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My two children both play horn in our county youth orchestra. They are having seating auditions for the new semester tomorrow. Just found out tonight that the person judging the horns is their former teacher and the current teach of the other two horns. My kids take lessons from another teach in town that they work better with. I am not sure why he didn't recuse himself since he is not otherwise involved with the orchestra. I do know that last semester he was not happy when one my children beat out his student for Principle Horn.

Earlier this evening I sent a short email to the paid administrative person who setups up all the auditions explaining the situation, I assumed that she probably didn't know the full story. I then asked if they could find someone independent of all the horn players to hear the audition possibly postponing it for a few hours or a few days. I asked nicely if there were any other sections where the judge was the teacher of half the section and the former teach of the other half.

As a father who enjoys playing himself as an amateur I have tried to not interfere it what my children's music leaders have setup but I couldn't help myself this time. Any advice on how best to handle this without embarrassing my kids.

Forget it. Life is rough. In school, on the band side of things, my band teacher belonged to a different church. The two trumpet players who went to his church sat 1st & 2nd, and I sat 3rd. OTOH, my choir director was of the same denomination as me, and along with a teacher who used to be a student teacher under him, judged all state choir auditions, and I went to all state choir.

Now, is that fair? No. Now, the kicker: in retrospect, I was only of 3rd chair quality in trumpet playing. But I was also of state quality vocals, having been complimented by the all-state clinician and having won another independent state-wide contest my private teacher entered me in.

The final kicker: what matters most is not the chair assignment. What matters is keeping on playing for the love of playing. The two guys who sat ahead of me graduated, went to engineering school, and never pickup up their trumpets again. I'm still playing in both community settings and earning gig money as a "triple," tuba, bass guitar and double bass. OTOH, I'm not singing that much at all.

Good points by all of the above. First, I really agree with Bloke. Life just isn't always fair. Secondly, I DO think the audition process needs some help. It shouldn't be so easy for a teacher to show favoritism.

In the Texas audition process, steps have been taken to minimize the effect one judge can have. In my opinion, we have gone overboard, but I feel that every effort to ensure fairness has been made. There are five judges for each audition. They are placed behind a screen, and unable to see or interact directly with any student.

Advice for those you care about: Be as prepared as possible, so as to make it blatantly obvious that the guy is being unfair if he places others higher. Be willing to accept that there can be bias. Don't overemphasize the importance of such an event(this is the most difficult part).

you could ask that the auditions be blind and without names; give each student a number and the judge have his back to the performer or use a screen of some kind.
k

Also Is it really that big of a deal which seat they sit in? It sounds like with these four kids they would have an awesome section.

OTOH, depending on how you feel and this turns out, you can take this opportunity to introduce them to the politics of orchestral auditions, and encourage them to choose a less serendipitous vocation...

It isn't fair and the adjudicator should ask out of the process, if he/she knows the situation. I auditioned tubas for seats for many years for our HS All-County bands. Because of this same type of situation, instances would arise where parents would lodge complaints. Of course, this was usually after their child didn't get first chair. As one of the busiest tuba teachers on LI, my students would often be involved in HS All-County. I tried to always be fair and I believe I always was. Because of a few complaints about the process from parents, I eventually asked to not to adjudicate when my students were involved. For a few years, I didn't participate in the process. Then, I was asked to do it again, but alongside another tuba adjudicator. He also was a former student and had a tuba studio. It worked fine that way. Nobody could argue if it is decided by a panel, even if it's a panel of 2. We almost always submitted the same seating results.

Without entering the discussion about ethic elements, I would say that no screen will prevent any teacher with a relevant quality of ears from recognizing his own students.

Klaus

I´ll second those posts that recommend not to take any further action.
I have no idea of the level of communication among the musically active folks in Your area (that is: How big is the french horn pond there, how many teachers are there and how well are they connected to the audition committee). Chances are, that the people involved have a rather well founded idea of the local scene of hornists. Based on my experience over here, I´d be surprised if the audition committee haven´t been fully aware of the situation before Your message already.

Here in Vorarlberg, and actually throughout Austria) there is a VERY high density of musicians and teachers. (Total population: 380.000 Vorarlbergians. There are about 125 local bands, each and every valley has their own private music school, taking care of as little as 2000 people (that´s valley inhabitants, not students). There are several public schools that feature extended musical curriculum.

Many music teachers and "prominent amateurs" join the band of their home village, if not several.
The bands help each other out in case they need substitutes/extra instrumentalists for their concerts. Rumors of great young talents growing up anywhere spread very fast that way. So do rumors of strange incidents during auditions for the extremely few ensembles that actually hold auditions.

imperialbari wrote:Without entering the discussion about ethic elements, I would say that no screen will prevent any teacher with a relevant quality of ears from recognizing his own students. Klaus

I actually saw that happen once for high school all-state band. The screen was up. The auditioner came out unseen from a back stage door and auditioned. The judge immediately said, "Hi, [name of his student I can't remember]. How are you doing?"

One time I was participating in a "screened" audition (for a college ensemble - that was not nearly the "big deal" all the participants wanted to pretend it was) where I was convinced the screen was a sham.

So I wore a pair of fake glasses - the kind with the nose and mustache - into the audition.

The second I walked in, I heard one of the judges laugh and then stifle himself. I guess it COULD have been something else, but I don't think so.

I'm not sure the point of the story, but I agree with bloke. Kids have to learn that they will simply face unfair situations in life. Some auditions are just going to be more fair than others - and there isn't anything they can do to change that.

What they can do is learn from each experience, and as bloke suggested, contribute where they can.