US orchestra will not read player resumés
NewsThe Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina is seeking to broaden its admission base.
Here‘s how it will work:
There will be no pre-screening of resumes and an automatic advancement beyond the first round of applicants who participate in The Sphinx Orchestral Partners Auditions, based in Detroit. “By not eliminating people at the initial stages removes one potential disqualifier of talented players,” (CEO David) Fisk said. The Sphinx allows Black and Latinx orchestral musicians to audition for a panel representing dozens of orchestras for placement opportunities, according to the social justice organization’s website. The Sphinx has become known to be a leader in attracting musicians of color into the classical music field, Fisk said.
Your thoughts?
Simply nonsense!
What makes people think it’s blacks and hispanics who will benefit from this set up?
The overwhelming majority of classical music students/players are white/Asian, so it’ll just be more whites/Asians auditioning.
Before, with résumé screening, only the most promising whites/Asians got thru, now, without screening, the mass of talentless whites/Asians will also go thru.
Most resumes are a pack of lies anyway.
What a disgrace. All musicians auditioning for a role should go through an equal and equitable process. Reverse racial preference creates far more problems than it solves.
Anonymous:
There is no such thing as “reverse” racial preference, the same as there is no such thing a “reverse” racism – racism is racism, regardless of to whom it is directed. We understand what you mean, but it is simply racial preference.
There is no room for racial preference.
No. Racism is about power and is by definition practiced only by those who have power, in a systematic attempt to keep that power.
In the western world, those with power are white European males, and infrequently, some white females.
Thosr without systemic power can never be racist, no matter what views they hold or what actions to take.
Now you know.
John d’Armes, you would do well to spend more time looking up existing definitions of racism rather than inventing your own.
I for one have no qualms about doing away with CV screening. But advancing directly to the second round doesn’t sit well with me—90% of candidates are cut after the first round, so this means that all Sphinx partners are automatically boosted to the top 10% of candidates? That’s not fair. There must be another solution.
This is satire, right? Either that or you’re in academia. Which is it?
So minorities hunting down Asians in major US cities cannot be racist. Got it.
Some people can never be racist….as long as you’re willing to change the definition of the word. That’s kind of disingenuous, don’t you think?
so you’re saying in the non-Western countries…whites can’t be racist?
so non-whites can never be racist? what bs
Yes, we know that you are only repeating one of the most preposterous and farcical and absurd of all woke tropes. It’s hard to even have a logical conversation with extreme, self-righteous types who try to re-invent the actual language just to further their dubious arguments. Anybody who is biased against other races is racist, period. You don’t get to just pull whatever meaning you want out of your ass. No matter how many far fringe sociology profs say you can. You can’t just ignore normal long established usage. It’s just demagoguery.
What JdA is talking about is called “systemic racism”: it occurs when a race that is in power discriminates against other races in organized and coordinated manner. What most of us here are talking about is individual racist beliefs and attitudes, and we all know that unfortunately such racists come in all colors and sizes.
Except, TP, “racism” is a construct of the Marxist agenda being carried out here in America. It’s a brainwashing campaign to divide the world’s only truly free country, a freedom which was provided for in our constitution but which has been obfuscated in every imaginable way. And they have been very successful at it.
That is great news, not just for people of color, but for anyone who’s been disadvantaged in their career who may want to personally explain their situation and let their music skills speak for themselves
It is worth a try. If the applicants can play well, should they win a position,
then all good- more diversity in the ranks. If they can’t do the job theu won’t keep it. This post of Mr. Lebrecht’s will cue the outrage over the declining quality of the “holy art” due to modern wokeness etc….but it is OK, classical music will survive in spite of the trolls’ fears, NOT because of them.
If the applicant plays well, they would never need the assistance.
This is only becoming necessary because the need to diversify far outstrips the available pool of (fine) players. Why that pool is so thin requires deep reflection and space not available to us here.
The biggest hurdle is the resume, which is too often not a reflection of the players‘ skills but on the school they could afford.
Except if you’re “BIPOC” and can reasonably hold your instrument correctly, top schools will fight for the chance to matriculate you. This has been the case for over 20 years now. Nice try.
Playing well helps only if you get the chance to play.
It’s the obvious, next step in progressive demolition of the West. “Diversify your art” we are commanded. Ok, we answer, all are welcome. But, this is an expert field sooo, please be good. We’ll be fair and use screens!
“No! Preferential treatment must be given”
Really! Ok, we answer. But they still have to be good enough.
“Sorry. (The voice on high now laughing at it all) You must hire people who identify as BIPOC- to hell with the better players in the pool.”
Anyone who doesn’t think the next step is quotas, regardless of quality, is dreaming and doesn’t know what time it is.
E Rand,
Sorry, but not looking at resumes and bumping the Sphynx participants to the next round seems harmless, doesnt it? the still must play at the audition!the are (many?) fine players whose resume is too weak to get a listen. your postulation that if they we good players they wouldn’t need the help is, well, at times simply wrong.
No. It doesn’t seem harmless. Not at all. Advantaging a group of people merely because of their race seems odious to me, no matter the race being advantaged. Beyond which, there are a host of 2nd and 3rd order consequences you haven’t even bothered to consider. There always are.
Did you read the article my friend? Your rant is completely irrelevant to what was actually said. This shows you probably have no understanding of the caliber of musician that gets accepted into the Sphinx Competition, and why wanting such participants to apply for professional orchestras makes sense. Please don’t strawman the views you don’t understand
This is too low-iq to even argue with.
Seems like you’d feel right at home doing so!
Gustavo, the Sphinx competition and SOPA are two completely different things.
Will give them lot of extra work, and in the end they’ll probably end up with the same candidates anyway. But they do of course get some extra cred from the BLM community who will anyway not attend classical concerts.
Affirmative action on steroids. Although it probably won’t slow down the actual audition process in the second round, as most of these candidates will get eliminated after playing one excerpt. David, you clearly don’t know anything about auditions. You just play. You don’t get a chance to “personally explain their situation”.
I also think they should let minority heart surgeons skip a year of med school to gain an advantage.
It’s a decent first step, but perhaps in their next contract negotiations they can push through higher pay for only black and Latino players as reparations for past discrimination and injustice. An additional stipulation that retiring white and Asian players be replaced by minority musicians would also be welcome.
Oh yes, great idea. Let’s re-litigate the past endlessly. How come you’re only targeting blacks and Latinos? What about Native Americans? Why are you racist against Asians? Or are you just racist against ethnic groups that have socioeconomic success, no doubt in your view caused by some type of systemic racism?
I’d like to play in your orchestra. If there’s no diverse candidates on oboe, I’m sure you could replace them with flutes instead. All white first violin section? No problem, hire a bunch of Venezuelans from El Sistema, that corrupt organization that transfixed all of us until we realized the insane level of corruption. You can play the complete works of Amy Beach, William Grant Still, Chevalier de Saint-George, etc. on repeat while patting yourself on the back for a job well done.
Meanwhile, most of the classical music audience doesn’t care about this. Organizations, particularly in the US, care more about keeping up appearances than anything substantive. Audiences are the sad tragedy in all of this, they’re happy to hear the works of these composers, but they’re usually most happy to hear the war horses by the greats. Nothing wrong with that, and with serving something new. But, I suppose in your view, the greats are the greats not because their music has withstood the test of time (a la the definition of a “classic”), but because of systemic injustice through the years that has maligned their works. Ok, sure. Or maybe their works weren’t that great?
You are truly sick in your thinking. If you want to start an orchestra, do as you please. I’m sure you can find the funding from some LGBTQ+ or DI non-profit who will prop you up. Good luck!
Satire I trust? I hope…
I wouldn’t count on it.
Not sure I understand what is meant by “no pre-screening.” Does this men that everyone who applies automatically gets to audition?
How about covering up the names on the resume and assign a number to each. Then only one person — someone not on the audition committee — knows who is who. This way if someone’s name could possibly indicate nationality, race, gender, etc., etc. that would not be a factor. Resumes would be reviewed “blind.”
London orchestras are currently following this method of auditions. It works very well!
Ridiculous, you won’t read resumes unless it happens to say Sphinx? A real affront to all the other candidates, particularly other minorites. Blind auditions are already as inherently fair as can possibly be. Absolutely disgusting
You make a good point. And another consequence of this will be the uproar when, 5 years from now, they’ve hired/tenured few to none of the Sphinx players and the accusations of deep institutional racism begin to fly. Thats when the orchestra will have to bend the knee, hire a 6 figure diversity grifter..err…officer, lower standards again in order to appease the professionally aggrieved. Fun cycle!
If I’m reading this correctly, it means that anyone can show up to audition; nobody will be blocked before actually playing because of how their resume looks. Who can object to that? And IIRC, the Chicago Symphony has long (still?) allowed anyone to show up for an audition – but then emphasizes they’ll immediately dismiss anyone not meeting the highest professional standards. Fair enough.
Another example of wokism hurting the very people it claims to be helping. A stigma may now be attached to any minority person who gets accepted into an orchestra. “Did this person get here through his own merits or was it only due to some fear/guilt-ridden white liberal’s compulsion to bow down before the altar of diversity and the threat of BLM riots.” James DePriest himself said he would never conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra after their affirmative action hiring of a black bass player because of the stigma now attached to any black musician who worked in that orchestra. If we give in to the move to have minorities unfairly advance one stage in the audition process, that will only be a prelude to further woke demands that they be allowed to unfairly advance through the second stage, then the third stage then…
With this Black privilege, Institutional racism looks pretty ugly in Charlotte.
The only function of resumes in auditions is so Julliard grads on the committee can give preferential treatment to musicians with Julliard on their resume, so Eastman grads can give preferential treatment to musicians with Eastman, etc. This is a good first step to ending the institution-based nepotism that is a rot in our industry.
*Juilliard
A degree is not needed to be a musician. Elon Musk is hiring talent and skills, artists should do the same, as they did for hundreds of years. Indeed, a degree may be more detrimental to the development of a musician than anything else.
He also apparently hires for people willing to incubate babies for him.
An effort to integrate classical music.
What we see here in the comments is yet another case of “People of Pallor” having a hissy fit.
I’m not white and find this pretty silly. Sorry to spoil your narrative.
Billy cognitive dissonance will not allow him to believe that outside of the regime narrative he guzzles everyday, the majority of people find this stuff odious.
Which is one reason why many of us, outside of his circle of sycophants and group-thinkers cannot empathize with his wife in the so called Celi-incident. I say so-called because (hill)billyboy has a record of picking and twisting facts.
But hey, what do I know? I am a Celi groupie. But then, so was Ingmar Bergman.
The first part of the new policy is fine — ditch the resume review because the only criteria that really matters is how well someone plays the instrument.
(Also, the ability for the musician to get along with others in a collegial setting. That’s found out during the trial period once hired.)
The SOPA bit is irrelevant — but if it makes some people feel better, so be it.
The Charlotte Symphony is and always has been a bush league orchestra. Quality of music has been low on its priorities.
The “wokesters keep marching on,”
but they still did not learn (as they never do) that spanish-speaking hate this idiotic “latinx.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the orchestra with incoming conductor Carlos Prieto who earned a business degree (MBA) from Harvard? Perhaps since he himself did not have any qualifying foundation nor training on his resume as a conductor he sets an example for hiring similar musicians. Who needs a music education if you’ve got good contacts, a charming charlatan personality, an influential father, and can play an instrument?
Carlos is at the North Carolina Symphony. BTW, he also has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton.
Oh yes, of course, the degree in electrical engineering must be what qualified him to be a “conductor” 😉
I’ll correct you as you are wrong. Carlos Prieto has been appointed music director of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, not the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.
Wrong orchestra. Prieto is taking over from Grant Llewellyn at the North Carolina Symphony. Charlotte is in a search for Christopher-Warren Green’s successor.
I played under Prieto a couple of weeks ago. I found him quite impressive.
What it says to me is that Black candidates should not be expected to be able to write and communicate in standard English, an idea that many so-called social-justice warriors promote (along with the Smithsonian Institution’s Africa American History Museum).
Sure, why should actual experience count?
The convolutions to make an “argument” that blind auditions aren’t the purest example of meritocratic hiring in ANY profession look like a pot of spaghetti.
Good. Just ship all mediocrity to North Carolina.
Well, reading résumés was probably an ineffective way of judging musical talent, anyway.
But this only affects the outcome of the first round?
In the end they still have to pick just one and it’s unlikely that this small variation in the process causes any one of real talent to be excluded from consideration somehow, if that is the worry.
The only downside will be the vast number of résumés. Auditions will be very long and finding panelists with that amount of time is tough. But this can be done. However, this will ONLY work if there is a screen. Since basic competence is easily determined in the first minute, many will be given a “thank you” quickly so this process might move along quickly. Then there can be call backs for those who make the first cut.
How about offering assistance in resume writing, so when your woke orchestra goes broke – they can secure an interview in another sector?
First step, add your pronouns!
Of course, not a single one of the geniuses who, again, know and understand every detail of “wokism” and how it’s silly and counterproductive and the end of civilisation, belongs to a minority group. And of course, the thought “shut up and listen” doesn’t enter their genius brains for a second.
The flip side: nobody listens to them anymore either.
The likes of Aaron Dworkin at Sphinx will do whatever to cement their own reputations as saviors, so, in a word, “whatever.”
Terrible. Auditions should be blind all the way through until they choose a winner.
This is racist.
At some point resumes do have importance – it makes a difference to the efficiency of a busy orchestra whether the new player has already worked through a critical mass of the standard repertory, or will be doing much of it for the first time.
However, it’s always good to have workarounds so that musicians who have had obstacles–but are able to deliver at an elite level of skill–can move ahead. And there are a lot of other things that could be done to improve the audition process. Few orchestras, for instance, listen to candidates playing _with someone else_ but listening to what another musician is doing is one of the most important skills (and, when lacking, one of the biggest frustrations for an ensemble).
Rainer Küchl turned out pretty well as concertmaster of the Vienna State Opera and the Philharmonic despite having no orchestral experience worth mentioning when he got the job. Except for studio work, you’re going to have the music in advance, if you want it. The player who hasn’t played a bunch of the charts previously will have less spare time, but it isn’t going to slow down the orchestra.
Being asked to play a string quartet with members of the orchestra is becoming more common in string auditions, and I hear Beethoven op. 18/4 is a piece frequently employed.
It used to be, if you saw a black face onstage you knew they were qualified and had earned it. I’m afraid that is about to change. Next season in my city one of the violin soloists is Tai Murray who is a perfectly respectable player…but she is clearly not in the class of the other soloists, Hadelich, Bell, Perlman, etc. So I don’t really get what this is supposed to accomplish. Are we all just supposed to pretend? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5QSZCISsE
this is one of the core evils of initiatives like this – the second order consequence of eroding and diminishing true accomplishment.
I misread it. So the Charlotte Symphony will essentially use Sphinx to vet candidates, and people from Sphinx will automatically advance to the second round.
Well, from the little I’ve heard of Sphinx, they seem to have good players, so I fail to see the harm. And historically orchestras have let all sorts of people basically skip the prelims: Known quantities from other orchestras; players from the orchestra; students of players from the orchestra, etc.. If you want to complain about this as some kind of affirmative action, there’s all sorts of affirmative action in the audition business; so why shouldn’t people from Sphinx get their shot? They still have to win the audition.
They can get their shot by applying for an auditioning like everyone else.
This is just minimizing the chance of being eliminated by the randomness of the first round. And an acknowledgment that – as so many have known for so long (which is why certain people already get to advance to semis/finals automatically) – first rounds can be fairly arbitrary.
minimizing…for a select race or, put another way, to the exclusion of other races. That should be abhorrent on its face to all fair-minded people. But, as we know, leftist destroys everything it touches, including the brains of its adherents.
what happened to yours? hung out with too many on the left?
Bill, all I see are a plethora of petty replies from you on this topic.
Are you aware that there are multiple posters under this name? Similar to your “name” except that some of us actually answer to it!
I identify as a virtuoso violinist – nope, that was yesterday, today I think I’ll identify as a virtuoso contrabassoonist. Auditions are demeaning, just give me the job.
the issue here is not people wanting to skip auditioning. rather, they want to be assured an opportunity to actually play the damn audition. then the committee can decide whether they played well enough. the part being skipped is having your application circular-filed because your resume didn’t have the right code words on it. Personally, I don’t care what the resumes of the orchestra members look like, only how the orchestra sounds.
Making changes in attitudes requires a first step. Honest attempts to put the best foot forward should not be attacked. Experiment and find out what works best to make it possible for highly talented young people of all ethnicities to get a fair shake at realizing their potential and playing in an orchestra.
These young hopefuls don’t need nasty, hateful accusations of preferential treatment. They need respect for having come this far to audition for a professional orchestra. There is so much genius out there in all segments of our diverse society. Music should not be a world of hate.
Its not a hateful “accusation” of preferential treatment when the orchestra is announcing and celebrating their initiative of preferential treatment. Dunce.
Eliminate auditions altogether. No more screens, no more anonymous auditions, no more grueling hours of practicing excerpts, no more audition committees spending days listening to player after player trying to find the one who is spectacularly secure technically and a true musical artist. This obviously hasn’t worked. The world of symphonic music must make amends for the unfairness of such a system along with past transgressions that prevent people living today from being able to win the precious few jobs that come available for full time orchestra musicians. Go back to having prospective musicians play for the conductor in their hotel room and promote musicians according to the whims of authority and the dictates of social justice. Earning a job through rigorous competitive demonstration of ability is just. so. utterly. unfair.
Everyone gets a trophy?
This is the way many orchestras are going these days. Having been on MANY audition committees this will not help diversity and will just be a massive waste of everyone’s time and money. Completely unqualified people who previously couldn’t make it based on resume (if they couldn’t pass the resume round they could usually send a tape! It means they are BAD) and will now spend hundreds of dollars they can’t afford getting their hopes to audition and lose to the same person who would have won in the first place!! LOL. This will only harm those already disadvantaged people by making them spend money thinking they have a chance in a career that they dont… pretty sad and pathetic actually.
“Equity uber alles” – but since we can’t possibly achieve that by bringing up those on the low end, we must crush high achievement. Solved! Playbook of every communist regime.
There’s also a cost for renting the facility in which to hold the audition so if the floodgates are open to everyone who applies then how can you even predict how many will shoe up and how many days rent you need to pay? This is just stupid. Not to mention a potential waste of the committees time if a truly unqualified candidate plays a few notes or minutes.
The Chicago Symphony has never resume screened, as far as I know. When I have served on auditions committees, I have never looked at a player’s resume with the slightest interest. How they play is far more to the point. It will be interesting to see how many of the Sphinx alums get jobs. They still have to outplay the other semifinalists and finalists. I suspect this will not change things nearly as much as either its proponents or the hysterical right wing chorus on this comment thread imagine it will. If a few more qualified musicians of color get into major orchestras as a result of this initiative, I would regard it as all to the good.
I think there are two things going on here. Orchestra decides to ditch screening by resume. I think this is good, Max thinks this is good, someone who wants the shortest possible audition process probably thinks this is awful. Why risk missing out on a candidate who plays well but has a poor resume? By the time they have a good resume, they’ll have a job elsewhere.
At the same time, some well-meaning people in the orchestra management decided to take Sphinx players as pre-screened and likely to be of decent quality. Advancing them directly (just like is typically done with members of the orchestra, candidates invited by music director, etc.) to the second round keeps the length of the first round from getting too long. It does not unfairly discriminate against anyone else in the way that resume screening can; everyone gets a shot at playing in this scheme.
But it is understandable that some won’t like this, because they know their only hope at winning is to eliminate as many qualified candidates as possible. Taking a page from the playbook of the Republican party in the US!
A lot depends on how to read the sentence “There will be no pre-screening of resumes and an automatic advancement beyond the first round of applicants who participate in The Sphinx Orchestral Partners Auditions, based in Detroit.”.
I understand this as meaning that ALL applicants, including those *not* associated with The Sphinx, will have the opportunity to be judged on their playing. Those associated with The Sphinx would have the further advantage of starting in the 2nd round. In other words, two separate initiatives that are being conflated (not helped by the article putting them in the same sentence).
Assuming that the audition panel have the time and resources to hear everyone play, the abolition of pre-screening is probably a good thing (although one should acknowledge the argument that it could result in non-serious candidates wasting their own time and money), in that it might enable a good player, irrespective of background and prior experience, to have a chance to prove his/her worth. As others have said, the practice of placing reliance on CVs or resumés is not ideal, since it can result in hiring panels overlooking a strong candidate because he/she has not played for the “right” orchestra and/or has not studied at the “right” institution with the “right” teacher &c. The rationale for using CVs and resumés is that they provide an imperfect, but partially useful, proxy for evaluating who has sufficient experience and credentials to be a serious candidate. Moreover, in an orchestral context, it is not enough merely to be able to play brilliantly at audition; one has to be able to play at a *reliably* high level for every concert and on every tour, despite the potential for fatigue, boredom, or suboptimal performance conditions. But of course, these kind of factors can be assessed during a probationary period. So, I suppose my view is that, if an orchestra is willing to commit the time and resources to listen to absolutely every candidate, that is an initiative to be applauded.
As for the automatic advancement to the 2nd round associated with one or more particular schemes — well, as with pre-screening, such a practice is arguably not ideal, but, assuming that a scheme’s alumni tend to be better than the average candidate, has the benefit of saving time and money (both for the candidate and for the orchestra). Any scheme is potentially unfair, but, for better or worse, the music world is full of all manner of schemes and talent development programmes, and almost all professional musicians have relied on one or more such initiatives to obtain the understanding and experience (and, to be honest, reputation) needed to thrive as professionals. I am not familiar with the Sphinx scheme, so cannot comment on whether its graduates are likely to be deserving of automatic advancement to the 2nd round. Very few, if any, talent development schemes are completely fair, insofar as they all tend to privilege certain categories of musician — even if they do not practise so-called “affirmative action”, a deeply questionable practice, a scheme will usually have a geographical base (and schemes tend to cluster around certain localities, such as big cities or a small number of affluent rural locations with a very strong tradition of music-making) and a bias occasioned by a propensity for certain teachers or places of education to become very adept at getting their pupils into the scheme. So, in a context where the auditions are blind in any case, I suppose that a privileging of the Sphinx scheme, whilst not entirely fair, is unlikely to be as harmful as some others have argued.
Why are members of Sphinx auto advanced? That’s not a real job/the same as previous professional experience from another orchestra. Clearly biased and giving Sphinx players an unfair advantage. It really does a diservice to the bipoc players currently playing in orchestras who won their jobs the old fashioned way. They earned it! Let’s hope the screen stays up till the end.
They are a filter. People in Sphinx are good enough that the Charlotte Symphony figures they play well enough to merit consideration in the second round. BIPOC players in other orchestras might, by virtue of having such a job, also get advanced to a second round, as is often the practice in auditions.
Unlike all others, every interested Sphinx player is thus guaranteed a place in the third stage of auditioning bypassing the first two: resume screening and preliminary audition round. This may not change the final hiring result, but it is sure to send the most harmful message to everyone: the “right” race gives you an advantage over others. It is terribly divisive and will definitely increase racist attitudes and feelings on both sides of such divide. The only kind of preferential treatment that is needed and would be helpful should be given to children in all levels of education based on their financial needs and nothing else.
Plenty of us non-BIPOC folks are not threatened by the possibility that some people who are decent players but don’t have an impressive resume in the traditional sense might get to skip the preliminary round. In the big picture, good players do well in fair auditions.