NY audition - one of those days!!!

[trombapaul2]

I'm posting this in hopes others will read it and NOT make the same boneheaded mistakes prior to and during a HUGE audition.

The first mistake was travelling on the day of the audition. The best advice out there is to not do that. I chose to fly in to NY that morning, eventually make my way to Lincoln Center and play my butt off. Unfortunately, the least expensive flight out of Detroit was at 6:50 A.M. thus arriving at Laguardia at about 8:15 A.M. Normally, this might not be a problem but I was not scheduled to play until 3:00 so I had put myself in the position of having about 6 hours to kill. I wasn't about to walk Manhattan with 2 trumpet cases in hand so I hung out at the airport, had a light breakfast, read the paper (twice), skipped lunch (more on that later) and finally headed over to the hall.

I arrived at the hall around 1:30 for a 2:00 check-in. The reasonable person might get a quick bite for lunch but I chose to stand outside in low 50's weather listening to some high school bands playing in front of the fountain. I finally went in, on time and hungry.
I started warming up and all seemed to be going well until the auditions coordinator came to my room 20 minutes early. She gave me the opportunity to not go yet but I decided what could it hurt. I should have taken even a small part of the 20 minutes just to get my head on straight.

On the menu for the day were:

1. offstage solo from "Pines",
2. a section from the 1st trumpet part for "Till
Eulenspiegel",
3. the opening of Schumann's 2nd Symphony,
4. a section from the last mvt. of Dvorak's "New World",
5. muted solo from the Shostakovich Piano Concerto, and finishing with
6. Goldenberg from "Pictures"

Not an overly demanding list. In fact, very accessible and playable if one is properly mentally prepared.

We made our way to the stage where, when we arrived, the panel decided to take a 5 minute break. More waiting. More time to wonder what's going to happen. More time to realize how hungry I was getting. Finally, we went in. The promptor was very friendly and helpful. Told me to make sure I was comfortable and truly ready. When I was set, I went into the "Pines" solo, promptly fracking the 1st note!! I recovered quickly from that with no problem. The sound coming back from the hall was absolutely wonderful so I didn't worry about that note. Started the "Till" excerpt, promptly fracking the 1st note again!! Now I'm thinking "can't be doing that or I'm going to be outta here quickly". Went on to the Schumann, promptly fracking the 1st note. Now I'm getting REALLY concerned. Until this point, I was doing alright. In the middle of the opening I looked up over the stand into the hall. IT WAS HUGE!!! I let my surroundings start to intimidate me and fluffed a couple of notes towards the end of the lick. I fully expected to hear "Thank you for coming today" from Mr. Smith at this point but they let me continue. I started the Dvorak excerpt and, you guessed it, promptly fracked the 1st note. I knew I was toast even though I finished the lick strongly, even nailing the high B nice and clean at the end.

The moral of this story:

Don't travel the day of if you can at all help it.
Stay hydrated and nourished.
Try not to leave vast amounts of time with nothing to do.
Don't let the environment intimidate you...it's just another hall.
Always remember that the panel is hoping to hear something wonderful. They are not there hoping to hear people fail. They would love to be in the predicament of having too many players to choose from.
Always remember that the panel is made up of other musicians, not Gods. They are in fact your/our colleagues and therefore want us to succeed.

I'll chalk this one up to "one of those days" and let it go. I've got to start working on the material for the next one so there isn't time to dwell on failure. If nothing else, I've learned from those mistakes AND got to play in yet another really cool concert hall.

Paul

edited for boneheaded spelling errors.


_________________
"NEVER practice...ALWAYS perform" (Bud)

"NEVER look at the trombones...it only encourages them" (R. Strauss)

(flutist)"Mr. Dinkle, the trombones are revolting!"
(Mr. Dinkle)"I know but they're the only ones we could get!"

[ This Message was edited by: trombapaul2 on 2004-04-25 12:55 ]

[Nails]

I hear ya man, at my last audition I let the acoustics of the "church" we ad to play in get to met. It was more like gym than a church, so boomy that the reverb lasted at least 4 seconds. At any rate I clamed "1 too many times" and was dismissed.

Nathan

[Mzony]

Hey man,
We have all been there. Be good to yourself.

Mike

[captain canuck]

I had a similar travel experience a couple of weeks ago. I was going to arrive the night before the audition, it was going to be 10:30 PM with an audition shed. for 12:30 the next afternoon.
Well plane was 3 hours late allowing me to arrive at 1AM - got to the friend's house I was staying with and was up most of the night due to amazingly loud thunder / lightning storms.
When I woke up I was drained! from the 1st notes at the house I felt like it was going to be a tough day.
Made my way to the audition and was so tired I contemplated not even bothering. But I did.
And I'm glad I did! Because I felt like I did ok under the circumstances.
What really bummed me out was that I know I can play the crap out of the excerpts that were asked but just didn't feel mentally or physically ready with hardly any sleep.
anyways thought I'd share. I'm sure there are some other variations out there too.

[trumplyr]

Bummer Paul. However, I know it's only a matter of time before you leave us here in Rochester.

Marty

[bugleboi]

Im sorry to hear that....i bet when you got home, you were able to play it perfectly.....I had that same experience auditioning for Jens Linderman @ UCLA