My 3rd audition in my 40-audition challenge was today (Thursday, March 11th) for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tutti 1st Violin. It has been a very challenging week already, with double rehearsals on Sunday, final dress rehearsal on Monday, the funeral for Gran (Lachlan's grandmother) on Tuesday and the opening night of BARBER OF SEVILLE on Wednesday. It has been, shall we say, less than ideal circumstances to prepare for a big audition. But I had put in the hard yards during the previous 3 weeks and was determined to see this through.
The repertoire that I was asked to prepare was:
1st and 2nd Movements of a Mozart Concerto WITH cadenzas (#5 in A Major)
1st Movement of a Concerto from the Romantic Period, no cadenzas (Sibelius)
Brahms - Symphony No. 4, 4th Mvt., mm 33-64
Mozart - Symphony No. 41, 2nd Mvt., mm 28-46
Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 4, 1st Mvt., mm 1-110
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5, 1st Mvt., mm 6-32
Strauss - Don Juan, page 3
Strauss - Don Juan, page 6
Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique, I - Visions and Passions, mm 3-24
Elgar - Enigma Variations, II. (H.D.S-P.), all
Dvorak - Slavonic Dance, Op. 46 No. 2, 7 bars after H - 16 bars after J
Mahler - Symphony No. 5, 3rd Mvt., mm 2-59
Haydn - Symphony No. 88, 4th Mvt., mm 1-83
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet, "Dance of the People", #152- 3 before #154
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet, "Morning Dance", 6 after #17 - 18 after #19
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet, "Romeo and Tybalt Fight", #272-#280
I woke up at 5:30 this morning to try to catch my 6:50 flight to Sydney. Those of you who know me well are chuckling at the thought of me waking up that early. Well, it wasn't early enough, because Tiger Airlines apparently closes their check-in for flights that are departing in 45 minutes or less. I got to the airport with 30 minutes to spare and thought nothing of it... that is, until I had to pay $80 to get on the next flight!! Then my flight was delayed for an hour! No joke.
So I didn't get to Sydney until 10:05, and I was supposed to rehearse with my accompanist at 9:30. I sent her a text before leaving Melbourne to let her know, and she was very understanding. By the time I caught the train to the city and walked to the Ultimo Centre, it was almost 11:00. My audition was scheduled for 12:00, so I thought I would have a good hour to warm up. But when I got there, the audition coordinator asked me if I could please be ready to take my audition in 10-15 minutes. :o How unlucky could I be??
My run-through with the accompanist went brilliantly. I started to feel at ease and confident in myself. They just wanted to hear the exposition of the 1st movement of the Mozart Concerto, and then I found out which excerpts they wanted to hear: Brahms, Strauss pg. 6, and Haydn. I only had time to run through them 2 times each, and then I was called to play. GULP!
There was a screen up and I was instructed not to speak. The liaison between me and the panel sat at the end of the screen, directly in my line of sight. I think that threw me off, and the nerves kicked in. My Mozart Concerto sounded nothing like it did 5 minutes before in the rehearsal - I made a bunch of silly mistakes in spots that never gave me trouble before. There was a lot of "chatter" inside my head that I couldn't block out. I got more and more upset with myself as each note passed. After the Mozart Concerto, I played the Brahms excerpt and tried really hard to focus and play like I knew I could. It went pretty well, although I undershot the high B 16th note pickup in the bar after C. Before I could move on to the next excerpt, I heard the dreaded "Thank you," and that was it for me. They could have banged a gong and pulled me out with a cane and I wouldn't have felt more ashamed.
I thanked the coordinator and my accompanist and went to pack up my things. As I sat down to wait for the coordinator to come over and verify my phone number, I pulled a Roger Federer. (Not the happy champion, but the teary-eyed emotional loser.) I really had no intention of getting my hopes up with this audition - it's only #3 after all!! I was just so disappointed in myself for having played so poorly.
I spent the rest of my time in Sydney walking around trying to get to the harbour so I could at least get some photos of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge! It took me all day to get there and now I am so sore and tired. Tomorrow I am going to veg out and put this behind me. Surely I will have a really good audition between now and #40!! Thanks for all the support and kind words - you are helping me stay on track!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Audition #2
This was a casual violin audition (also known as "sub" audition), so I probably shouldn't count it as one of the "40" but I will anyway. It was for Orchestra Victoria, and it was back in April of 2006. I was asked to prepare the following excerpts:
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4, 4th Mvt, mm. 1-52
Mozart - MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, Act 1 Duetto, mm. 1-21 (same excerpt as the one I played for Opera Australia!)
Bizet - L'ARLESIENNE, Suite II, Allegro giocoso, mm. 1-17
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 1, Dance of the People, mm. 12-28 and the return of the same theme in C major for 15 bars
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 1, Presto (Romeo and Tybalt fight), mm. 1-36
Copland - Appalachian Spring: No. 2, Allegro, Figure 6 - Figure 10 + 2 bars
The audition took place at their offices in Albert Park, Melbourne. There were just a few of us auditioning that day, from my recollection there were maybe six total. We were asked to wait in their administrative office until the co-concertmasters had arrived and were ready to hear us. It was then explained that each of us would have 10 minutes to warm up in a separate room before our audition. Guess who got called in first? Yep, yours truly!!
The warm-up room was anything but warm, in fact it was really cold in there. They hadn't bothered to turn on the heat in the room until they let me in. I was also not given 10 minutes to warm up, but more like 5. So my hands were quite cold when they called me into the audition room. There was no screen, so I told the panelists that my hands were a bit cold. Jo, the co-concertmaster, came up and actually felt my hands! She said they weren't that bad, that I was probably just nervous. Yeah, that didn't help. So, on with the audition!
They had me start with the Beethoven excerpt. I think I played it pretty well, but the male co-concertmaster (can't remember his name) asked me if I could play it again and use more dynamic contrasts. So I did. my. best... Then they asked me to choose an excerpt to play next. I chose the Copland excerpt, as I identified the most with that one, and I felt pretty confident with it. As I got about halfway through, I stumbled on a passage where I had changed a fingering the day before. Duurrrrgh!! Bad idea!! I won't ever do that again. They thanked me for my "efforts," and needless to say, I didn't get the gig.
It was after this audition that I thought I would never be successful. But now, almost 4 years later I'm about to pull up my socks and try again! Next post will be about my audition for Tutti 1st Violin with the Sydney Symphony - jumping in the deep end with the sharks... hoping I come out alive!
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4, 4th Mvt, mm. 1-52
Mozart - MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, Act 1 Duetto, mm. 1-21 (same excerpt as the one I played for Opera Australia!)
Bizet - L'ARLESIENNE, Suite II, Allegro giocoso, mm. 1-17
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 1, Dance of the People, mm. 12-28 and the return of the same theme in C major for 15 bars
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 1, Presto (Romeo and Tybalt fight), mm. 1-36
Copland - Appalachian Spring: No. 2, Allegro, Figure 6 - Figure 10 + 2 bars
The audition took place at their offices in Albert Park, Melbourne. There were just a few of us auditioning that day, from my recollection there were maybe six total. We were asked to wait in their administrative office until the co-concertmasters had arrived and were ready to hear us. It was then explained that each of us would have 10 minutes to warm up in a separate room before our audition. Guess who got called in first? Yep, yours truly!!
The warm-up room was anything but warm, in fact it was really cold in there. They hadn't bothered to turn on the heat in the room until they let me in. I was also not given 10 minutes to warm up, but more like 5. So my hands were quite cold when they called me into the audition room. There was no screen, so I told the panelists that my hands were a bit cold. Jo, the co-concertmaster, came up and actually felt my hands! She said they weren't that bad, that I was probably just nervous. Yeah, that didn't help. So, on with the audition!
They had me start with the Beethoven excerpt. I think I played it pretty well, but the male co-concertmaster (can't remember his name) asked me if I could play it again and use more dynamic contrasts. So I did. my. best... Then they asked me to choose an excerpt to play next. I chose the Copland excerpt, as I identified the most with that one, and I felt pretty confident with it. As I got about halfway through, I stumbled on a passage where I had changed a fingering the day before. Duurrrrgh!! Bad idea!! I won't ever do that again. They thanked me for my "efforts," and needless to say, I didn't get the gig.
It was after this audition that I thought I would never be successful. But now, almost 4 years later I'm about to pull up my socks and try again! Next post will be about my audition for Tutti 1st Violin with the Sydney Symphony - jumping in the deep end with the sharks... hoping I come out alive!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Audition #1
My first audition was back in September of 2005, just 3 weeks after I moved to Australia. It was for Opera Australia in Sydney. Although they perform at the famous opera house, the audition was held in a different building. I was asked to prepare the following excerpts:
Puccini - MANON LESCAUT, Act 1, beginning to mm. 29
Beethoven - LEONORE Overture, 4 bars before the Presto to 21 bars after
Mascagni - CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, Intermezzo (all)
Mozart - MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, No. 5 Duettino, beginning to C (2nd Violin part)
Offenbach - TALES OF HOFFMANN, Finale of Act 2, reh. 118 to 7 bars after 124
I also had to prepare the 1st movement of a Mozart Concerto and the 1st movement of a violin concerto from the romantic period. For these, I chose Mozart's 5th Violin Concerto in A, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto.
It's hard for me to remember a lot of details of the day of my audition. I think I was really overwhelmed. I do remember being brought to a big room filled with lots of other hopeful violinists, and being given a number. It's sort of like waiting to be called at the deli counter, but instead of coming away with some lunchmeat it is you who are served up on a plate. When I was about 2nd in line to be called, they brought me to a private warmup room and told me which excerpts they wanted to hear. I remember the first one was MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, but I can't remember the other one. While I was warming up, I could hear the some other violinists warming up as well. It's very hard at that point not to compare yourself to the other fantastic players that you can hear. I'm sure that I psyched myself out at that point, and my confidence was nowhere to be found.
I was ushered out onto the stage where there was a lonely music stand and a big screen blocking out whoever was back there listening. So I played the first excerpt, and I thought I did pretty well. But before I could start the second excerpt I heard from behind the screen "Thank you." That means that they had heard enough. So I took my music off the stand, turned around and walked back to the big room, with the sound of my footsteps on the hardwood floor ringing in my ears. I was asked to wait until they posted the results to see if I made it to the 2nd round, even though I knew already that I hadn't made the cut. So I had to try to keep it together in front of all these other people, when all I wanted to do was get out of there and put this behind me. I hadn't yet build up my audition artillery - the thick skin I so desperately needed.
Looking back, I can at least say I tried. And I had a lovely time in Sydney! What a beautiful city... I did learn that I needed to put a lot more into my preparation next time, and to practice more efficiently to achieve better results. Next up, Audition #2 - my audition for Orchestra Victoria back in April of 2006.
Puccini - MANON LESCAUT, Act 1, beginning to mm. 29
Beethoven - LEONORE Overture, 4 bars before the Presto to 21 bars after
Mascagni - CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, Intermezzo (all)
Mozart - MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, No. 5 Duettino, beginning to C (2nd Violin part)
Offenbach - TALES OF HOFFMANN, Finale of Act 2, reh. 118 to 7 bars after 124
I also had to prepare the 1st movement of a Mozart Concerto and the 1st movement of a violin concerto from the romantic period. For these, I chose Mozart's 5th Violin Concerto in A, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto.
It's hard for me to remember a lot of details of the day of my audition. I think I was really overwhelmed. I do remember being brought to a big room filled with lots of other hopeful violinists, and being given a number. It's sort of like waiting to be called at the deli counter, but instead of coming away with some lunchmeat it is you who are served up on a plate. When I was about 2nd in line to be called, they brought me to a private warmup room and told me which excerpts they wanted to hear. I remember the first one was MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, but I can't remember the other one. While I was warming up, I could hear the some other violinists warming up as well. It's very hard at that point not to compare yourself to the other fantastic players that you can hear. I'm sure that I psyched myself out at that point, and my confidence was nowhere to be found.
I was ushered out onto the stage where there was a lonely music stand and a big screen blocking out whoever was back there listening. So I played the first excerpt, and I thought I did pretty well. But before I could start the second excerpt I heard from behind the screen "Thank you." That means that they had heard enough. So I took my music off the stand, turned around and walked back to the big room, with the sound of my footsteps on the hardwood floor ringing in my ears. I was asked to wait until they posted the results to see if I made it to the 2nd round, even though I knew already that I hadn't made the cut. So I had to try to keep it together in front of all these other people, when all I wanted to do was get out of there and put this behind me. I hadn't yet build up my audition artillery - the thick skin I so desperately needed.
Looking back, I can at least say I tried. And I had a lovely time in Sydney! What a beautiful city... I did learn that I needed to put a lot more into my preparation next time, and to practice more efficiently to achieve better results. Next up, Audition #2 - my audition for Orchestra Victoria back in April of 2006.
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