What Happens at a Professional Orchestra Audition?

For musicians who are just starting out, the idea of taking a professional audition can be daunting for a lot of reasons– and the fear of the unknown is a big reason! In this post, I’ll go over what happens when you take an audition so that you can know what to expect.

Before the Audition

Prior to attending an audition, you have to be invited to audition. (Some union auditions require that the orchestra hear anybody who shows up and demands a spot, but I wouldn’t recommend this approach, because it’s not a good idea to annoy a group that you want to have hire you.) The first thing that happens is that you’ll send a one-page resume to the personnel manager, who’s basically the logistical coordinator of the orchestra. A big part of their job is managing auditions, so you’ll definitely meet this person on the big day. Remember that every line of your resume should tell the committee, “Hey, I can do this job.” Don’t put things like “Sales Associate at Banana Republic” on your resume for a clarinet position; sorry, but nobody cares! When you send the resume to the personnel manager, keep your email short and to the point: “Good morning, _____. I would like to submit my attached resume for consideration for the ____ spot in the _____ Symphony Orchestra. Thank you so much, and have a great day!”

Then, the orchestra will conduct a resume review. This means that some group of people (usually the conductor, principal in your section, and/or other relevant orchestra members) will look through the resumes and cull out people who don’t have enough experience to merit an audition. The level of experience necessary really depends on the orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra will probably cut out 70% of applicants at this round, while Podunk Valley Symphony Orchestra might hear 99% of the people who send in a resume.

Sometimes an orchestra will conduct a prescreening round. They will send you a list of excerpts to record, then they’ll decide about giving you an audition once they hear your tape. This often happens to candidates who almost have enough on their resume to merit an audition, but not quite. If the orchestra requests a recording from you, you’re not obligated to make one, but a nice email back to the personnel manager saying that you won’t be sending in a tape is a good professional courtesy.

At the Audition: The Preliminary Round

When you’re invited to the audition, you’ll receive either a specific time or a block of time, ie 10 am to 11 am. Usually, they will tell you when to arrive (or when not to arrive). If you arrive too early, they usually won’t have a warm-up room for you before the specified time, so you might as well show up when they tell you to. If they didn’t say when to be there, an hour before your scheduled audition time is a good bet.

First, you check in, usually with some orchestra members who are helping with auditions or with the personnel manager themselves. Remember to be nice, professional, and gracious with everybody you meet! These could be your new coworkers, so treat them as such. When your warm-up room is ready, somebody will take you there. You’ll usually get between half an hour to an hour to warm up. These rooms are often weird, like Sunday school classrooms at a church or something similar. You will ABSOLUTELY be able to hear every other person warming up, too. Be ready for this and focus on your own business, not theirs.

When the excerpts for the first round are posted, you will either be handed a list of them, or you’ll have to write them down yourself. Be ready to take a picture of this list with your phone or have a paper and pencil handy. Below is a picture of a preliminary list from an audition I recently took; this sheet of paper was handed to me when I was taken to my warm-up room.

Like I said, you’ll get between half an hour to an hour of warm-up time, usually. The personnel manager will come warn you when the person before you is about to audition. Then, when it’s your turn, they will come to your room and escort you to the audition area. Don’t be afraid to ask them to help you carry things if you have multiple instruments to deal with!

In the audition room, you can expect there to be a proctor to help if you have questions, a carpet for you to walk on, and the audition chair and stand on a large rectangular carpet. The audition committee will usually be behind a screen for the first round. Be prepared for this room to be acoustically strange, so play a few warm-up notes to get a feel for the space. Sometimes the committee will make noise and shuffle papers, which is annoying, but c’est la vie. They might cut you off early or ask you to repeat things, which is all normal. If they don’t let you play through the whole list, that’s usually a bad sign, but sometimes they’re just short on time and they’ve already decided to advance you (fingers crossed).

After you play, the proctor will guide you out of the room and give you to the personnel manager, who will take you back up to your warm-up room. From there, you usually pack up your things and return to a waiting area, like some kind of large atrium or a green room, where everybody from your round of the audition (usually 5-10 people) will wait for results.

While you’re waiting for the results, do the following things: use the bathroom, drink lots of water, maybe drink some kind of sports beverage (I like Liquid IV), and eat a snack.

At this point, up to about 4 people from each round will advance. Sometimes the committee doesn’t advance anybody from a round; it just really depends on their mood and the playing.

Congrats, You’ve Advanced!

Everything from this point happens very quickly, which is disconcerting, because before now you’ve spent a lot of time waiting: for your warm-up room, to take the audition, and for results. Maybe even for the results of other rounds, if you’re not in a later round. I hope you ate that snack while you were waiting for results, because wow, it’s about to get crazy!

You will be given another list for this round, either paper (see below for an example) or just by word of mouth.

Now, you’ll be randomly assigned a new audition order. Depending on the size of the audition, there might only be a handful of people in this round. The Illinois Symphony audition from the above pictures had 3 people in the finals, which means that even if you’re last, you don’t have a lot of time to get ready.

You’ll be taken to a new warm-up room and given at least half an hour to get ready, usually. This half an hour goes very fast, so move purposefully. There will often be more excerpts on the list than there were in the preliminary round. Sometimes, an excerpt might be on both rounds.

Then, all of the same things happen: you get a 5-minute warning, then you’re taken in to play. Sometimes the semi-finals and finals are no longer behind a screen; make sure you ask the personnel manager about the screen so that you’re prepared. You’re taken back to your room, then you go back to the waiting area to hear about results.

If the audition has more than two rounds, these steps will repeat until they find a winner. For smaller auditions, there will often only be two rounds. If you win, you’ll be taken to meet the committee or other orchestra members, so be sure to look professional! Sometimes, the winner will be probationary, which means they want you to do a concert or two with the orchestra before they give you a contract, just to be sure that they really like you.

I hope this helped you feel more prepared about auditions. Have a question? Leave a comment!