Wertenberger: Re-Examining the Relevance of Orchestral Excerpts

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Citation

Wertenberger, Rebecca. "Re-Examining the Relevance of Orchestral Excerpts." Lecture presented at the International Trumpet Guild Conference, Anaheim, CA, May 30, 2024.

Abstract

There has been an initiative in recent years to diversify the repertoire performed by major United States symphony orchestras. Orchestras are now actively including more female composers, composers of color and varying nationalities, and composers who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community in their programming practices (Deemer and Meals, 2022). However, the demographic makeup of standard trumpet excerpts asked at orchestral auditions has remained largely unchanged. This study explores the relationship between the demographics of programmed composers and the composers of frequently requested trumpet audition excerpts.

The International Trumpet Guild Journal has published surveys of trumpet excerpts appearing on orchestral audition lists; one in 1981, the second in 1994, and the most recent published in 2011 (Hunsicker, 2011). This study aims to conduct a similar survey, though on a smaller scale, by cataloging the audition excerpt lists and repertoire programmed by five major U.S. orchestras over the past two seasons. The orchestras observed were selected based on the following criteria: 1) Categorized as Group 1 by the League of American Orchestras in 2022 (a budget of >$17,775,000), 2) Their full programs from the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons are available online, and 3)A trumpet audition list from 2022 or more recent is available online. A spreadsheet was compiled of composers who were on the audition lists from each orchestra. There were twenty-nine total composers included across all five orchestras. Among the twenty-nine listed composers, John Williams was the only living composer, and Florence Price was the only female or person of color. A spreadsheet was then created for each group that contained a list of every composer programmed during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, along with an indication of how many times each composer was programmed during each season. The spreadsheet for each orchestra also lists the composers from their respective audition lists. Composers who appeared on the audition lists but not in any of the programs were highlighted in red. After cataloging the composers, the percentage of female, living, and BIPOC composers programmed in each group was calculated.

This issue affects more than the personnel that make up a professional orchestra’s trumpet section. Most schools of music in the United States integrate orchestral excerpts into their curriculum of trumpet performance. Many of these schools also require commonly asked orchestral excerpts as part of their own audition processes. This means that collegiate trumpet players spend much of their education working on these orchestral excerpts and studying the repertoire they originate from. Diversifying the orchestral audition excerpt selection would better prepare performers for the expectations of playing in modern professional orchestras as well as benefit students by giving them a more well-rounded performance education. The results of this study indicate a need for deeper exploration of this topic among a wider sample of professional orchestras in addition to proposing and advocating for updated trumpet excerpts to be added to orchestra audition lists.

Bibliography

Resources – Orchestral Lists


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