I have mixed feelings about blind auditions. Although not knowing who is playing forces judges to evaluate a performance without preconceived notions of a player's ability clouding their judgment, there's something bizarre and artificial about walking into a sectioned-off cubicle to play Schubert excerpts.
I've only had two blind auditions, both for the same ensemble, when I was a teenager. At the preliminary audition, I stood in a hallway while the orchestra director and section coach sat around the corner. It was jarring to hear a disembodied voice say, "Just relax," before I began and equally disconcerting to hear the same voice say, "Thank you," from a distance.
Before I stepped onstage behind a partition to begin my final audition, the ensemble manager asked me if I had any questions. I said, "Yes. In this first excerpt, there are eight consecutive bars of rests. Should I stand here silently for 32 seconds when those measures come up? Should I skip them? Should I start in a different place? What should I do?" She went to ask the judges. When she came back, she told me the judges said I could start the excerpt after those eight bars. To her credit, she also admitted that she had accidentally told them my name. It might not have been a coincidence that I ended up with the same chair placement I had one year earlier.
Concerts and rehearsals take place in front of people, so playing before judges who can see you is a more realistic approximation of what it's like to perform. Overall, though, I think blind auditions, when they're conducted properly, are fairer to the performers.
