Audition #3

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!