The journal Nature published this interesting study that calls into question how our visual perceptions might unintentionally influence auditions:
The participants were presented with recordings of the three finalists in each of ten prestigious international competitions, and were asked to guess the winner. With just sound, or sound and video, novices and experts both guessed right at about the same level as chance (33% of the time), or a little less. But with silent video alone, the success rate for both was about 46–53%. [emphasis added]
I know a few things about myself and auditions: 1) One of the hardest things I deal with in auditions is my preconceived notions about the person entering the room. I work hard in every audition to compensate for my biases and prejudices. The more auditions I do, the better I am at mitigating my biases. But it takes work and vigilance. 2) Sometimes, in an educational setting, basing auditions entirely on sound and skill is not the best course of action.
I know it is frequent practice in orchestra and opera auditions to use some visual barrier. And Dale Warland would do his callbacks blind. What do you think is “best practice?” Do think it is valuable to do auditions blind? Have you tried blind auditions and gone back to non-blind? I’m also curious to see what Richard Sparks will write about this issue in his upcoming series on auditions.
Tom Carter says