Throughout this week’s drama surrounding the contract issues at the Saint Louis Symphony, there’s been a small PR campaign covering the larger philosophical issues of what’s keeping the musicians and management apart; and that smaller issue is one of culpability surrounding the wave of this week’s cancelled auditions and concerts.
Auditioning the St. Louis Symphony
Every time an orchestra announces a vacancy and schedules an audition it’s actually holding a referendum among the world’s professional musicians. That referendum is whether or not that orchestra is artistically worthy of attracting a certain level of player. On January 3rd and 4th, the St. Louis Symphony had scheduled just such a referendum among the French Horn and Double Bass players in the industry, they had an audition. There are …