The February 2006 featured artist of the month is Nicole Esposito, principal flute of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. She has achieved an international reputation as a soloist, teacher, and chamber musician.

Post a question for Nicole

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MyAuditions,

Hi Nicole

I am an inspiring symphonic performer, but after 4-5 auditions, am uncertain about the dedication it seems to take to get that job. Now I know that is not many, but so many flutists show up, even for somthing as small as the Arkansas Symphony. I recieved an undergrad in performance from Southern Methodist in Dallas, TX, and have been accepted for an audition for masters at Northwestern soon. I notice on your bio that you studied with Amy Porter. I am from the Atlanta area, and studied with Amy when she was in the ASO. She is wonderful!!! No one has been able to hold a candle to her since. Does it help to have the graduate degree, I mean to get an acceptance for an audition? Were you ever discouraged? I am having a difficult time even getting in on an auditon because of lack of experience, I guess. I play with a local (small) symphony here in Atlanta, teach, and sub with another semi-professional group. any comments would be appreciated.
thanks
Teresa

Hello Teresa

Auditions are always an interesting topic. The first thing to realize going into any audition, in my opinion, is that there are going to be so many factors out of your control. The committee may hear you after a long day, it may be too hot in the hall, you could get water in your key, the person before you could sound bad, hence making you sound better, or they could already have someone in mind for the position...etc. who knows what can happen that you won't be able to expect or control. All of these things may seem discouraging, however there are many factors that you CAN control in your preparation. First you have to believe in yourself. Even if you think there are better players out there, you have to be willing to work harder than anyone to prove that you can get the job done. Work on your fundamental skills, study the scores, recordings, set up mock auditions, record yourself with audio and video. Go the extra mile .Chances are someone else will be. If you even think you could be doing more....you could! and will feel more confident if you do.

We all get discouraged or dissapointed when we don't attain the results we are looking for. After an audition if you feel you did not do your best or didn't get the result you were looking for, take a brief amount of time, say 1 day to really get it out of your system. Complain about it, eat chocolate cake, whetever, but then get right back into the swing of things. Take all of that energy you have from feeling bad and turn it around into positive energy for your next performance or audition. Assess what went wrong or what you could have done better and work specifically on those areas. Sometimes you won't win an audition but may have achieved your goal of playing your best in the process. In this case, there is nothing to feel discouraged about.

As far as simply getting accepted to an audition: A Masters degree could be helpful especially if you study with a high profile teacher. Also, chances are that while you are doing that degree you will gain experience both in school and through free lance work. I know building a resume can be difficult and you don;t want to water it down with "fluff". But make yourself available for any kind of work possible because you never know what other kind of work/ opportunities will arise.
Many that win jobs have taken numerous auditions, It is a skill which needs to be worked on like anything else. Keep taking them!
Good Luck! (and yes -Amy is blast!)

NE

hmm. you certainly don't look like an uncle. what's the story behind your moniker?

I like being random....

Have you seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite? Uncle Rico is my favorite character....

like I said....random

NE

Nicole,

Hope I am not out of line but may I say that you are stunningly beautiful.

And, I am sure you are an incredible player too!

How dare you!!.....no, no just kidding!

Thank you...

NE

quote:

Originally posted by Pianoman:
Nicole,

Hope I am not out of line but may I say that you are stunningly beautiful.

!

How dare you. Quit stealing my lines!

OK, I will ask an off-topic fun question: How do you like Dubuque, and how is the symphony there? ( I read that you dont live there)

I actually played a gig in Dubuque about 8 years ago. Its, ummmm, an interesting place. For some reason I remember it very well even though we were there maybe 24 hours ( we were on tour). Tram on the hill, the hotel was connected to the hall by a tunnel, worst pizza I ever ate, etc. What most people were fascinated with was this store downtown that was part flea market, part antique store and part Army/Navy stuff. The town certainly had a lot of character, and if I recall right I think they had a casino?

Dubuque is indeed an interesting place. If you were there for just a short time you probably noticed it is full of industrial plants and that sort of thing which is not so appealing to the eye. However there are many very charming parts of dubuque as well. You mentioned the tram on the hill which is cute, the beautiful view of the Mississippi River and there is also a new river museum which is very nice. there are some nice bed and breakfasts on the outskirts looking over the river which are really great too. At first sight it can look a little dumpy but once explored it is rather a nice town. Oh- and yes -there are a few riverboat casinos.

The Symphony is also interesting. Actually in the 3 years that I have played there the orchestra has improved a lot. Our conductor William Intriligator is great and he has really helped the orchestra to excell. There is incredible support for the orchestra in the community which is rare for a "blue collar" town such as Dubuque. With so many orchestras struggling these days, I believe we finished in the black last season. We just concluded a two week long Mozart-fest which was very well received. Great soloists come to play with us. The orchestra is a mix of dedicated local amateurs and many pro's that travel in, mostly the latter actually. We have many people coming from Milwaukee, Madison, Iowa City (where I live), Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and handful from Chicago. Our biggest obstacle is our hall. Yuck- really bad. Cute- but bad. Neverless it is a great group of people and I enjoy it.

NE

quote:

Originally posted by Cygnus:
How dare you. Quit stealing my lines!

Cyg... why should you have all the fun?

This is probably why myauditions should have personal ads for us lonely heart musicians... ahh, only to dream.

Nicole,

I thought I heard somewhere that your Dubuque hired a new executive director or maybe it was another high level post they filled. Can you clue me in.

Your secret admirer.

Hi Pianoman
Personal ads on myauditions....that would be interesting...

We did have a couple of hirings recently- I think for marketing and development directors.

Currently we are searching for an Executive Director. We have an interim in the position right now, but they are doing a search which is listed on myauditions - I think I even saw it featured on the homepage.

NE

OK, there is just waaaay too much testosterone on this thread at the moment! Let's step back, shall we? Nicole, I have a flute question for you! I've listened to your sound bites on your website and you have a really lovely dark, focused tone with amazing vibrato. Tell me what you do or did in your student days to practice that! What sorts of tone studies/vibrato studies really helped for you? Do you find that playing different metals (gold v. silver) really affects your tone? Thanks!

hi magikflute

thanks....I still practice tone and vibrato exercises on a regular basis. Most of my concept of tone and vibrato, and exercises that I do, come from Jeanne Baxtresser.

One thing that she taught us so well was to practice tone exercises with and without vibrato. Sometimes vibrato can mask the actual tone so we worked on getting to the core of the sound without any vibrato. We often took melodies and played them non-vibrato trying to make them beautiful with line, direction, and the sound itself. Then we would add the vibrato back in to certain points of the phrase to show importance, high points, etc. Then we would gradually fill in with different types of vibrato so that the vibrato was appropriate to the line of the music and that it didn't sound the same all the time. In addition to that we did vibrato exercises for flexibility. I'd be glad to give you specifics -please feel free to email me - my address is on my website.

As far as flute metals go. Some people sound better on some types than others...I think it is a very individual thing. If one has a naturately bright sound, for example, gold may mellow that out a bit. If your sound is naturally dark, silver may add a shimmer. It just depends on your playing style/tone concept. So yes I think that it can affect your tone because you may respond well to it and will feel comfortable with the sound that you are making.

I hope that answers all of your questions!

best,
NE

I found what you wrote about your experience in the Dubuque Symphony very interesting since what I've heard is so different.

Wasn't there an article in the local paper on the front page about the controversy at the DSO swirling around your conductor, William Intriligator? I understand that the former executive director and one of the senior board members resigned because of stuff that Intrilgator was accused of doing. What was that all about?

I've also heard that in the 5 years he's been there he has fired almost 30 plus musicians in the orchestra and that many others have left to protest some of the stuff he's been doing. Why is that?

I generally don't comment on rumors or hearsay. I wouldn't believe everything you "hear". I can only comment on mine own experience, which is a positive one. William Intriligator is a strong leader who has brought the orchestra to a new level. Nobody is perfect- but he does his job well.

I wasn't talking about rumors or hearsay. There were several newspaper articles written about Intriligator and the people who resigned over his actions. That's not rumors or hearsay; those were facts.

There were also letters to the editor about all the musicians he's fired. Strong leaders usually don't need to fire that many orchestral musicians. They can work with them. Why did he need to fire that many people?

Why did people feel the need to resign? Maybe Intriligator has brought the orchestra to a "new level" -- surely something open to debate -- but at what cost to musicians and the wider Dubuque community? He certainly is a very controversial figure.

That's not a rumor or hearsay or what I hear but what has been printed many times over his tenure in Dubuque. It's all in black and white in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald.

It's fine to talk about your personal experience but many other people's personal experience is much different than yours. So much so that newspapers saw fit to report it and people chose to resign over it.

quote:

That's not a rumor or hearsay or what I hear but what has been printed many times over his tenure in Dubuque. It's all in black and white in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald.

I was curious and did a search on the Dubuque Telegraph Herald at http://www.thonline.com/ and unfortunately, they have a crummy archive that show no articles you mentioned on Intriligator. I also searched Google news with the same results.

Do you have links to these articles that you can post? Otherwise, I agree with Nicole that it is rumor and hearsay.

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald doesn't allow you to search their site for free and their archives are not available on Google. You must pay to see the articles.

But this information was sent out via the ASOL news service when the articles appeared last September and October.

It isn't "hearsay" or "rumor" to report that 40 musicians have been fired by Intrilgator. It isn't hearsay or rumor to report that the former executive director, Jane Kenworthy (now with the Fairfax Symphony), resigned rather than work with Intriligator. Or that a senior member of the Board's Executive committee, Robert Gelms, resigned as well rather than work with Intrilgator. Or that the Board's incoming president, Lou Hernandez, resigned rather than work with Intriligator.

These are just a few "facts" that can be easily checked out and verified as true. It was also reported in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald that there was an ongoing police investigation of Intriligator and some things that have occurred among him and others. This is also a fact.

It's very easy to verify this stuff by asking the right questions. Intriligator has been a very controversial and divisive figure during his tenure in Dubuque. Many people support him; many people do not. You will not find much support for him from the local musicians community so many of whose careers have been damaged by him.

But I thought it only fair to present the other side of the story. I am glad that Ms. Esposito's experience has been positive. But many people's experience, including mine, have not been.

Dear Dubuque player
I've seen the article in the telegraph herald that you are talking about. Because it is not really any of my business, I won't comment on it. But I will say that I believe that only one side of the story was given. And you even mentioned that it is important to have both sides of the story. In all fairness I don't think anyone, in any case, can judge when they don't really know all of the facts. I'm am truly sorry if you had a negative experience.

NE

Hmm. It would probably have been a good idea for dubuqueplayer to post this outside of Nicole's thread. I don't think it fair to stonewall one of your fellow colleagues in a very public place, especially when you use an assummed name and not your real name.