Auditions. You hear potential ensemble members perform under the pressure of an audition process. They aren’t performing at their best, but if they audition is designed well, you get a good sense of their strengths and weaknesses.
Selection. You review all potential members to select the members who best fits the mission of the ensemble and showed the greatest potential. At the end of this, you’ve created a sonic dream for the ensemble – how it sounds in an ideal world.
First Rehearsal. First rehearsals are rough – this is the rehearsal to communicate expectations, goals, standards, etc. It’s also a rehearsal composed of mostly sight-reading…likely the only time that will be true in your entire time together. And it’s the moment where the
Rest of Season. From there on, you have specific goals, deadlines, performances, and everything else. But always with an eye toward reaching the ensemble you heard in your mind before the first rehearsal.
You don’t ever reach that sonic dream–if you did, that would mean you had underestimated your ensemble before they even met for the first time! But you keep aiming for it, and keep pushing them toward it.