‘Blind’ Audition Keeps Politics Out of Process

The Pacific Symphony announces it has six openings. What’s the response rate going to be? A dozen? Maybe two dozen? Three?

More than 104 musicians from around the country showed interest after the orchestra made that announcement in International Musician, a national publication, earlier this year. Of those, 38 paid their way to Costa Mesa to audition. Eight flew in from other states.

“That’s about an average number for us these days,” orchestra manager Paul Zibits said. “Eight years ago, we had an excess of 60 probably for fewer positions, three or four. I have been at auditions where over 100 people were auditioning for one chair.”

Most orchestras hold “blind” auditions--in which candidates play unseen from behind a screen--for at least part of the process. The Pacific uses the screen for both preliminaries and finals.

“It precludes any kind of politics,” explained music director Carl St.Clair. “So when people ask me, ‘Why are there so many young women in the orchestra?’ or this or that, I tell them, ‘First of all, I only hear the finals. I don’t hear the preliminaries.

“Secondly, the auditions all take place behind a wooden flat so that the committee cannot see the age, nationality or sex of the musician. And thirdly, a large proportion of people getting orchestra jobs around the country are in fact women. There is definitely a national trend toward that.’ ”

On audition day, players arrive about half an hour before the decision-makers so that one group never sees the other. The musicians draw numbers to determine in what order they will play. Swapping of numbers is permitted, Zibits said, “but once they get a number and sign in, they’re stuck with it for the duration.”

The auditions take place in an upstairs rehearsal room at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Each player is brought in behind the screen and introduced by number; then the committee takes over. Sheet music is provided.

“We would say, ‘Play the excerpt from Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, Excerpt No. 5,’ ” St.Clair explained. “They would finish that. We’d say, ‘Please now go to Schumann Fourth Symphony, Excerpt No. 10.’ We could keep going until we had heard enough to make a decision.”

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A candidate who has been excused may be called to play again.

“When Amy Simms became our principal second violinist, in the second round of the finals she played for 48 minutes,” St.Clair said. “Well, we’re hiring a principal second violinist that we cannot see or talk to. We have to know a lot about that person. We really put her through her paces in that audition.”

This year, the audition committee consisted of five string players, a musicians’ union representative and--at the finals only--St.Clair. The orchestra’s management is not involved.

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What is the committee listening for? “If intonation [correct pitch] is questionable, it’s impossible for us to hire the person,” St. Clair said. “If bow control--meaning rhythmic control--is questionable, that is another thing that makes it impossible.

“Then you start talking about tone quality, vibrato and musicality. So once you’ve assessed that the person has the technical facility to be in the orchestra to begin with, then you start to ask musical things. ‘Would you play this again a little slower or a little faster, with this request or that request?’ ”

A candidate’s personality is not a factor.

“Whether they will get along with the other players, that’s something you cannot ask,” St. Clair said. “You’re only evaluating playing.”

After going through this gantlet, the musicians who get hired will be on probation until they prove their worth.

“They’re not immediately given tenure,” St.Clair said. “That can take up to two years. Tenure is not a guaranteed thing.”