Continuity
By Alan Gilbert
As I have been preparing my second posting here, I read a blog that admonished me for not “feeding the beast” by posting more frequently. This was nice to read, but I admit that it made me nervous about keeping up with the regular demand of writing. Of course I am very pleased that somebody out there wants me to blog even more, but from the outset I have wanted to manage expectations about how frequently I could realistically contribute here. It will be as often as possible, but probably only every two or three weeks.
Over the last year I often found myself feeling the urge to share random thoughts about my professional life; that urge would occasionally become so strong that I had the thought of writing a book flash across my mind – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, I’ll just repeat that it was nice to read that someone was actually looking forward to hearing what I have to say; I will try to post my thoughts and experiences here as often as I can.
In fact, my schedule over the past two weeks has been, if anything, even more intense than last year’s opening. The New York Philharmonic is in an unusual situation right now, with Zarin Mehta just having announced that he’s leaving in two years. While he’s very much still in the saddle, this announcement has created a shockwave throughout the organization, and everyone is having to consider, in a very conscious way, where they stand and how they fit into the long-range plans of the organization. The process of figuring out where we will go after Zarin leaves has begun, and everybody seems truly committed to making sure that the right steps are taken.
This is an opportunity to express my appreciation for everything Zarin has done for me and for the New York Philharmonic over the years: from my first experience with the Orchestra he was a champion and a supporter, and it is largely because of him that I am here. Working with him, being able to benefit from his enormous wealth of experience, from his natural elegance, has been an education and a joy for me. In particular, I have been struck by his interest in expanding the boundaries of what we do, in using music to touch the widest possible audience, and by his heartfelt belief in the necessity of taking artistic risks. The New York Philharmonic can mean many things to many different people, and Zarin has been one of the most powerful proponents for broadening the dimensions of our artistic reach. For now, he is still very much at work here, so I do not have to express all my thoughts about his contributions and legacy at this moment; I very much look forward to working with him over the next two seasons.
In a related area, the continuity of the orchestra is constantly on my mind, as there are many vacancies at the Philharmonic. Last week we concluded a round of very successful violin auditions, which resulted in the hiring of two new musicians. It is quite rare, actually, for both of the finalists to be offered positions, but we were lucky to have two exemplary candidates who were both masters of their instruments, and also came with an artistic sensibility that I am sure will add to the musical depth of the Orchestra.
Still, during this process I thought about auditions in general: it is incredibly complicated, as it has to accomplish a lot of things. The main one, obviously, is finding the right person, but another integral outcome is the self-referential need to instill and preserve confidence in the process itself.
I learned some lessons in Stockholm where, over the years, we had problems with the audition process. When I was Chief Conductor there was a bizarre attitude about auditions: of course the stated policy was that auditions had to be taken, but, in practice, quite a few musicians were granted positions – and ultimately given tenure – who had never played an audition. The argument internally was, “They are the right person, we need to find the right person no matter what, and that’s more important than process.” That was refreshing in a way, because in Sweden it very often can seem as though process is more important than result, but there was a palpable negative effect: people lost faith in the way we ran auditions. They asked themselves why they should audition if it was possible to win a position without undergoing this particularly stressful process. Over time the auditions became less successful simply because not enough good people were presenting themselves as candidates. In fact, we knew of people who were interested in open positions who decided not even to try since they hoped to get into the orchestra through the back door, as it were.
Holding auditions is the system we have now. It doesn’t necessarily test all the qualities that are essential to function as a consummate orchestral musician, but we are constantly trying to reevaluate it so we can create the most telling process that is possible.
That’s some of what’s been on my mind. See you next time.
(For more information on Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, visit nyphil.org.)
October 5th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Maestro Gilbert,
Thank you so very much for sharing your warm and eloquent words about Zarin Mehta.
He is and was, also in Canada at the OSM, – Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a true visionary in bringing the orchestra to the people and people to the orchestra; (and not just in Montreal).
I, as a young General Manager of a regional Canadian Orchestra, benefited from his wisdom, vision and quite frankly his “panache”, by Zarin asking me to join him in bringing the OSM to perform in a large auditorium, (acoustically less than desirable), at a University so that 5000+ people in this community could enjoy the experience.
Our orchestra also benefitted from the experience as it was a part of our annual corporate fundraising campaign; thank you to the Bank of Montreal that stepped up to the plate and this was also Mr. Mehta’s visionary expertise too!
I treasure the time I spent being mentored by Mr. Zarin Mehta, and, indeed it is truly an honor to have met him, worked and collaborated with him at this sell out concert!
Enjoy the rest of your time with Zarin Mehta, it will continue to be fruitful, of this I am most sure.
Susan Weiss
October 21st, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Maestro,
I have a few suggestions that will help the confidence issue.
The Sydney Opera Orchestra has an interesting process for auditions. They select a few finalists based on results from behind a screen, then the finalists do a trial week with the orchestra and play a full recital for the members of the orchestra. The orchestra then votes – it’s a much better process than trying to make a decision based on a few excerpts. It’s not perfect of course but it’s better than what you’ve got going now.
Saying a screened audition yielded no results – at the NY Phil, of all places, where you’ll certainly get any number of outstanding players – gives the rest of us in the audition circuit the sense that you have someone (or a few someones) already in mind for the position. After the FARCE in Chicago last year (which I did not attend) you’d think that attempts would be made to have a clean audition.
If you’re going to have an audition, then have it screened from start to finish, give the top three finishers a trial week, and have them play a recital for the orchestra. If you can’t find anyone, try again until you do. Otherwise, announce that you’re going drop the process entirely and simply appoint people. Having it both ways is what undermines everyone’s confidence in the audition process.
Two other points. All candidates should be allowed to record their own auditions, and committee comments should ALWAYS be made available to auditioning candidates in the weeks following an audition. There is absolutely no good reason to block comments – If we fly across the country and don’t advance, we should know why, and you’ll get better results in future auditions as a result.