Audition Horror Story... Can I still get accepted?

So yesterday I had my audition for my top choice and the audition went… horrid.

During the day everything went fine, I did my theory test and aural test and they both went pretty well. Plus I was able to participate in the school’s chorale and I even made some good connections within the alto sections (when I walked into the audition room the head of the choir department who was judging my auditions said “You’ve made a big impression on the Altos… you’ve basically got some agents who are advocating for you” which I found pretty hilarious).

Now, the audition: The pianist for my audition came out before it was my turn to audition and asked to look at my pieces. She scanned through them pretty quickly and didn’t even ask for the tempo of one of them. I don’t blame her for this, as it was already 3:30 and they were a bit behind so the auditioners were trying to move the auditions along as quickly as possible. So I get called in and I start my first piece (which was the one she didn’t ask my tempo for) and the pianist is dragging SO MUCH. I usually practice it at about 120 bpm with a metronome and she played it at what I can guess was about 90 bpm. When I would try to speed up, she would keep slowing down so I had to sing at her tempo in order to not sound like I didn’t know how to keep time. And then, on the last page, it turns out the version that I printed had the song in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT KEY and the panel just decided that they had heard the best parts of the song and asked to move on to my second piece. I will take the blame for that key problem haha.

I wish I could say that was the worst that happened. The song I was singing has a few key changes, which I had circled and drawn an arrow to just in case. Well, half way through that song, the pianist forget to changes keys. Before you know it, we were both at different keys and different tempos and I got super nervous. My voice teacher had always told me to keep singing no matter what mishaps happen at an audition, so I just tried to brave through it and I got to the end of my piece, thankfully I was able to keep my original key down and I ended strongly on the high note that I was worried about.

I’m pretty okay with how my voice sounded, but I don’t know if the problems with the pianist will affect their decision when it comes time to admit me. What do you guys think?

P.S. I don’t blame the pianist one bit for what happened. It was late in the day and she was being rushed and from I overheard she was a student who had just volunteered to help out with audition day, so in a way I feel terrible for her too.

I’m sorry your audition felt so bad. I think it’s fine to feel sorry for yourself for a day or two but then it would be best to move on. Take the few things you learned and apply them to the next audition.

Still your feelings and the audition panels perspective are 2 separate things. So remind yourself of what went right. You obviously worked well with others and earned the respective of the fellow students.

You didn’t stop singing nor made excuses. I can’t say for sure but there is a pretty big chance the panel knew what was happening. And again I would bet you weren’t the first to have similar struggles.

Auditions aren’t suppose to be perfect. The panel may still be interested bc you worked well with others. If your voice type is needed they may excuse audition problems if they seem understandable. I know my D had an audition where they asked her to sing her 3rd song which was quite long and the tempo was notably slower. She felt she had done well on her first two. But she had breath and support issues that she knew were obvious on the 3rd. It was the never ending song as she struggled to get through it…but like you she sang it to the end and made no excuses. It wasn’t the exclamation point she wanted. But she was young and those kind of issues are why students go to universities. She did get accepted.

You don,t know what the panel thought so it is best to move on to the things you can control for future auditions. And…don’t be so hard on yourself. It takes a lot of courage to audition particularly when things aren,t going your way. You showed courage and grace. So pat yourself on the back for that. You probably did just fine.

Best of luck on future auditions.

I agree with bridgenail that your perception of the audition and the panel’s could be very different. They were evaluating many things–including your ability to work under pressure. Sounds like you passed the “grace under pressure” test with flying colors. I’m trying to glean from your post whether the pianist was theirs or someone you brought along. If the former, they will be familiar with her and may have seen similar trainwrecks that afternoon. If the latter, then the lesson is to always get in a rehearsal before any audition. (Even if it is a staff pianist, it is often possible, at least in the instrumental world, to hire them for a brief rehearsal the day before-- that makes a world of difference.) But if everyone auditioning is meeting the pianist cold, the playing field is level, so to speak, and you were probably not the only one to experience tempo and or key problems. Worst case scenario: you’ve already experienced almost everything that can go wrong at an audition, short of forgetting your piano score or having a fire alarm go off in the middle of thing. So it can only be uphill after this–and you have a great war story to tell for the future.

Is it acceptable in this kind of situation to ask the pianist to stop and start again at a faster tempo?

First, it might not have gone as badly at you think. That being said, I would write an email to the director or admissions for the music department and CC the head of the specific department for which you auditioned. Write from the heart and tell them about how you feel like the audition had some problems and that you don’t feel like the audition represented you accurately. Ask them for advice on how to handle this situation. Have they ever granted a second audition (on another audition date), have they ever done a skype audition - what can advice and help if any can they give you? Leave the door open for them to say what they will say. I do think even offering to go to a second audition shows courage and strength and if done right comes across less as desperate and more as interest. (More so for some schools than others). Some schools are less rigid - only you can judge the feeling at this particular school. Others may disagree with me, but this is what I would do. If you are going to do it though, get the email out this evening for early tomorrow morning.

I don’t know…I feel like dealing with the accompanist is part of the game…as is singing through a cold. You don ask for a do-over. You have faith the panel gets it and judges you accordingly.

If everyone had the same accompanist I doubt this individual played perfectly for all others. I also think the panel can tell what’s going on. There is a risk to complaining about their accompanist and asking for more time.

You may want to talk this over with your teacher. She /he may have some good advice. I admit I’m not a professional so my comment is based on my D saying that you never give excuses unless asked ( I.e it sounds like you have a cold). You are not the only one to face these issues…and again maybe they view you positively for handling yourself well. Talk to your teacher who knows you best. And maybe mom and dad. My D tends to be hard on herself and see a train wreck when it didn’t happen. Just so you know where I’m coming from.

And maybe mezzo mama will see this and reply. She may have a more informed opinion on how to handle this.

Again good luck on future auditions.

@vintageheart did exactly what she should have done and brava to her for continuing on! The school was at fault for using an inexperienced accompanist for something as important as an audition day and that is precisely why students are asked to either submit their music in advance or to list what they will be singing , which I assume the OP did. If that’s the case and she sang standard rep, then the panel was aware of the error on the part of the accompanist and will not hold anything against the OP.

It’s customary at good schools for the accompanists to be from the Collaborative Piano department (graduate students who are experienced accompanists who know standard repertoire) and for each student auditioning to get a brief slot-usually about 15 minutes- before going in before the panel, to warm up and sing through all of her/his pieces and go over the tempo markings.
This is precisely because during an actual audition itself, you can not stop and ask for things to start over again no matter what’s happening, you just keep going- that’s why it’s called a “live performance”! If you don’t get the time beforehand, ask the panel for just a moment to go over your music with the accompanist and point out the time/key signature changes right there, quickly as you can, before you sing.

Just chalk this one up to experience @thevintageheart and let it go. I’m sorry that things didn’t go the way you hoped they would, but I think you showed remarkable poise and maturity on this outing and you should be proud of yourself.

I was not super involved with my son’s auditions, but he had some auditions that had problems. In one (he is a bass player) I remember him saying there were issues with him keeping up with the pianist and he felt as though his chops were just not up to snuff. In another everyone was running late and eager to get to lunch and he was rushed through his audition. My son was admitted to all his schools and received merit money. What is interesting is that the schools where he felt he had an easy great audition were not necessarily the ones that came through with merit money. So it might be as others have said that your handling the challenge only added to the potential they see in you. Remember colleges do not expect you to be a “professional” just yet. They know you are still growing and learning and developing and they want to see and get a feeling for how you will be as a student and a member of their community. Keep auditioning. Try not to stress about it and remember you will get in somewhere and you will grow as a musician and this is just the beginning of your career…not the end!!!

As they say, stuff happens, and I tend to agree that the way you handle the audition mess was the way to go, this kind of stuff happens, it happens in real life, too (famous story from the violin world, rachmaninoff was performing at Carnegie Hall with Fritz Kreisler, and Kreisler as can happen got lost…they stopped, and Kreisler whispered to Rachmaninoff “Sergei, where are we?” to which he replied “Carnegie Hall”)…:).

As others have written, the audition panel likely know the piece and they also probably can tell when the fault is with the accompanyist versus the performer, they have been there themselves, so I wouldn’t assume ‘this is a disaster’, my son has had auditions where he had major slips and passed it, he had some issues with accompanyment that later on he heard from someone at the panel (after he had gotten in) that they were aware the person was not doing well…they look for a lot of things, and grace under pressure is not exactly a small thing, there are a lot of music students who can play spectacularly if everything is perfect who if it isn’t, fall apart, and in the real world things do happen. Plus they likely are listening to the quality of your voice (not an expert on the voice world, just assuming) and mismatch keys or not, they can tell a lot about your voice I would suspect. Plus as others have said, if this person was working with other auditioners, likely this was something happening a lot.

Auditions are auditions and the judges understand that you are nervous and weird things happen. Besides, I’m sure they noticed the pianist was having some problems and may even ask you later about what was up there. Keep your chin up - sometimes the unexpected happens!