quote:

Originally posted by Paul Barrett:
It’s a fact that I spend WAY too much time on the internet. I’ll admit it! The thing is, you never know what you might run into. I’m always interested in those Jungian coincidences, too: for example, like when you see on the comics pages in the papers two strips that have a similar joke or topic. (Try it! It’s amazing how almost every day there’s such a similarity.)

Here’s another one: A bassoonist colleague of mine here in Honolulu is named Matthew Harrell, he took lessons with me for a while and recently has retired from the Army Band at Schofield Barracks. The associate principal bassoonist in the Montreal Symphony is named Mathieu Harel.... (http://www.osm.ca/en/index_orchestre_musiciens_fiche.cfm?ID=78)......that’s two. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the (relatively) new contrabassoonist in the Richmond (Va.) Symphony is named Matthew Harvell! (http://www.richmondsymphony.com/musicians_details.asp?id=79) Tick-tack-toe, three in a row!

Then one day while nosing around on a site called bassoon.org, I noticed an ad for a unique kind of bassoon bocal that was for sale, listed by Mr. Harvell, with an equally unique email address- madeofglass.com. I just had to check it out, and found a community of bloggers with a variety of fascinating entries on a variety of subjects. Best of all, there were some quite pertinent comments about auditions that I thought were deserving of some wider exposure. I wrote to Matthew and asked for permission to reprint them in this blog. He agreed, and even cleaned them up!

That was back in February. Nobody can accuse me of not knowing how to procrastinate! Luckily, as this current month of September has proved to be busier than I ever imagined it could possibly be- more on that in a later blog entry- I remembered these essays and realized that they would be perfect to post this month, an instant blog entry, as it were.

Here’s the links:

http://www.madeofglass.com/matthew/2006/10/31/how-to-au...pective-part-1-of-2/

http://www.madeofglass.com/matthew/2006/11/02/how-to-au...pective-part-2-of-2/


And here’s the text, should you not want to click through.


How To Audition For An Orchestral Job - a committee member’s perspective (part 1 of 2)
31 Oct. 06

I’ve been working on an analogy for the non-orchestral players out there for what an audition for a symphony orchestra is like in terms that can be readily understood. I’m not totally sold on the one at which I’ve arrived, but I think it is, at least, close enough.

Imagine that you’ve got fifteen to thirty pieces of prose, some very technical (mathematical formulae, foreign language characters, etc.) and others straight prose with some poetry (odd meters with odd line breaks and capitalization) thrown in. You get these a month or so in advance. You have no idea how many people will show up to compete against you (we had fifty-six in this most recent audition but hundreds may show up) but if you are chosen then you will receive a full-time, fairly well-paid job as the result. You’ve trained since you were in elementary school for this.

The job audition: You are seated behind a screen so that your identity is anonymous. At any point in time during the process that screen can come down so the committee can see you (thus dramatically increasing your nervous reaction as you may know some of them and you also may wish to audition again down the road!) and you are aware of this, though it will come down for everyone, not just for you. On the other side of that screen are seven to eleven people who all think/know that they can do what you’ve come to do at least as well as you can hope to do it and they do it every single day under pressure with literally thousands of people watching them. What are you to do? You are to type exactly what you’ve been given into a computer. This typing consists of not only typing what you’ve been given to type, and some of these bits you’ve been given ahead of time will take you three to ten minutes to get through, but also adding your choice of font, font-size, font-style, and placement on the page all while not ever being able to reach for the delete or backspace key. In addition, some of these are timed - you must complete them in a very specific (down to the half-second) amount of time. Your choice of formatting must be done within the realm of a very specifically-defined and somewhat narrow range of historically and stylistically correct formatting options which you are expected to thoroughly know with any guidance from the committee. There is room to maneuver, not much of course, and how you handle this will count in the committee's choice. The whole time that you are typing, the committee sees exactly what you type as you do it and will judge every thing that you do, all the typos included, against those competing against you. Every little thing counts against you. Every little thing. You go through you ritual and then go and wait. Every five people the committee votes on which, if any, of the auditionees moves into the next round. After everyone is heard, there is a semi-final round, and then a final round with those that pass the semi-final rounds. Once someone is chosen they may be subject to a resume review and even a week of typing next and with those who sit on the committee. At that point, no one may be chosen.

Pretty daunting, I think just about anyone would agree.

Tomorrow, I have direct comments on auditioning in general.


How To Audition For An Orchestral Job - a committee member’s perspective (part 2 of 2) 02 Nov. 06

A day late, a dollar…gained. So, many rehearsals have conspired, but I’m back with part 2. Now that everyone who isn’t auditioning has a better understanding of what an audition is, this might make more sense if anyone actually bothers to read it. C’est la vie.

So, after listening to all these people and combining it with the previous committees upon which I’ve sat and then mixing that in with my own audition preparation (successful and not) I’ve put together a list of things that I believe one must do to prepare. A quick Google search will lead one to a bunch of other such commentaries but this one is different, this one is very general and doesn’t include things like "Record yourself and listen for where you might improve."

In no particular order, then:

* Learn your freakin’ music, seriously, all of it. If you cannot start a piece and end a piece at the correct place then please do not even , even, even think about taking an audition.
* When you play your excerpts, please be certain that you are hearing the rest of the orchestra in your head. It will dramatically help your ability to count through the rests accurately. That’s the half-second thing I mentioned.
* If taking the audition for only experience, be ready to win. I have seen many people who really need a job fail while those that are simply auditioning to learn how to do it walk away. If you cannot even possibly take a job (even if it means leaving school, you are likely studying for the job you just won, after all) then please don’t do it. It is a tremendous waste of time for the committee.
* Orchestras almost always will play softer than you think they will, especially if you are coming from school. No evil comments about your school intended, keep your coat on, sally. BUT it is true. School orchestras, even Juilliard, U Mich, Rice, CIM, New England, wherever, do not push the soft envelope. They tend, however, to push the mezzo envelope. Not too loud, not too soft, not too fast, not too, well, anything. Accuracy is stressed, but not dynamics, especially soft dynamics. If you’ve already got a job, then I figure you already know this, but many don’t. Build your reeds/technique, etc. to make a very wide dynamic range, especially toward the soft side. It will pay off. We eliminated a whole bunch of people because the Parsifal solos were too loud and/or, if played softly enough, unstable.
* Know when to and when not to use vibrato. Committees listen for the same things they would want to hear in the section and even though that line you’re playing from the Bartok Concerto looks and sounds like a solo line, it ain’t. There is a whole section playing with you and if you’re vibrating through that it will make you sound like an, to use the new term, *** hat.
* Ditto with double-tonguing. Seriously, there must be enough of an overlap between your good fast single and your good slow double. While there is a bit of playing that gives you a choice, most of what you’re playing in an audition is way standard and there is likely a preferred way to do it.
* Lastly, I suppose, don’t over-warmup. Just don’t. We know when you’re tired. If you ain’t got it by the time you fly out from home, you won’t after playing six hours prior to your audition round. The fact that it takes you that many runs through the excerpt to make the technique feel comfortable is an indicator in the same way that a persistent headache is: something is fundamentally wrong. Seek help. Or, just work slower and more deliberately until you can play the damned excerpt cold, or at the most with a half-hour warmup. Even if you should fool the committee, there is always tenure later. Ever wonder why there are so many people who don’t get it?

::
matthew

----

Wise words indeed. Thanks, Matthew!