The Audition Scene Revisited
Greetings all!
It certainly has been a while since my last post – just over a month – but there has been a good reason for it, besides being extraordinarily busy.
Firstly, I have been playing catchup with my 10 students both for the lessons that I missed due to our September tour, and for the upcoming lessons that I will miss on our next tour, beginning around the middle of November. Another two weeks of missed lessons and classes, a more considerable pile of makeup work to be accomplished between now and then.
However, by far the biggest factor has been my preparation for the Principal Trombone audition for the Cleveland Orchestra. This position has remained open since James DeSano’s retirement; though it was briefly filled for last year, it opened up once again, with the audition happening last Monday, the 26th of September.
This audition provided me with two great opportunities: first, the chance to audition for a Principal Trombone position with a “big 5” American orchestra (these auditions simply don’t occur very often), and second (as a side benefit), the chance to revisit my thinking on auditions and receive greater insight into the whole audition process, having been “off the circuit” for some time now.
As far as the actual running of the audition, I would like to mention that the audition support staff seemed to well understand the difficult nature of auditions; for me, they succeeded in helping make the very difficult process less intimidating.
I played in two rounds – a Preliminary and a Final. Both rounds included lists from the standard repertoire. The first round consisted of a portion of a solo of our choice (I played the 1st movement of the David Concertino), followed by the first excerpt from Mahler’s Third Symphony, the Tuba Mirum from Mozart’s Requiem, Ravel’s Bolero, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, and the two major last movement excerpts from Brahms’ Second Symphony. The Final round consisted of the third solo from Mahler’s Third Symphony, Schumann’s Third (‘Rhenish’), William Tell Overture, the Kyrie from Mozart’s Requiem, Ein Heldenleben, and the soft chorale from Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.
With regards to auditions, there is one concept which I emphasize with my students: when all is said and done leading up to an audition and it is time to play for the committee, the last thing you can afford to concern yourself with is what others think of your playing. You must play the best way you know how; it is the only way to present yourself in the best possible light.
For the preliminary round, I believe that I achieved this idea better than at any other audition I’ve taken. Though my nerves were edgy, my focus was clear: not on the committee, but on my own playing, almost to the point that it felt a bit like just another practice session, with little pressure to perform on the spot.
Unfortunately, I experienced the opposite sense during my final round. In retrospect, I believe that once I had received a sign of approval from the committee by advancing to the finals, I became much more concerned with their perceptions of my playing; my attitude went from trying to play my best to trying to win both the job and the committee’s approval. In essence, I second-guessed myself for some excerpts and allowed slight miscues in others to become bigger issues than they ought to have been, simply by worrying about what I believed the committee thought.
Furthermore, even though a repeat performance of my preliminary audition in the finals would not have guaranteed my being offered the position, I would have been placing my best foot forward, which is all you can ask in any audition.
I can best summarize with the difference in feelings I had after coming off the stage for each round. For the preliminaries, I was so unconcerned with anything besides doing my job at the audition that I immediately thought that I couldn’t have played any better, regardless of whether I advanced or not. For the finals, my immediate thought was that, while I didn’t play poorly, I probably would not be offered the position, at least at that time. In retrospect, I made the committee’s judgment before I even walked off the stage or finished playing through the list. I tried to win the job, not to play well, and it backfired.
My experience served to reinforce what I tell my students. This often tends to be the case when you teach – you realize just how much you should follow the advice you give. What I learned from this audition is just how much a concern over outside factors can influence your playing. And while I knew this from other experiences, this audition, through its closely linked performances, only served to reinforce this belief.
Regarding the resulting continued vacancy, no committee wants to walk away from an audition with the position unfilled; it means that a tremendous amount of time, energy, and expense have been exhausted for little gain. However, sometimes a committee also feels an obligation to the orchestra to wait until they hear the best candidate for the position, rather than hire someone hastily. While this particular audition may have been unsuccessful in filling the vacancy, the Cleveland Orchestra will hire someone who fulfills their needs in a Principal Trombonist, and I think we all wish The Cleveland Orchestra the best in their future auditions.
Meanwhile, I am happy to continue in my position here at the New York Philharmonic, where I can honestly say that I work with the greatest colleagues in the world.
If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line – my e-mail address is on my homepage!
Until next time,
Jim
It certainly has been a while since my last post – just over a month – but there has been a good reason for it, besides being extraordinarily busy.
Firstly, I have been playing catchup with my 10 students both for the lessons that I missed due to our September tour, and for the upcoming lessons that I will miss on our next tour, beginning around the middle of November. Another two weeks of missed lessons and classes, a more considerable pile of makeup work to be accomplished between now and then.
However, by far the biggest factor has been my preparation for the Principal Trombone audition for the Cleveland Orchestra. This position has remained open since James DeSano’s retirement; though it was briefly filled for last year, it opened up once again, with the audition happening last Monday, the 26th of September.
This audition provided me with two great opportunities: first, the chance to audition for a Principal Trombone position with a “big 5” American orchestra (these auditions simply don’t occur very often), and second (as a side benefit), the chance to revisit my thinking on auditions and receive greater insight into the whole audition process, having been “off the circuit” for some time now.
As far as the actual running of the audition, I would like to mention that the audition support staff seemed to well understand the difficult nature of auditions; for me, they succeeded in helping make the very difficult process less intimidating.
I played in two rounds – a Preliminary and a Final. Both rounds included lists from the standard repertoire. The first round consisted of a portion of a solo of our choice (I played the 1st movement of the David Concertino), followed by the first excerpt from Mahler’s Third Symphony, the Tuba Mirum from Mozart’s Requiem, Ravel’s Bolero, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, and the two major last movement excerpts from Brahms’ Second Symphony. The Final round consisted of the third solo from Mahler’s Third Symphony, Schumann’s Third (‘Rhenish’), William Tell Overture, the Kyrie from Mozart’s Requiem, Ein Heldenleben, and the soft chorale from Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.
With regards to auditions, there is one concept which I emphasize with my students: when all is said and done leading up to an audition and it is time to play for the committee, the last thing you can afford to concern yourself with is what others think of your playing. You must play the best way you know how; it is the only way to present yourself in the best possible light.
For the preliminary round, I believe that I achieved this idea better than at any other audition I’ve taken. Though my nerves were edgy, my focus was clear: not on the committee, but on my own playing, almost to the point that it felt a bit like just another practice session, with little pressure to perform on the spot.
Unfortunately, I experienced the opposite sense during my final round. In retrospect, I believe that once I had received a sign of approval from the committee by advancing to the finals, I became much more concerned with their perceptions of my playing; my attitude went from trying to play my best to trying to win both the job and the committee’s approval. In essence, I second-guessed myself for some excerpts and allowed slight miscues in others to become bigger issues than they ought to have been, simply by worrying about what I believed the committee thought.
Furthermore, even though a repeat performance of my preliminary audition in the finals would not have guaranteed my being offered the position, I would have been placing my best foot forward, which is all you can ask in any audition.
I can best summarize with the difference in feelings I had after coming off the stage for each round. For the preliminaries, I was so unconcerned with anything besides doing my job at the audition that I immediately thought that I couldn’t have played any better, regardless of whether I advanced or not. For the finals, my immediate thought was that, while I didn’t play poorly, I probably would not be offered the position, at least at that time. In retrospect, I made the committee’s judgment before I even walked off the stage or finished playing through the list. I tried to win the job, not to play well, and it backfired.
My experience served to reinforce what I tell my students. This often tends to be the case when you teach – you realize just how much you should follow the advice you give. What I learned from this audition is just how much a concern over outside factors can influence your playing. And while I knew this from other experiences, this audition, through its closely linked performances, only served to reinforce this belief.
Regarding the resulting continued vacancy, no committee wants to walk away from an audition with the position unfilled; it means that a tremendous amount of time, energy, and expense have been exhausted for little gain. However, sometimes a committee also feels an obligation to the orchestra to wait until they hear the best candidate for the position, rather than hire someone hastily. While this particular audition may have been unsuccessful in filling the vacancy, the Cleveland Orchestra will hire someone who fulfills their needs in a Principal Trombonist, and I think we all wish The Cleveland Orchestra the best in their future auditions.
Meanwhile, I am happy to continue in my position here at the New York Philharmonic, where I can honestly say that I work with the greatest colleagues in the world.
If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line – my e-mail address is on my homepage!
Until next time,
Jim
posted by Jim Markey at 11:55 AM
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