- I suppose that when you are looking for a section player,
that is to say a non-principal,
you are listening for their flexibility of tone
and their ease of rhythmic and chamber music
kind of playing up.
Hard to examine that
when they're not playing with other people.
That's why these days and lots of final rounds
of professional orchestras for either principle part
or section, there will be some playing with colleagues.
And I think with the conductors listening
for there is a blend of sound,
intonation, flexibility with their colleague.
And then they also will talk with the colleagues
after that person has played to get their feeling
of how they felt.
Now, if someone is auditioning for principal part,
and they are performing with their colleagues
in the final round,
you're certainly listening for all
of those things I've mentioned, but you're also listening
for a kind of musical impersonal charismatic leadership,
so that the players with them actually go along on the ride
and that their sense of style is so acute and the manner
in which they lead their colleagues is subtle but present.
And I don't mean leading in terms
of how much they move physically, as much as how they play
in a way that it's obvious where they're going
with what they are doing.
With string players,
it's a little bit of a different story
because someone is in a section with countless others
in the wind section of course.
You know, it's not the principal flute,
then it's either the second flute or the piccolo,
which is also a solo part.
But definitely this principal player
needs to show a certain kind of, if you will personality,
that the second player needs to have,
but it's a bit more subtle in how they present it.