Composer Auditions: Part 3 – Why Not?

| Sep 29, 2015 |

In Parts 1 and 2 of this blog post, I suggested holding composer auditions for the selection of new music, modeled after instrumental auditions for the orchestra. Using two rounds of rehearsal auditions managed by a committee that includes orchestra members and other key players, the field would be narrowed down to two or three finalists. How would the winner be chosen?

Immanual Richter, currently solo trumpeter with the Basel Symphony, told me that when he auditioned for the solo trumpet position with La Scala (which he won), the final round was held in front of the public. Each of the three final candidates had slightly over an hour to perform excerpts on stage… before a large audience! Why not do the same with composer auditions? I believe that audiences, alienated by the modern music they hear, would be delighted to help audition and perhaps even help select new music. (For critics who fear that giving the audience a vote would dumb down the pieces chosen, keep in mind that the audience would be choosing from compositions approved by the music director, artistic director, and orchestra in previous rounds.)

Picture an open audition featuring the final three compositions, in which audience, orchestra, artistic director, and music director would all have input. Does this sound too democratic?

Perhaps it does, but I think it could be a huge public relations coup for an orchestra, and it could work wonders in bringing the audience and orchestra closer together.

Orchestras are desperate to involve the community, attract young audiences, and create a new model for symphonic music. Public composer auditions could provide a way of doing that. There are a number of orchestras these days that are championing new music, but only the music director is participating, not the orchestra and certainly not the audience. What better way to pull in the community and get them excited than to ask their help in selecting music that could help build the future of symphony orchestras?

Holding composer auditions, and especially being the first orchestra to do so, would pose tremendous challenges, and I can immediately think of two big ones. First, managements and music directors may be reticent to relinquish their power and control over this crucial aspect of running the orchestra. And second, such auditions might be expensive, at the very least taking up two rehearsal slots and a performance.

Regarding the first challenge, I am convinced there are orchestras, managements, and music directors bold enough to try this experiment. For the second challenge, I believe that if an orchestra is creative enough to pursue this new and courageous model, a wealthy patron could be located to fund such an audition and be listed as the sponsor.

Composer auditions would certainly not be a guaranteed success. However, I think of the American entrepreneur Elon Musk, who said that when he founded Tesla, his electric automobile company, he thought there would be less than a fifty-percent chance of success. An interviewer asked, “Then why try?” Musk responded, “If something is important enough, then you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.”

I don’t think the probable outcome of composer auditions would be failure. I think it would be a success. And I think the idea is important enough for at least one courageous orchestra and music director to take the risk.