James Zimmermann

And after the final round, they declared me the winner.

came to my dressing room and said, we'd love to have you on the payroll in two weeks.

We'll call you tomorrow.

And I guess instead of calling me the next day, they dug into my sordid history and found enough reasons not to hire me.

And Rachel Ford, their CEO, called me and said, thanks, but no thanks.

And we're not going to talk to you about any of this.

So good luck to you.

That's right.

That's what the email says.

It says a number of items have come to our attention regarding your employment in the Nashville Symphony, which there are some stinkers in there, but there's a lot of advocacy that I did on behalf of my Black colleagues and for the process of blind auditions.

So like you said, it's complicated, but people love to zero in on your worst moments in times like this.

That is exactly accurate, Megan.

What happened was there was a botched blind audition for a Black oboist who had been playing on a temporary basis in the orchestra.

Sometimes when an orchestra needs to fill a gap and doesn't have time to host a national blind audition, they will just appoint someone on a temporary basis.

So this oboist was hired.

without an audition based on his qualifications.

He was a pretty good player, but not necessarily up to the standards of everyone else.

But I took him under my wing, became his friend.

I coached him for free leading up to the national blind audition that he had to win to become our permanent principal oboist.

and i said to him what none of his friends had ever dared to say which is look man it's not so much this racism you're talking about all around you it's the fact that you're paranoid and you are not taking accountability for your shortcomings but i believe in you and i believe you can win this thing and i'm i'm gunning for you i got your back and the best possible outcome here is that you win and we have the first principal oboist of color in the united states in a major orchestra