Fall Cycle 2010 Audition Experiences

College Majors Music Major
141

<p>Why you need a parent with you at auditions:</p>

<p>D has an audition in Houston on Monday. H volunteers (or is drafted) to take her. She insists she can do it by herself. H insists that he will only be tagging along and can easily get lost to get some work done. </p>

<p>The flight out is Sunday. The blizzard hits on Saturday. H calmly reschedules the flight. She emails teacher to work out times and slides the audition to Tues. </p>

<p>Monday: Flight leaves 3 hours late. H calmly rents car and drives to hotel arriving after midnight monday night. D goes right to sleep. H watches weather channel and quickly learns that getting home on Tuesday is probably a no go. H calmly negotiates 2nd night with hotel for same low price that the 1st night was.</p>

<p>Tuesday: In the morning, D sleeps in and H goes and gets food for her. H drops her at audition. H arranges to fly back on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Audition over, H picks D up. They go to a concert together and then home. D goes to sleep. H talks to airlines about cancelled flight again and reschedules for 1st flight to home on Thursday. H talks hotel into about staying another night at the low rate.</p>

<p>Wednesday: H takes D to the science center and out for dinner with a friend. A good time was had by all.</p>

<p>Thursday: H and D board plane to home by way of Jackson. Land in Jackson and find that the plane will not be continuing to home. H works with the airline to figure out a way to keep them from being stranded in Jackson. They fly home from Jackson via Chicago to home. They arrive at 11:00pm. Mom picks them up. No instrument or baggage though.</p>

<p>Friday: H runs over to airport during lunch break to see if instrument and luggage are there even though the airline says they are not. Everything is there. Mom and D arrive to take it home so that H can go back to work.</p>

<p>I hate to think what would have happened if H wasn’t there to smooth the way and reschedule. He got lost during the audition and promised, but the rest of the time he was providing necessary back-up.</p>

142

<p>Marjecat: This is the stress I have gone through the past few years at my high school! Unfortunately, I am NOT a very strong academic student, but I am a very dedicated musician (aren’t we all?) and always knew I was going for a less traditional college experience and more of a artist’s haven, a place where EVERYONE was as musical and dedicated as I was.</p>

<p>My parents just really don’t stand alongside me on my career path, but they are willing to say ‘good luck’ and help me out in ways they can.</p>

<p>To give you an idea of how much my mom understands my musical world… I accidentally sent a wrong copy of my music the day before the audition. I told my mom I needed to call and explain that I would be performing something the else the the next day. Her response: “Why don’t you just learn the one you accidentally sent? That would make more sense.”</p>

<p>My dad, however, has tried to be much more involved and is driving me to all my auditions. He told me he was very proud of me and was amazed at all the work musicans have to put into all of this. He says he wants me to buy him a condo in Florida when I’m famous. I think he’s serious too…</p>

143

<p>MuppetMom – Did she think she could rent a car? Or maybe she doesn’t know you have to be 25… </p>

<p>Glad everything worked out.</p>

144

<p>Wow, MuppetMom - a week to remember, eh? Glad they finally made it home!</p>

145

<p>D had a weird experience today at Mason Gross audition day. She is a flute player with some great credentials including currently attending Mannes Prep in NYC as principal flute and Honors program, Kinhaven Music camp where she was also principal. Of course we don’t know how good she is but she does have some successful credentials. She also sent a CD to another university whose flute professor sent her an email back exclaiming how beautifully he thought she plays and that he was going to recommend her highly for a music scholarship.</p>

<p>All that being said, she waited on a long line today to audition. She was anxious to get back to NYC in the afternoon so as not to miss her Mannes orchestra practice. She was next in line to audition and the faculty in the room announced that they were going to go to lunch. She asked if she could audition before they took their break (she had already been sitting there waiting well over an hour and a half) since she needed to get to NYC. They agreed. When she walked into the room 2 out of 3 of them were texting. They barely greeted her, asked her to play her first piece and stopped her after a minute or so and told her to play the second piece. Same thing, stopped her after 1 or 2 minutes. They exclaimed “we’ve heard enough”, even though she had 3 pieces prepared as they had asked, and bid her goodbye. No comments like “nice playing”, they were very rude. The audition before her was in the room for at least 15 minutes and they said something like, very nice playing when that person left.</p>

<ol>
<li> Did they hate D’s playing?</li>
<li> Did they think she was so good that they didn’t need to hear anymore?</li>
<li> Were they just so hungry that she did not get a fair audition? They did run out of the room as soon as she left as if they hadn’t eaten in years.</li>
</ol>

<p>The main reason that she was looking into Mason Gross is that she would have a complete free ride there, too tempting to not pursue. Any suggestions of what to do or comments on what might have happened?</p>

146

<p>The length of time a person plays during an audition does not correlate well with their chances of success. Some auditioners who have gained admittance with considerable merit money had very short auditions. Those auditioning can tell very quickly a student’s level of playing. It is rare to hear all the repertoire in its entirety. For some auditions my son has about 40 minutes of repertoire required (not including the scales), but the auditions are scheduled for either 12 or 15 minutes in length (and those 12 minutes include greetings, tuning, and a question or two). </p>

<p>It is assumed at some schools that at least one of the prepared pieces will not be played (the tradition at one school is that the post- 1939 piece is not heard; recently at CIM on one violin audition day, it seems that no one played their Paganini). Often when singers prepare three songs, the singer picks the first song to perform, the committee picks the second song, and the leftover song is not heard. </p>

<p>My son played for what he thought was a very, very short time at his first audition (tiny bits of three pieces, I believe), but the teacher asked to speak to him at noon and at that time it was clear that the teacher had formed a very positive opinion of his playing.</p>

<p>Was your daughter expecting to play the entirety of all of her prepared repertoire? If so, it must have been difficult for her to be asked to play so little. As well, I think that auditioning students are often completely unaware of how much or how little time has passed. Their internal clocks either speed ahead or stop because of the intense stress. Some students come out and say they felt they were only auditioning for three or four minutes, when, in fact, they were in the room for 13 minutes!</p>

<p>Because committees hear dozens and dozens of auditions each year and because they can form quite accurate assessments quickly and easily, it is not unusual for them to read, text, or otherwise look disengaged. </p>

<p>Bottom line: Don’t read anything in to the length of the audition or into the behavior of the committee. Your daughter clearly plays very well, the committee was able to determine that very quickly, and they were evidently very hungry. It is unfortunate that they didn’t leave a better taste in your daughter’s mouth. Some schools are known for their consistent warmth to all students auditioning and others are not.</p>

<p>It is surprising that the committees don’t show more empathy. Presumably they are all performers and understand how important it is for a performer to feel some connection or interest from the audience. So I’m not condoning or excusing the commitee’s behavior. Just let your daughter know that unfortunately such behavior is not unusual.</p>

147

<p>NJ Mom of 2: It would be hard to guess what they were thinking, but one question for you to take away from it is whether these are the people you want guiding your daughter.</p>

148

<p>Hard to tell what they thought, but the what to do part is easy. Have daughter send each of them a handwritten thank-you note, whether or not you feel they deserve one, and start getting ready for the next audition. Put this one behind you. You will have results soon enough. If they liked the audition she played, it is not necessary to do anything more. If they did not like the audition, it is unlikely that anything you do at this point is going to get them to listen to her again.</p>

149

<p>If a school with teachers like Bart Feller were to offer my kid a full ride, I think we might be persuaded to overlook a few minutes worth of the kind of behavior described by the OP. Having to slog through dozens of auditions, many of them sub-par, cannot be an easy job. It appears to me that they accommodated the OP’s daughter’s request rather efficiently, but were too tired and hungry to be on their best behavior. It happens to the best of us from time to time and I would suggest refraining from judging them too harshly until the outcome is known.</p>

150

<p>I wouldn’t form too quick an opinion about the auditioning committee’s ability to work with your daughter based on their behavior today, but I think that it would be a very good idea for her to have a trial lesson with her future flute instructor prior to sending any deposit in. It is important for most students to feel that their studio teacher is interested, encouraging, and supportive.</p>

<p>I’m not going to excuse what happened (I wasn’t there and no one knows the whole story of what was going on with the three people), but remember that these three people have probably worked a long full week prior to Saturday. They show up tired already Saturday morning. Then they have the stress of making a long series of important, life-altering decisions. </p>

<p>It sounds like the day was maybe not as organized as it could have been. Were there not scheduled times for the auditions? Your description makes it sound like the sort of cattle call that Broadway directors do. Those cattle calls are fine for 25-year-olds who do them every few weeks, but for 17-year-olds who potentially only do this once? I know from experience that auditioning students under disorganized conditions is stressful and makes me grumpy and hungry! I much prefer having some order to auditions–the students auditioning are much happier if they have a sense of what is going on and when they will audition.</p>

<p>The committee may have sensed that your daughter is confident and poised given her ability to request that they delay their lunch break–most high school seniors would find that very difficult. They may therefore have assumed that she did not need as much coddling as some of the others auditioning who may have sent the signals that they desperately needed some encouragement. </p>

<p>I am very curious: was the audition situation there totally unscheduled? Did everyone just show up and then wait in a line for most of the morning (and lunch hour and potentially afternoon)? Were people lined up outside the door of the music building to be first in line? It does sound like a weird situation for college entrance auditions. </p>

<p>As wel notes, “it would be hard to guess what they were thinking,” but if they were thinking, “she shouldn’t have delayed our lunch and therefore we’ll just get this over with,” then wel is right on that one needs to ask, “Are these the people you want guiding your daughter?”</p>

151

<p>NJ Mom of 2, I agree with what the others have said above. The texting during the audition must have been unnerving to your daughter, but I have heard of that happening in the past, as well as instances of a panel member taking a phone call, etc. It could be that those who were not paying attention were not the flute faculty, or not directly responsible for evaluating her. It’s so hard to second-guess what people are thinking. If anything, this difficult episode will help your daughter to become even more seasoned in her her approach to auditioning. Best of luck to her with the results of this and her future auditons.</p>

152

<p>If they really were vindictive because their lunch was delayed, I quite agree with wel and violindad. However, I see nothing that suggests that as anything more than one of several possibilities, with no obvious way to prove that hypothesis even in the event of a rejection. For example, I could easily see a student getting rattled under those circumstances and delivering a suboptimal audition. In the event of a rejection, the “would you really want to study with these people” line of reasoning is a moot point and becomes a bit of rationalization. An acceptance with full scholarship, however, could go a long way toward disproving that NJ Mom of 2’s daughter got short shrift. </p>

<p>A sample lesson is always a good idea. A whiff of suspicion that the personalities may not mesh makes it even more important. Free is not always the best deal.</p>

<p>(By the way, in #149 I meant to reference NJ Mom of 2, not the OP. I think that was pretty obvious in context, but just wanted to eliminate any doubt.)</p>

153

<p>Thank you so much for all your responses. </p>

<p>Yes, it was very similar to an NJ all-state audition- no assigned times and all woodwinds were in one group. My D did not want to sign up until she was ready. They warmed up in a room with lots of other musicians, so by he time she signed up she was way down on the list. To make matters worse, 3 or 4 people were inserted in front of her for different reasons. Since this was her first audition we are glad to hear that most auditions are not run this way. It brought back all the bad all-state memories, including the nerves for her.</p>

<p>BTW, Bart Fellar was not there for the audition and yes, she will definitely take a lesson from any teacher before she makes a final decision.</p>

<p>This is the BEST thread on CC, we have received great advice with every question we have asked.</p>

154

<p>I also auditioned at mason gross today, and my experience was… rather similar.</p>

<p>My audition was after lunch, so being hungry probably did not have much to do with it. There were 4 people on my panel. During my first piece I noticed that there was some conversation and one panelist was pointing out something in a file to another. No matter, I assumed they were highlighting some fact or other about my case. But for the rest of the audition, whenever I looked at the panel, nobody was ever looking back at me. And I mean nobody. They all seemed engrossed in whatever they were reading… and I found it rather strange. I haven’t done a huge number of live auditions, but in those I have done (including one involving music directors of Oberlin, Eastman, Peabody and Miami) the panelists have always watched me play. In this case I couldn’t be sure if it was inattention or perhaps I thought that they didn’t wish to be distracted (?) by the visuals.</p>

<p>Aside from that, I have to say that the organisation of events was somewhat lacking. I had been told to come down to do an “essay” 4.5h ahead of my audition. When I had asked over email what this essay entailed, all I was told was that I did not need prior preparation. It turned out to be just a 250-word writing sample that they wanted. That’s about… 3 paragraphs? Certainly doesn’t require hours to do. There were other people due to do the same thing but for some reason they had later times. I had to wake up by 6am in order to make it there from Manhattan by NJ Transit, which probably did not do wonders for my playing later. Furthermore I was handed the DMA theory test upon arrival although I had applied for the MM, and there was a fair amount of confusion before they finally found the writing sample test that I was actually supposed to do.</p>

<p>Anyway, I found myself a practice room in the Music Annexe and managed to fit 2.5 hours of practice in before trying to find some lunch. The food in the student cafeteria was quite dismal. When I got back to the music building half an hour before my audition time, it took a while to locate a practice room to warm up (seemed to be the only one left) and in between changing into my audition clothes (did I mention half the cubicles could not be locked?) and tuning up I did not get much time to actually warm up. The whole experience did not leave a very good impression on me, I have to say. I was also told by one of the current students that the MM and DMA students at Mason Gross are fighting for the same spots, i.e. they are considered as part of the same pool as there are too few teachers. The DMA students of course have the advantage generally as they are further along in their studies, so it is actually rather difficult to get into the MM program at Mason Gross. This also seemed rather odd to me; why is it necessary even if there are very few teachers and the music program is small? Surely the answer is to assign smaller numbers of spots to each level rather than to put them together for consideration. There is a reason why separate degrees are offered, right? They are there to indicate different levels of accomplishment and development. Nobody would think that it was fair to consider MM and BM candidates as part of the same pool, surely.</p>

155

<p>I hesitate to write this, but I had a different perspective on the audition described by NJ Mom of 2. I think that if one has an audition, one should expect that it might be necessary to remain at the school longer than the scheduled audition time, and be prepared to stay there all day if necessary. I also think that if the teachers are breaking for lunch, the only reason to ask for them to sit through another audition before lunch would be if there was something of an urgent nature happening that would require one to leave right away. Even if it seems that postponing the lunch break for one more audition shouldn’t be a problem, one runs the risk of annoying people who are making decisions about the auditioners. I am not excusing the behavior described such as the texting, but just pointing out that this kind of request could give the impression of a lack of interest in the school or even a lack of respect for the faculty who are listening to all those auditions.</p>

<p>Oh, I just read the part about there not being scheduled auditions, just a line of people waiting to audition. That does not change what I am saying though.</p>

156

<p>Oy, this really does sound like an NJ All-State cattle call. I would have thought Mason Gross was more organized than that but, then again, that is where some of the NJ All-State auditions are held so maybe it is contagious. Here’s hoping the rest of the auditions will be pleasant by comparison.</p>

<p>Were the teachers there all flute faculty or perhaps mixed woodwinds, since you say that all woodwinds were represented among the students? It could be that the two who did not seem to be paying as much attention thought they would let the one flute teacher present take the lead while taking a moment to text their friends to delay lunch for 10 minutes. That is still rude, but it might explain what happened without the need to assume overt hostility.</p>

157

<p>This has probably been discussed before, but S has Juilliard audition in 2 weeks and I need to make hotel reservations. Any recommendations from anyone? Looking for best price.</p>

158

<p>There were woodwind faculty in the room. The one member that was not on the phone was the flute teacher.</p>

<p>Another question. D was asked to bring a list of what she was playing in triplicate. This morning I suggested to her that she attach her music resume to this list, with the requested page on top. Was this a bad suggestion? I thought it was a brilliant idea but I’m now having second thoughts.</p>

159

<p>Clarimom - You might want to consider staying in NJ. It is an easy bus and subway ride to Juilliard from there. You can PM me for directions if that would be helpful.</p>

160

<p>NJ Mom of 2: I think it was fine to attach the resume with the playing list on top. The panel can ignore it if they want. It certainly couldn’t do any harm.</p>