SO with you here
Loads of quartets only hire pretty girls, with absolutely no thought as to whether they're any good at actually playing their instruments. It's really annoying to turn up to a gig and have no idea if your colleagues are going to be competent or not. A while back I was playing with this girl who looked like a supermodel, but she couldn't play Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - I don't think she'd have passed a Grade 7 exam. The people who run these ensembles think that the clients want pretty girls and can't tell if they play well or not so it doesn't matter. But it does - most people DO recognise quality when they hear it, it's obvious that the guests enjoy the music way more when it's played well, regardless of what we look like.
(grandmasterfluffles Come to my Armageddon party on, Wed 24 Aug 2011, 21:24, Reply)