Ask An Expert: Principal Principles

So, Don's got a question that could get me in trouble in several different ways...

Q: Are the "titled" seats in the various string (or other) sections always the most skilled musical performers in that section, or do the auditions consider other factors, such as leadership abilities?

Oh, Don. You and your innocently voiced queries that secretly mask a host of pitfalls just waiting for me to step into them and insult half the people I work with! Why not just ask me who the best musician in the orchestra is? (Okay, fine, it's probably Burt Hara. But there are many, many contenders.)

The truth, as you might imagine, is that principals and other titled players are certainly expected to lead their sections by example, and that means that, in an audition situation, we are likely to be far more choosy when selecting a principal than we might be in choosing a new section player. This isn't to say that winning a section job is an easy task - I've blogged before about the brutal process we all go through to win our positions - but whereas we might be willing to assume that a talented but imperfect young musician will grow into certain aspects of a section job, principals need to be fully formed, mature performers and leaders the day they start. Those of us in the section need to have absolute confidence in their abilities, because it's our job (especially in the strings, where as many as 16 musicians are all playing the same part at the same time) to follow exactly what they do, and rely on them not to lead us in the wrong direction, even for a moment.

Now, is it possible that there could be a better pure musician in a given section of the orchestra than that section's principal? Sure. We don't reshuffle the deck chairs every time a new player comes aboard, so if we hire a fantastic player to fill a section position, that player might well be principal material, but if the job isn't open, it isn't open. Some outstanding section players who want to make the leap to titled status but are "stuck" in sections where all the leadership positions are likely to be filled for decades to come wind up taking auditions elsewhere. This actually happened to us recently, when cellist Joe Johnson, a wonderful player in a section that already boasts three well-respected titled players (none of whom are anywhere near retirement age,) left Minneapolis in 2007 to become principal cello of the Milwaukee Symphony.

You also asked whether we consider leadership abilities when choosing a titled player, and the short answer is that we do. But leadership skill is almost impossible to assess in a traditional audition situation, in which the candidates are playing alone. Sometimes, we'll have an additional round added to our final auditions, in which the candidates play a piece of chamber music with members of the orchestra, but playing a string quartet, while it does require you to work with others, really isn't anything like leading a section.

So the scenario that many orchestras follow when hiring a new principal player is to go through the usual audition process, choose a couple of candidates who seem qualified for the position from a musical and technical standpoint, and then ask them to come and play as "guest principals" with the orchestra for a week or two. That gives the whole orchestra a chance to test the chemistry of the situation, and for all the members of the section to weigh in before a final decision is made. And of course, principals are subject to the same two-year probationary period that we all go through before being granted tenure in the orchestra, so if a principal just isn't working out for whatever reason, we've got plenty of time to correct the mistake.

So, did I manage to get through all that without saying anything that's likely to result in an angry e-mail from an aggrieved colleague? [quick scan...] Yup. I'd say so. +1 for me!