The director of a national high school ensemble in which I participated during my junior year told the players not to fixate on their chair placements.
"The time we had to assess that was minimal," he told us.
Even though I'd placed in the upper echelon of my section, I still thought, "Why rank us, then, if our audition performances don't matter?"
Although it's reassuring to hear a conductor say that music-making, not rankings, is what an ensemble is about, that disingenuous approach to chair placements reminded me of teachers who say, "It's not the grade that's important; what's important is what you learn from this class." I always wanted to respond, "That might be true in the long term, but right now, we have to live with the grades we're given."
