Posted by Matt G on October 29, 2003 at 09:54:40:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Interesting article from Matt Guilford.. posted by Kenneth Sloan on October 29, 2003 at 00:01:44:
In the larger sense of things, everything is an educational experience in one form or another. It doesn't have to be a part of the mission statement.
When someone applies for a job and doesn't get hired, it is an educational experience.
When running on a slick floor and falling and smacking your head, it is an educational experience.
A lot of people will be a waste of time for the commitee and a lot of these folk won't realize the "educational experience" of auditioning.
I will say that I can bet dollars to donuts that the NYPO will have a much more difficult decision in the way they decided to do things then national, IMO.
Music is not like the area of hiring for Academia, where all relevant coursework and citations are easily listed. Playing for quintets and doing a lot of freelance work and all the various jobs one can do as a performer get listed under "freelance musician," whereas a potential professor has the ability to notate all of the specific fields in which research has been done and specialization courses. I don't believe that comparing resume's from an academia applicant to that of a potential musician are relevant. Furthermore, even the tape rounds can only prove a certain amount of ability as a lot of folk don't quite understand how to record a tuba correctly in the best light and may even hire recording engineers who don't fully understand how to best record the tuba. Because of that, the best way is to hear a lot of people live and make your determinations from that. We are after all, hiring someone to play live with the orchestra, not a resume or tape recorder to occupy a chair and stand in the orchestra.
As I hinted to in my first post, the educational experience is to be taken away from the people auditioning and to those on the commitee. The orchestra itself is not motivated by education in this process but provides a medium for education to flourish. Many people who sit on these commitees pass along what they perceive as what to do and what not to do to there students in an anonomous way, therefore providing an education to students based on a vicarious situation.
So they are doing both hiring a colleague and providing an educational experience for many of the people involved.
Matt G