How Dudamel handles mistakes in audition
OrchestrasLA Phil violist Mick Wetzel has collected a range of insights that he’s gathered from sitting with Gustavo Dudamel in auditions for new players. His thoughts are published on Laurie Niels’s site violinist.com and are worth reading – not least because this is a musioc director who is really committed and present in auditions.
The over-booked next generation – Klaus Makela,. for instance – hardly bother to attend.
Here’s one tip:
First of all, don’t make a completely mistake-free performance your number-one priority. As Gustavo said, when you are playing “not to make a mistake,” then “there is already a mistake, because the mistake is thinking that way….Change that way of thinking.”
And if you do make a mistake during the audition, don’t panic. I promise that your perception of a mistake is a little distorted. Move on. Make the next note, the next phrase, the next excerpt even more beautiful than anything that preceded it. We give positive consideration to candidates who show poise and resilience.
More here.
All auditions are rigged anyway. Always the son or brother of pal of some white guys. I’ve taken soooo many auditions and never won, so I am obviously an expert here. We all want gigs, so let’s boycott unfair auditions!
Your username speaks for itself, so no wonder you never won an audition and became a sour grape.
Leonard Bernstein: “… one little but loaded hint: Remember that a symphonic concert is not a gig. Enough said.”
The LA Phil hired 7 people last season, 6 of whom were women. Seems like your view of the audition world is a bit off…
Orchestra editions really are a hellscape expressing most of the infinite fountain of evil that is the world of classical music. And while I don’t fully believe the lines above are representative of anything, they are at least a positive light in the abyss.
The now heavily under-booked old generation (one name comes to mind, I don’t know why) , in between naps and other type of “trials” behind closed doors at the hotel, religiously attends all “blind” auditions because they have to make sure the daughter of the concertmaster and the pupil of their old buddy get hired.
They also need to make sure that principals who are too good are kicked out of the orchestra lest the old guard gets jalous and made to look – and sound- even worse than they already do.
Seems to be a change in the wind regarding Dudamel around here. About time. So all those orchestras that hired him from the off were not wrong…
I don’t know the factual sources for the statement that “The over-booked next generation – Klaus Makela, for instance – hardly bother to attend [auditions].” But let’s assume it’s true.
Press coverage of young hotshot conductors tends to focus on their interpretive abilities in individual concerts or recordings.
But as music directors, they’re also going to have a key role in the selection of individual musicians, a process which shapes the future sound of entire orchestras.
So, aside from the question of whether (globe-trotting and over-scheduled as they are) they actually “bother” to show up at auditions for “their” orchestras, I wonder if they actually have the level of experience and perception to make such case-by-case decisions, i.e., to foresee the effect of single new hires on the overall orchestral sound. I fear they don’t — I wonder if they even understand what has “made” the sound of that orchestra — but would be glad to be happily surprised.
If you need an expert to explain to you that focusing on avoiding mistakes isn’t a good strategy, you shouldn’t be a musician anyway.
Those of us who have won auditions but are now experienced artists have come to understand that there is a particular way and accompanying sound of players that have recently rolled off the music school assembly line. They are the ones that win the auditions. A well-seasoned temperament, depth of experience, artistry, all take a back seat. Who in their right mid on the audition committee wants to hire someone who will upstage you? You want someone with “chops” who will do exactly as they are told.
A mistake or two might be good enough for LA. Don’t try it at Chicago or Berlin.
Dudamel’s experience is entirely based on his expectations from and of LA, or his student orchestra in Venezuela.
Once he settles in NY, his standards will rise.
Good luck.
Having heard both the LAPO and the NYPO recently (the former at Carnegie Hall admittedly where any orchestra sounds better than at Geffen) the LAPO is a fantastic orchestra and certainly not in the NYPO’s shadow.
One very interesting recent appointment shows more flexibility than I expected – Tondre as first oboe in Philly. He is a fabulous player no doubt but his sound is entirely European (he sounds like he is guesting from the Berlin Phil) and not at all the Tabuteau/de Lancie/Woodhams “American” school. Having been a listener to the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie for over 40 years every time I hear him (like in Mahler 3 last week) I think “Oh that’s not the right oboe sound for Philadelphia.” Soon enough I am used to it and he’s a sensational oboeist – I wonder if YNS had a big influence? I should add that Battalan played like the GOAT in that Mahler…………
Conductors should NOT be on orchestral auditions. Nor have a say in orchestral appointments.
We don’t care what Dudamel thinks , we care what the musical colleagues think who will have to make music with that player for decades potentially. Yes there are problems with the system, but having conductors and their egos wade in is not the solution .