When I was in college, I was one of two students my bass teacher invited to judge All-State High School Orchestra bass auditions. I wondered how that would work. Would we fill out evaluation forms or take notes on each player's audition? Would our panel debate who should get which chair? Would any of us disagree on the rankings?
Actually, the process could not have been simpler. After the last bassist auditioned, my teacher said to the other judges, "The order I would go with is so-and-so as first chair, so-and-so in second chair, so-and-so third," etc. We all nodded and said, "Yes," "OK," and "Sounds good." And, that was that. As an afterthought, she added, "During last night's rehearsal, they were already standing in the order they ended up finishing. We didn't need to do this."
It's always satisfying to have a voice in a democratic process.
