TromboneChat

I noted that an accomplished student of Peter Ellefson (IU), Chris Houlihan, won the Grand Rapids Symphony Principal audition. Now the trick will be to close the deal... get Chris to accept and start. Lest we go another year or so to fill it! Fine regional orchestra in my opinion.

I want to clarify this. Indeed, Chris studied with me at IU this past year but I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Chris worked with Ken Wolff during high school, was a student of Joseph Alessi at Juilliard for his freshman year and transferred to IU for his sophomore year. He is a very talented musician who has had great teachers and was "well on his way" before coming to IU. I'd love to take the credit for his success but I need to share it with those who taught him before he got to me.

PE

Chris Houlihan stuck with the offer and has started. I think this is a wise decision. Grand Rapids is a very fine group!

Why would he (or anyone) audition if he did not plan to take the job if he won? I would guess that the salary and schedule were known ahead of time. I remember there was a whole long discussion of this on the old TTF, but I might as well open up a new can of worms here.

You can take the audition for the experience of taking the audition, without intending to take the job. It is a job interview - you can practice those all you wish, but until you do it in real life you don't know what to expect.

There are a myriad of reasons why an auditioner would not start a position. Norbie2018 touched on a couple of them.