Noisy Skin Bag
1 min readMar 14, 2023

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There's a lot we could learn from professional orchestral auditions, as flawed as that process is in and of itself. You audition behind a screen. The judges don't know your name or have your resume in front of them, as well having no idea what you look like, and you are identified by a number. They have to decide only based on how you performed on your instrument. Everyone plays the same excerpts for their instrument and the kind of seat they are going for and has to choose a concerto movement to play as well. The excerpts consist of standard repertoire that you will probably play at some point in the position. There's no conversation.

When you go on trial after passing all rounds of auditioning, you are doing nothing but the job (which of course involves all of the social dynamics of your colleagues, but that's another discussion) and getting paid for it until your colleagues either vote you in or out after a certain period of time.

Since screened auditions became standard practice, the number of women in major professional orchestras has skyrocketed.

Many more fields need to come up with something like this.

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Noisy Skin Bag
Noisy Skin Bag

Written by Noisy Skin Bag

I am formally diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and OCD, and have informal diagnoses of PDA and 2e. I share my experience navigating the disability landscape.

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