In the past, I have tried out for the All City and All Region bands two times now, and made both of them both times. However, in this year's All Region audition, one of the guys who was also trying out happened to mention that normally, only the top three chairs are advanced to Area tryouts, but this particular year four would advance. The reason for this was that one of the other guys who was trying out had made the Region Orchestra, which automatically advances you to Area even if you do not make the Region Band. I was very surprised to hear this, especially because I had never heard of tubas being allowed to try out for the Region Orchestra (I assumed it was a string-only event). For some reason, band directors in my district never mention these tryouts to any of the wind players. Could somebody who knows about this please explain to me why no one ever seems to talk about these auditions and what the requirements are? Thank you.
Juan Enrique Alonso
Adjunct Professor - University of Texas at Tyler www.alonsotuba.com
It truly is a shame when a band director WITHHOLDS information of additional region competitions (orchestra or jazz) simply because they do not want to spend an extra Saturday or weekday evening judging that event. I do not teach instruments that participate in region jazz, but the directors at a school I teach lessons at actually tried to convince some trombone students not to audition for region jazz. It was admitted to me by this specific director that the real reason was, simply, to not have to go and WASTE their evening (the event was on a Thursday night). I would not still be teaching at this school, were it not for the fact that this particular band director was asked to leave due to other reasons, and now there are directors who can at least PRETEND to care about their students.
I understand band directors devote much of their time to their programs, but who chose to be a band director in the first place? The students shouldn't miss out on Region Orchestra and Region Jazz because of a lazy band director. Coupling this disgusting revelation with how profound these experiences can be to young musicians (as in the Elephant's GREAT personal story, and my own similar experience with Region Orchestra), it seems downright criminal.
