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Just curious which orchestra concert you heard, floutista. Did you go to the Alan Gilbert concert with Rite of Spring in Avery Fisher on Friday night?</p>
<p>I would be careful about “The Juilliard Orchestra”, they at any given time have several different orchestras/ensembles … I saw the performance Friday night GH referred to and their rendition of Rite of Spring was incredible (happens to be a favorite piece of mine, and i have heard more then a few versions), the orchestra training is one of the strengths of the program and they generally get high marks from critics. Not saying Juilliard is right for the OP or anyone in particular, but I also think you have to be careful about what you see as being representative of the whole school, Juilliard is a relatively large music school and as such it is possible to see something that is not representative of the school as a whole…among other things, their brass and woodwinds in the performance I saw were incredible.</p>
<p>It is easy to want to make quick judgments as to the many things experienced while on such a large and distinguished audition tour as undertaken by Floutista68. These judgemnts may be be regarding orchestras, teachers, or that there is nothing to do at Oberlin other than music. If Rice is Floutista’s destination, I hope that the heat and humidity of Houston is experienced before the final decision is made.</p>
<p>Oh, come on! Re Oberlin, Floutista specifically says
</p>
<p>The point of the thread is to share individual perceptions, not objective data. If Floutista68 felt that Oberlin isn’t a good fit, that’s ok. And if you don’t like the weather in Houston, that’s ok, too. If you like the Juilliard orchestra, great. If Floutista didn’t, that’s a fair comment as well.</p>
<p>Open and honest communication - whether or not I agree with the poster - is one of the things I like about this forum, and I worry when it feels like people are being shut down because someone doesn’t like what they are saying. Piling onto a new user who is sharing their personal experience doesn’t sit well with me. (You can pile onto me instead?) ;)</p>
<p>It’s nice to hear everyone’s experiences with auditioning! =) I enjoyed reading what happened to everyone at difference places. =)</p>
<p>Oh gosh, I really wanted my D to love Oberlin as much as I did! But her “take” was identical to flautista’s. She is a city girl too. And she hated Houston’s humidity.
Good luck flautista—that’s a great bunch of opportunities.</p>
<p>I do not care if Oberlin is not a good fit for folks who audition there. It is different in many ways from most conservatories or even colleges. It is certainly not a good fit for some folks. She did preface her note with the city girl reference and even though it is only 35 miles from Cleveland, it has a middle of nowhere feel. I guess I should not expect an appreciation for what smaller towns offer during a quick drop in for an audition. My bad.</p>
<p>Took the words right out of my mouth, stradmom. Didn’t see anything wrong with Floutista’s post at all. The comments were simply reflective.</p>
<p>Huh? I only asked if she were at the Rite of Spring concert. This was the most recent performance of “the Juilliard Orchestra” and was on March 2. Flute auditions were on March 4, so it does stand to reason that she may have seen that performance. Like Musicprnt, I was in the audience for that concert, so I was naturally curious. If I gave an impression of hostility, sorry, but it was not intentional.</p>
<p>What musicprnt says is true: unlike Curtis, there is no single Juilliard Orchestra. It is always a sort of pick-up group in a sense The concert with Gilbert was unusual in that rehearsal began in the fall, but often rehearsals don’t start until a few weeks before.</p>
<p>Oh gosh! I really did not mean to start such a war here! :(</p>
<p>Glassharmonica, I did not see the Juilliard Orchestra performance of the Rite of Spring. As my post says, my Curtis audition was just before that so I was not able to make it. That is wonderful news to hear that it was such a success!</p>
<p>I do feel that I have a right to my own impression though haha. I am sorry if I offended anyone! I guess this was as much for me as anything else because it really made me think about my relative experiences at each of the schools. </p>
<p>I sat in on rehearsals for almost all the orchestras that I saw because I wanted to see how the conductor worked and see the works in progress not just the finished product. I really have no idea which orchestra I saw at Juilliard. I guess I can send an email and ask!</p>
<p>Fortunately, the school year at Rice is not in the summer haha (assuming I even get in)! The weather in the Fall, Winter, and early Spring is supposed to be fantastic! I could trade off a couple months of hot and humid for a sunny and warm Winter :)</p>
<p>Floutista, your idea of sitting in on an orchestra rehearsal seems very wise to me. That’s not something we usually discuss around here, only setting up private lessons with professors. Good thinking!</p>
<p>For voice (two years ago) my D usually sat in on a voice class or two, choir, and opera scenes if available, and of course voice/opera performances. It really helped her decide. Good luck to all, and thanks for posting about your experiences.</p>
<p>floutista68, my apologies for not reading your post more closely. You sound like a very accomplished young person who will certainly have a lot of great choices. Best wishes to you!</p>
<p>Nor did I think I was starting a war and I certainly did not intend to do so. I wrote before I thought through what was said in floutista’s review of her auditions. For this I am sorry. Now as to that Houston weather…</p>
<p>May I just caution everyone against posting any personal comments that profs may make to them during auditions regarding admissions? Reps from schools look around on these boards and in the past, incidents have occurred where admissions/financial aid officers have had to “put out fires” when other parents and students complained.
While you, the student or the parent, may be proud- and rightly so- keep it under your hat until the official letter is in your hands, please.
Congratulations to all of the great students this year!</p>
<p>I certainly didn’t mean to start a war either. My apologies if I offended anyone.</p>
<p>I thought you very deftly avoided the starting of wars, stradmom! Diplomacy is everything.</p>
<p>Yikes! I’m so upset over this, I can’t even talk about it 5 days later. So, I found this thread and thought I’d use it to vent. I’m an adult student, voice major looking to transfer. I took a 6 year break from performing and school, and stupidly thought I would now be okay to perform some the pieces I haven’t seen in 6-10 years. My voice isn’t what it once was, but as someone who works full time and is 2 credits shy of a full course load this semester, I felt like I didn’t have the time to prepare something new. I attended my audition at Rutgers last week, and completely blew it.</p>
<p>First up, my crowning achievement- a difficult Handel piece with lots of runs. One of my favorites and most impressive to perform, I thought this would knock them dead! Instead, the accompanist played much slower than I’d ever practiced or performed this piece, and being that breath control is a weakness of mine, it completely through me off. I couldn’t get through the runs if I breathed where I usually do. As a result, the runs were sloppy and I was breathing in places I should have been singing. I also missed an entrance on the last verse. Then came my favorite Schubert piece, which they had chosen for me. The last time I performed that piece was 2004, and it was chosen as the top performance in our music dept recital when I was 19. I thought I still could prove myself to them, but instead I made more errors. The accompaniment was again slow, which rendered the breath markings I had practiced completely useless. I had early cutoffs,
breaths in the middle of words, and another missed entrance. I knew in my head that I was done. </p>
<p>Then, they asked me for part of an Italian piece, which I don’t even remember because I couldnt believe how badly the prior 10 minutes had gone. They seemed very nice, but I don’t think they are even considering me. It’s disappointing to know that I couldn’t deliver my best performance, and that the single worst performing mistakes I’ve ever made had to occur during the one audition that really mattered to me. Not really sure where to go from here…</p>
<p>Kudos for placing yourself out there and following your passion! That goes for all of the auditioning students. Vocalists will be able to give more directed advice than I. Just don’t stop singing.</p>
<p>Lisamarie, I am so sorry you had such a bad experience. Thank you for sharing since although it does not help what happened to you, perhaps others can learn from your experience. There is no substitute for putting in the hours to prepare for auditions, even if it is music you have performed before. DD is juggling 3 jobs right now and was finding it hard to get ready for some auditions. Especially since 2 of the jobs were also singing jobs requiring music memorization. She found she had to work her audition pieces while driving, in odd places at work when no one was around, late at night, in weekend odd time slots. It just has to be a priority. </p>
<p>Is this for Bachelors or Masters? Is there any way you can wait another year and prepare better? Have you looked at other schools? Westminster Choir College at Rider still has audition dates. There may be others.</p>