassist:
Boston Symphony: Ben Levy (Rice U., New England Conservatory, NRO!)
Calgary Philharmonic: Jeff White (I.U.) :bassist:
Grant Park Orchestra: Andy Anderson (I.U.) :bassist:
Nashville Symphony, principal: Joel Reist (member of section)
resulting section spot was offered to runner-up, Ryan Kamm (I.U., Boston) :bassist:
Louisianna Philharmonic: Colin Corner (I.U.) :bassist:
Naples Philharmonic: Matt Medlock (Boston, Rice)
New York Philharmonic: Satoshi Okamoto (San Antonio, Juilliard; student of principal)
Louisville Orchestra, principal: postponed
San Francisco Sym., principal: no winner again?
San Diego, Principal and Asst.Principal: Jeremy Kurtz, principal(Curtis, Rice), Susan Wulff, Asst. (member of section, USC)

-2004:
San Fransisco, Principal, YET AGAIN!:Scott Pingel (Manhatten?, New World, Charleston)
Chicago Lyric Opera: Andy Anderson (I.U., Grant Park) :bassist:
Vancouver Symphony, associate: Colin Corner (IU, Louisiana Phil) :bassist:
Detroit Symphony, Principal: No Hire....
San Antonio Symphony, Asst. Principal: Doug Balliet (Harvard)
Louisville Orchestra, Principal: Burt Witzel (Curtis Institute)
St Louis Symphony: (2 positions) audition delayed until May 2005
Winnipeg, Principal: Merideth "Bob" Johnson

-2005
Ottawa: National Arts Center, Principal: no winner
Milwaukee Symphony: Principal AND Ass't Principal: Zach (Juilliard) = assistant?
Detroit Symphony, Principal: again, not even any finalists?
St Louis, 2 positions: Sarah Hogan (IU, Rice, SLSO 1-yr sub!):bassist: and David DeRiso
Grand Rapids, Principal: Joe Conyers (Curtis)
Alabama: no winner
Metropolitan Opera Association: Dan Krekler (IU, Minn., MSM) :bassist:
Seattle: Joe Kauffman (UNT, NRO!)
National Symphony, 2 positions: Ira Gold! ...other position remains open
Calgary Philharmonic: Tom McGary (IU) :bassist:
Florida Orchestra: Aaron White (SMU, Duquesne)also 1 yr. Asst.Principal here in Louisville!
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Principal: Tom McGary (IU) :bassist:
Ottawa N.A.C... Joel Quarrington appointed principal.
Detroit Principal 3x - still in trial weeks?

2006
Minnesota Orchestra: Ass't: Fora Baltacigil(Curtis), Section: Colin Corner (IU, New Orleans, Vancouver) :bassist:
Kansas City Symphony: Jeff Kail (IU) :bassist:
Milwaukee Symphony: Principal: Zach appointed Principal, Andrew Raciti as Assistant Principal
Buffalo, Principal: no winner
National Symphony: Paul DeNola (IU, USC, Oregon Symphony) :bassist:
Nashville Symphony: Kristen Bruya! (CCM, Rice)
Montreal: no winner
Toronto: Jeff Beecher (Silk Road Ensemble), Curtis
San Diego: Travis Gore, Sam Hager :bassist: (IU, USC, Oregon Symphony)

COMING SOON:
New York Phil: section
Buffalo: Principal
Still No News on Detroit's Principal Auditions?
 
#191
kpo said:
September 2006 update

Still No News on Detroit's Principal Auditions?
Click to expand...
This comes from a member of DSO :
"You can tell Don H. that the bass audition situation here has been frustrating. We have already held 2 auditions in fact with candidates from around the country, one a couple of years ago and one last spring. Each time we got down to finalists and one or two candidates were invited to come and play trial weeks with the orchestra as principal. Unfortunately, in each case the committee was unable to come to agreement on actually offering the job to someone. (I personally felt the frustration since in the last round there was someone I thought was good for the position but there weren't quite enough people who agreed with me).
So, a new audition date will probably be announced for later this year."
 
#199
Detroit has actually had three auditions for the principal position.

In the first, Ira Gold was given a trial week (or two maybe , I forget). In the second, NO ONE was advanced to the finals, in the latest one Ben Jenson and Volkan Orhon were advanced to the finals and given trial weeks. After the first audition, they began automatically advancing certain players with established orchestra careers into the semis.

As I understand it, the orchestra elects a "string audition committee" each year to hear all string auditions, therefore only leaving a small number of bassists to hear bass audtions. It also allows other members of the orchestra to listen to auditions in a "non-voting" capacity.
 

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