Supposedly the PSO Principal flute auditions are taking place with finals today (Honeck is in town?). Any word?
Last time it ended with a trial period for a player, but eventually did not yield a permanent owner for the spot.

no winner again!

I thought the principal from Montreal won the job a little while back. Is this not the case or did he leave?

So... how long since they've had a [permanent] principal flute? 8 years?

quote:

Originally posted by BBodden:
So... how long since they've had a [permanent] principal flute? 8 years?

A: Since Longevin moved on to the NYPhil.

Quote by Redtrombone:
"I thought the principal from Montreal won the job a little while back. Is this not the case or did he leave?"

The Montreal player did not stay around, and auditions eventually yielded a trial with Demarre McGill, who did not take, or might not have been offered, the permanent position..

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nomdiploom,

This is getting ridiculous.

quote:

Originally posted by marypicc:
This is getting ridiculous.

ditto. NO one, no trial or anything? are they gonna wait another 4 years to have another audition, just to pick no one again? dare i ask if the economy is having an affect on orchestras tending to not hire, or is that not the issue?

on a brighter note, i heard that the Marine Band audition had a winner.

Pittsburgh Principal Flute seems to be in a class by itself in terms of no-hires. If I'm not mistaken, this is what has transpired over the past 10 years:

1999 - Robert Langevin leaves for New York

c. 2002 - Audition, nobody hired. Tim Hutchins is offered the job and comes to play in 2003-2004. Since he so famously turned down principal jobs in New York and Boston in the 1980s, it seemed unlikely he'd leave Montreal for Pittsburgh (except perhaps to those who thought the departure of Charles Dutoit spelled the end of the OSM). Ends up deciding to stay in Montreal, probably to the surprise of very few.

c. 2005 - another audition. Demarre McGill wins, plays a year (2005-2006), presumably not tenured.

2009- another audition, no winner.

So in ten years, at least two auditions that produced no winner, another audition that produced an untenured winner, and an attempt to hire a known quantity. They've taken longer than Ozawa's notorious 7-year search for a new principal flute in Boston.

It would very interesting to hear from someone in the Pittsburgh SO who is familiar with all these auditions to explain what's happening. Maybe there's a good reason for all this, but it does seem a case of being a little too full of themselves, or a committee and music director who simply can't agree on what they want. I would think that Pittsburgh would attract a virtual Who's Who of flutists. Except perhaps for those who have decided that with Pittsburgh's track record of indecisiveness, it's a waste of their time.

And as always with these discussions, hard to leave out mention of the MET, which not long ago managed to hire not one, but TWO principal flutes in one audition. And I do have to wonder whether their field of candidates was any better than what Pittsburgh had. If it was, I would have to think that the certainty that they would actually select some winners - and that if you wanted the job you had to show up and play - had something to do with it.

Good points, OSF. I know a handful of players that did not take this audition based purely on the extremely high probability of a no-hire. (The economy has something to do with that as well-- taking auditions is expensive and the risk of not winning coupled with the risk of a no-hire is too much right now). While this may not be the best practice for someone who is either unemployed or unhappily employed, it says something. The same can obviously be said for Baltimore who´s late March audition has been recently been postponed for "unforeseen scheduling conflicts". Not to saturate this topic, but could that also have something to do with the low number of applicants not only due to the mandatory tape round but also the fact that they are going on how many auditions for the same position?? Perhaps all you flute players out there need to get your butts in the practice room because no one´s good enough!!

I understand players not taking auditions because of economic reasons, but what about orchestras hiring? It didn't seem to slow down Pittsburgh because I believe they had 3 days full of prelims. As for the Met vs Pittsburgh flute auditions, they possibly had better players at the Met because they invited them, whereas with Pittsburgh, someone could send a resume & had the option of sending a tape, but could still go if they wanted to. It would've been interesting if there had been a different outcome with blind semis & finals, & if that "winner" would've actually been offered a job later. And for BSO, i'm curious how many actually bothered sending recordings

I think if an orchestra has a hiring freeze they usually make it known. I guess it's possible that there could be an unofficial hiring freeze? I guess?

I for one wanted to take this latest P'burgh audition but had a number of conflicts that prevented it. I'm kind of glad now that I saved myself the trouble and money.

Re making a CD for Baltimore... yyeeeah. I'm dumb enough to become a musician, but I'm not THAT dumb.

I was told that Met is required to hire at auditions. Can someone confirm this? If this is true,then this is differnce between the two. Not that the pool of applicants were less qualified.

Also, in addition to the international auditions held I believe there were one or maybe a few invite only private auditions. And there may have been invitation trials with the PSO.

This has been commented on a few times.

Yes, the Met always picks a winner at their auditions and hires that person. And, remarkable, there have been very few situations where the person didn't get tenure.

I would never say that every orchestra should follow suit - each group absolutely has the right to hold auditions however they see fit - but it sure is interesting, isn't it?

I don't think that there was much difference between the pool of flutists who were at the Met and the ones at Pittsburgh. I know there were at least 2 flutists who were finalists for the principal job at the Met, yet who weren't advanced past the semi-final round in Pittsburgh. It's silly. And yes, the Met is required to hire someone at their auditions.

Ok, I am not sure that I agree with the statement that the pool of applicants were the same, or that they necessarily played as well in Pittsburgh as they did at the MET. Sometimes committees make mistakes, or good players have off days, and then the pool of finalists isn't compelling enough. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but trust me, if you were looking to save money on players, no orchestra does it with a Principal Flute!!
The last guy was really terrific, the orchestra was crazy about him, and those honestly don't come along every day.

Or perhaps the 2 flute finalist in the Met audition was actually having an "off" day but still advanced to the finals for the Met. Then they had an "on" day for the Pittsburgh audition and was not able to advance out of the semi-finals. What would that then say about the Pittsburgh audition.

I don't think there's a conspiracy theory about the PSO principal flute auditions. Maybe it's just about a silly audition panel that won't hire anyone.

I tend to doubt that this is a money issue. The PSO got a recent windfall from a donor (with some contingencies meant to maintain a balanced budget).

Of note, their concertmaster, Andres Cardenes, is stepping down after next season, and auditions are already in progress with invited artists sitting in.

quote:

Originally posted by ticotico:
I don't think there's a conspiracy theory about the PSO principal flute auditions. Maybe it's just about a silly audition panel that won't hire anyone.

well, a silly audition panel is a conspiracy theory in itself if they can't agree on who to pass on or hire (either no one's good enough or there are too many players that did play well), then WHAT exactly do they argue about?

I was thinking "conspiracy theory" in the sense of rigging an audition because they have a particular person in mind. In this case, maybe they didn't hire because they are waiting for a certain someone. But I do not think this was the case.