10 tips for a successful orchestral

audition
Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Brant Taylor offers advice to candidates
hoping to succeed in that all-important orchestral audition

May 6, 2014
Every orchestra and audition committee is unique. However, certain audition concepts
are so fundamental as to be likely to lead to a performance that will get positive
attention from practically any audition committee.

1. Show your artistic depth with every note

Yes, you must demonstrate mastery of a number of basics to be successful in an
audition. Too often, however, people are afraid to go further and convey real musical
understanding by taking a sophisticated view of the music. Whats on the page should
be clear, but dont stop there. Committee members are musicians, and musicians
gravitate to tasteful and inspired playing, in an audition or otherwise.

2. Accept the unknowns

You cant control what the hall will sound like, whether there will be a screen, or who
might be warming up next to you. Practise thriving in atypical conditions by simulating
them: get a few people together to hear you in an unfamiliar room, set up a makeshift
screen and have someone else choose the order in which youll perform the repertoire.

3. Make a beautiful sound all the time

More candidates receive negative attention by producing substandard tone than from
any other single factor. Pay close attention to treatment of short notes, and avoid playing
so loudly or softly that you lose control of the sound.

4. Orchestral playing is communal, but auditions are solitary

This means certain choices about bowings, fingerings, tempi, and other variables could
be different than if you were playing the piece in an orchestra. For example, a slightly
slower tempo that allows everything to speak cleanly and clearly is preferable to a
quicker one where things feel blurry and rushed.

5. Solid, specific preparation is the best antidote for anxiety

You will feel nervous excitement leading up to (and perhaps during) the audition. This
is human. Building the ability to keep nerves in check and your mind focused starts
during practice, long before the audition. Have very specific opinions, and practise to
retain knowledge of technical aspects such as bow distribution and vibrato that allow
you to shape phrases exactly as planned. An audition is not a time for vagueness.
Knowing and practising exactly what you hope to reproduce in the audition gives you a
constant stream of thoughts to focus on in performance, allowing your mind much less
room to go astray. As I tell my students, Just do your thing, and let other people find
ways to eliminate themselves.

6. Recordings are a mixed blessing

It is important to develop a musical understanding of each work that is independent
from any recorded interpretation even a great one by the very group you are
auditioning for. Seasoned orchestral musicians have played the standard repertoire many
times under different conductors. There is no official tempo, fingering, or bowing for
any piece. Satisfy yourself with your playing rather than trying to re-create something
from an orchestras recorded history.

7. You can make errors

No player relishes making an unexpected mistake early on, but remember that your
general level of musicianship and instrumental control is what the committee will
remember. The difference between a fluke and a general tendency in someones playing
is quite easy to discern, and a committee can generally forgive a couple of minor
missteps in an otherwise well-played, artistically satisfying presentation.

8. Play the instrument youre comfortable with

Players sometimes borrow great instruments for an audition, assuming that a superior
instrument is a real advantage. However, you can only sound your best on an instrument
with which you are completely comfortable. If youre unhappy with your instrument,
dont worry too much about it a committee will focus more on what you are doing
than on the instrument itself.

9. Play the way you play

I often hear of players adjusting their playing to cater to what they think a given
committee wants. This is a potentially unproductive mindset that can put candidates
outside their comfort zone in the audition. Every committee should want to hear
someone with valid, sophisticated musical ideas and the technical means to express
them. Aim for this broad goal, using the repertoire to express your unique sense of style
and musical understanding.

10. Play for people you respect, including those who dont play your instrument
Feedback from someone who doesnt know the challenges unique to your instrument
can be very enlightening. Great singers and pianists often have insights about the music
of Mozart and Schubert, to name just two composers, which can be revelatory to string
players. If success at an audition depends in part on showing real understanding of the
music we are playing, we must develop a view of the repertoire that transcends our own
instrument.
12 Ways to Ace Your Orchestral Audition
Preparation and post-audition strategy are just as important as being in the seat

By Katherine Millett posted December 2005

Four cellists, friends since music school, have played dozens of auditions for American
orchestras since they graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music. They have reached
the finals in San Diego, bombed in Boston, struggled in Saint Paul, and triumphed in Saint
Louis and Chicago. Even when they competed for the same job, camaraderie kept them
going through the joys, frustrations, and absurdities of life on the audition circuit.

So far, two have landed jobs with first-tier orchestras. The other two are still in the game.
Here are their stories and their advice about how to ace an audition.

Ken Olsen, 24, lived like a nomad for almost two years. Staying with friends, living out of a
single suitcase, he practiced four hours a day, often while watching television. Three times
he tried out for section openings in the Boston Symphony Orchestra; twice he auditioned
for principal of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; once he tried for principal of the San
Diego Symphony. Then he auditioned for assistant principal of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. Each time, he advanced to the finals but got the same message: Sorry.

When his bank account dwindled to $90 last February, Olsen tried again for the assistant
principal position in Chicago.

That time, he won the audition, landing one of the most prestigious, highest-paying jobs in
the world of classical music.

This has been a crazy year, he says after his first rehearsal with the orchestra. My life did
a total 180 in one dayupside down. I was freaking out, thinking, here I am in the cello
section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and last week I didnt have a job, an
apartment, or much of anything else.

His experience, and that of his three friends, can provide guidance for others trying to land
an orchestral position.
Dont Obsess

Dont go crazy trying to upgrade your instrument, Olsen advises. He has played borrowed
cellos since high schoolhis own was a plywood box now stored in his parents atticand
he says you dont need old Italian real estate to win an audition. In fact, he got his Chicago
job playing a modern instrument made by Ersen Aycan, a Turkish luthier.

Ironically, he played his second Saint Paul auditionand loston a masterpiece. He was
determined to upgrade, because after his first audition, someone on the Saint Paul
committee had said, Maybe he doesnt have such a great cello. The second time, Olsen
accepted his teachers help and borrowed a 300-year-old instrument made by Matteo
Goffriller. It had a huge, powerful sound, Olsen recalls, and after I played, some people
on the committee said, I dont know about his cello. Its kind of loud.

Made wiser by the absurdity of the situation, Olsen put his effort into practicing with a
metronome instead of worrying about instruments.

Appreciate the Application

Even such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which holds open auditions for
anyone who wants to play, require an application. Pay attention to the instructions, and be
sure to submit the application on time. Some orchestras require resumes or recordings,
which they use to screen applicants before inviting a select number to attend live auditions.
If the committee asks for a resume, send one that is clear and complete. If they want an
audio tape, dont send video. Some European orchestras require a handwritten application
with a photo attached.

Get it rightfirst impressions count.

Know the Schedule, Treat Yourself Well

Bjorn Ranheim, 28, has worked his way up from a training orchestra, the New World
Symphony, to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, to occasional jobs as a substitute with
the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This past April, after trying out twice for the Saint Louis
Symphony Orchestra, he won a job in the cello section.

Ranheim has learned to treat himself well before auditions. He cooks good food, works out
regularly, takes yoga classes, and stretches before he goes onstage.
He advises that you give yourself plenty of time and space on audition day. Before you plan
your trip, find out where and when the audition will be held. Book a room in a hotel close to
the hall so travel will not be an issue. Ask detailed questions about the process, so you
know whether and when warm-up rooms will be available; whether to take your own food
and water; whether preliminary and final rounds will occur on the same day.

Looking back, Ranheim laughs at the way he handled his first Saint Louis audition. He
showed up at 8 am, as instructed, ready to play. The orchestras custom, it turned out, was
to assemble all the candidates at 8 am and have them draw straws for their playing order.
Ranheim drew 14 out of 14.

It was a nice spring day, he recalls, so I went over to the university campus, walked
around, had some lunch, relaxed. When I finally wandered back to the hall, the personnel
manager said, Um, your room is ready. Youre going on in 20 minutes. I didnt have time to
get mentally focused or physically warmed up. When I went onstage, I was so completely
unprepared to play that I crashed and burned.

The next year, auditioning for the same job, Ranheim drew 11 out of 13.

This time, I made sure I had plenty of interesting magazines, my ear plugs, my portable
CD player, and good snacks so I could be wholly comfortable relaxing around there the
entire day, he says.
Auditioning for the MET Orchestra
April 17, 2014/ Rob Knopper

by William Short, principal bassoonist

Winston Churchill once said, [Democracy] is the worst form of government except all those others that
have been tried from time to time. Much the same can be said for orchestral auditions - they are a
flawed system of objectively judging what is ultimately a subjective art form. Orchestral musicians devote
themselves to the collective endeavor of ensemble playing; auditions put them into a harsh, solo spotlight,
under which they must jump through whatever musical hoops the audition committee sets before them.
It is the worst way of choosing the best musician - except for all the others.

Every orchestra uses a slightly different system to make sure that they find the right person for the job,
and to make that process as painless as possible for both auditioner and auditionee. The MET Orchestra
is no exception. We take a great deal of pride in running the fairest, most effective auditions we can. I sat
down with Rob Knopper, percussionist, and Boris Allakhverdyan, principal clarinetist, to discuss their
experiences in this unique system of interviewing for a dream job.

GETTING THE BALL ROLLING

When an audition is announced, all interested musicians submit a resume. A committee of orchestra
members reviews the resumes to determine which applicants will be invited directly to the live audition,
and which will be asked to submit a preliminary recording. Boris was invited directly to the live audition,
having already played professionally for four years in the Kansas City Symphony, advanced to later
rounds in recent major auditions, and performed as a substitute with several major orchestras.

Rob, on the other hand, was asked to submit a CD. He describes the process of recording simply: Its
kind of terrible. When it was done, he says, he enjoyed the feeling of having conquered something [he]
didnt know how to do, but remembers that at the time, he would listen to a thirteen-second excerpt and
say, OK, I hear sixty-five things that were wrong with that. Over time the takes improved, but so did
his standards, until the tiny errors became...so clear. He hadnt thought about anything else for hours.
Arriving at the end of the recording process, he says, combines knowing that the final product represents
the best of what one can do and being intimately aware of everything that is still wrong with it.

In the end, he made it through. Both Rob and Boris were on their way to audition for the MET Orchestra.

J.S. Bach Partita No. 3, BWV 1006, Gavotte en Rondeau, performed by Rob Knopper

Click above to play a track from Rob Knopper's successful pre-screening recording.

GEARING UP

Rob views the audition itself as little more than an endpoint of a much longer and more important
preparation process, which he treats with an almost obsessive passion. [The preparation] is what I have
control over. Of course, every rejection I got - and there were tons of them - hurt in its own way, but as
long as I was able to say, OK, this preparation process yields this result, I was driven to keep changing
things up. Eventually, he found the process that worked for him, although he says that it took him from
age sixteen to twenty-four, encompassing some sixty audition experiences. His unique system of
preparation gave him a tremendous confidence boost. He knew that he had put as much work as possible
into it, and that very few others had done the same.

Boris actually had less time to prepare for his MET audition than he would ordinarily like, since he had
another major audition several weeks before. He prefers to spend six or seven weeks preparing for an
audition; for the MET, he only had four. However, he says he also felt fresher, describing previous
auditions as often feeling that he had peaked already. [The MET audition] was not like that. He
describes, amazingly, actually enjoying the audition process: I like how concentrated I am at the
auditions. They put me in a completely different mindset - I care about each note. He feels that he
concentrates more under pressure, and that an audition provides more pressure than virtually any
performance.

HOW TO PICK UP CRASH CYMBALS, AND OTHER TALES FROM BEHIND

THE SCREEN
Why is there so much pressure? In part, because the candidates must prepare an exhaustive list of some of
the most important and demanding parts ever written for their instrument. For Boris audition, the list
included a solo concerto plus eighteen excerpts from fourteen operas. Robs audition included even more
excerpts from both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, in which he had to demonstrate his abilities on
no fewer than nine different instruments.

Both Boris and Rob note that the lists contained a great deal of unfamiliar music, which presented a
challenge, but also evened the playing field. Rob notes, Youre not testing [who has the most] years of
experience...everyone has exactly the same amount of time to prepare. Why is the opera repertoire so
little-known among orchestrally-trained musicians? Students in conservatory and university music
programs are not exposed to the same quantity of operatic literature as they are to symphonic literature, so
any opera audition will likely include music that most of the candidates have not played (or even heard)
before.

Boris notes that some of the most difficult excerpts included Strauss Der Rosenkavalier, Verdis I Vespri
Siciliani, and the overture to Smetanas The Bartered Bride. A deceptively difficult excerpt comes from
the stage band in Mozarts Don Giovanni - it sounds simple and easy, but controlling the quality of
articulation (not too hard, not too soft) is very difficult. "Largo al factotum" from Rossinis Il barbiere di
Siviglia provides similar challenges - it can easily sound too harsh. Stylistic differences between, say,
Wagner and Verdi, Mozart and Puccini, are of the utmost importance.

Rob notes that, while excerpts for the typical major percussion instruments, such as snare drum and
xylophone, are vitally important and quite difficult, so are excerpts for more unexpected instruments. Rob
described a nearly five-month process of learning to pick up and position crash cymbals in such a way
that they make no noise until he wanted them to. An excerpt from Gtterdmmerung that consisted of
pairs of very loud cymbal crashes entailed the following: he would pick up the cymbals separately,
pressing one against his chest and gently positioning a corner of the other against it. He then moved both
against his chest, lined them up, and rubbed them against each other ever-so-gently to ensure that they
were exactly even. The committee could hear none of this. Only then could he proceed with the excerpt at
hand.

THE AUDITION

Once any audition has begun, its unpredictability becomes readily apparent. Boris felt that his preliminary
round was good, but nothing extraordinary. It was just fine. He advanced to the semifinal round, which
was on a different day, after all preliminary auditions had concluded. He found that this gap effectively
eliminated whatever confidence the thrill of advancing may have given him - it was his weakest round.
He prepared himself to be eliminated. He described running out of breath in one excerpt and recovering
less gracefully than he would have liked, but he still advanced - and at that point he felt that he could
relax.

In this particular audition, there would be several final rounds - until the committee gave a majority
vote to one candidate - but Boris says he felt good [about the final rounds]...better than the first two. By
the end, he felt that he was finally able to lighten his playing: before, the sound was a little forced...I
pushed too hard. I tried too hard. The lightness he finally achieved contrasted with his determination: I
had been to the finals [of other auditions] a couple of times; I had been runner-up a couple of times, so
this time I thought, I gotta do it. I cant be runner-up againI have to own it.

On the other hand, Rob described almost being on autopilot due to the nature of his preparation.
Despite this, there was still a voice in the back of his head that knew that he wasnt practicing anymore.
This time it was real. As with any audition, some things went well and some things went less well. He
advanced through to a second preliminary round, which included more instruments than the first, and
again played well enough to advance.

It is notoriously difficult to gauge how one has done at an audition - virtually every musician has
experienced the feeling of elation at having knocked it out of the park, only to be eliminated.
Conversely, like Boris, Rob recalls feeling that his semifinal round in the MET audition was, if not a total
failure, borderline. He left the building, sulked a bit, and hoped for the best: he felt that, If I get through,
Im lucky. If I get cut, I understand.

Ultimately, he was the only candidate to receive enough votes to advance, and thus was awarded the
position without having to play what would then be an arbitrary final round. His borderline audition
turned out better than he ever could have hoped.

AFTER THE AUDITION

Everyone reacts to the news that they have won a job in the MET Orchestra differently. One member of
the orchestra reportedly ran screaming through the hallways. Boris had a somewhat different response: I
had a glass of beer with the people I was staying with. I was on the phone with everybody. I slept for
probably two or three hours, then I had a flight early in the morning for a rehearsal in Kansas City. It
hadnt sunk in yet; it came two or three weeks later.
I lost my mind, but I tried to contain my own excitement, sitting around there with a bunch of very
disappointed people, says Rob. I went down and met the committee, but I didnt remember a single one
of their names. I was just thinking, Oh my God, I have to tell my Dad...I have to call my old
teachers...Do I have to get a new bank account? I had never really considered what happens after you
win. He says that the moment when he won was the ultimate turning point. Your life was going in one
direction and now its going in a different direction.

THE X-FACTOR: WHAT MAKES MET AUDITIONS DIFFERENT?

I love it. That was Boris immediate reaction when asked how he feels about the fact that, in all MET
Orchestra auditions, the screen (which divides the candidate from the committee) stays up through the
very end. I concentrate on my playing, not on how I look. Sometimes I sit with my legs crossed, and I
prefer that! I play better like that! All four auditions I have won were screened [until the end]. In
auditions in which the screen comes down, I think about looking good too much...I feel like I shouldnt
just play musically, I should look musical, too. Theyre looking at you, not at the music.

The MET Orchestra has several such policies that are either unusual or unique in the world of orchestral
auditions. The committee is not allowed any communication or discussion amongst itself before voting on
a candidate; no candidate is ever cut off mid-round; perhaps most unusually, the MET Orchestra always
offers a job to a candidate at the end of an audition. Boris freely admits that this is what convinced him to
take the audition. Because he knew that someone would win the job, he felt that it was important to take
the audition, even though it came only three weeks after an audition for another major orchestra and
shared none of the same audition repertoire.

Rob says these policies had a similar effect on his decision to audition: he chose not to audition for
another orchestra because it would interfere with his preparation for the MET audition. I knew that I
should stay focused and put everything into this MET audition. [Because its policies are so fair], I knew
the most important thing was to put the most work and energy into it, so it drove me to work harder. It
was the X Factor.

Rob notes that, The audition process should benefit all parties. The process is just a majority vote, and
everyone has a different perspective on whats [musically] important. The orchestra members each vote
their own musical conscience. The process ensures that the winner will have the best combination of the
different qualities that everyone is looking for. The individual musician knows that it is a fair process, so
they know that working harder and smarter will not only help them get a job, it will help them keep it.
Ultimately, Rob adds, audiences should be the single greatest benefactor of the audition process.
Audiences validate the lifetime of work necessary to perform at the highest level, and transform it into
experiences that are variously shattering and uplifting, disturbing and amusing. This presents a great
responsibility to those performers who are entrusted with bringing great art to life, and that is what
auditions are all about.
storytime!

during freshman year of college i was pretty lost. i was a rookie kid
amongst some of the great upperclassmen players - people who
had already advanced in auditions, played in the highest level drum
corps, and who were just intimidating to be around. but somehow, i
got assigned to play the tambourine part in mahlers 3rd symphony
in the upper orchestra on the trip to washington d.c.

first of all, this was awesome because i love road trips and taking
bus rides with musicians, and mahler 3 rules. but i was really not
ready to play this tambourine part. it had thumb rolls and 4-stroke
ruffs, and the whole thing was supposed to be played extremely
softly. i really didnt know what i was going to do.

the 3-hour marathon practice session

i decided to try something new. i had heard about a method - the

marathon practice session - but i had never really given it a
chance. i decided to lock myself in a room with nothing but a
tambourine, and just cycle through every single possible technique
i could think of, especially the ones that related to the passages in
mahler 3.

i started playing thumb rolls. i played long ones, short ones, loud
and soft, and i tried with every finger. it was easy to get bored
playing just rolls, so it forced me to experiment and try everything i
could think of.

at the end of the first day? i didnt feel like i had made so much as
a smidge progress. but i made the decision to see this experiment
through and do it for 3 days.

mandatory: give it 3 days before giving up

i dont mean to spoil the story for you, but this is going to work.
your body needs time to adjust to a new physical movement or
activity. soon it will learn to expect whats coming. in the
meantime, be patient.

after 3 days of marathon practice sessions in a row, i started to

realize: all of the techniques that i had been so uncomfortable with
were starting to become part of my vocabulary. i didnt feel as
uncomfortable bringing the tambourine into the air, and playing a
soft roll right off the bat. in fact, i was so excited about my
progress that i started to utilize this technique of the 3-hour
marathon practice session. its something that i still use when i
need to get comfortable with a new technique, style or passage.
next time you find something thats uncomfortable, consider trying
this technique. set aside some time, dive in, give it a few days to
let it sink in, and see how you come out on the other side! i hope
this provides you with a quick win in the practice room, and let
me know how it works out for you.

i hope that was helpful, and i'll be coming back with more tips and
tricks soon!

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The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method. This

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2. When was the Technique created?

Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro Technique in the 1980s

after a long search to improve his own study habits. The
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go ahead, try it.

and here's my method, which is a variation for musicians:

1. choose an amount of work that should last around 35 minutes.

if you're learning notes, that might be 5 or 6 measures. if you're

recording yourself, that might be 3 or 4 measures. or, it could be to
read through a couple bach violin sonatas on marimba.

2. work on the task until you feel boredom coming on.

that's when, instead of trying to analyze your playing, identify

problems, test solutions, listen to playbacks, etc., you start
thinking about baseball, sufjan stevens, girls, or diablo iii.

3. stop immediately and watch 7 minutes of tv.

conveniently, that's exactly 1/3rd of a family guy episode.

4. repeat.
wash, rinse, repeat steps 1-3 until it's 3am and the security guard
is forcefully removing you from the practice room.
5 ways to decide which audition(s) to take: an
epic conundrum
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in honor of the recent mayweather vs. pacquiao fight, i wanted to present another classic
showdown: choosing which audition(s) to take. i faced this conundrum in early
2011. there were three choices - take the met, take nashville, or take both. read on to
find out what happened. but first, to get your gears turning, a couple of my favorite
quotes:

never half-ass two things. whole-ass one thing. - ron

swanson

sounds good, right? let me throw another one at you.

eighty percent of success is showing up. - woody allen

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ok, back to the story. in january of 2011, miami was in the dead of winter. the highs
were in the low 70s (ha), and the lows were in the 50s, so all the pretty ladies had on
their finest fur coats. the new world symphony was about to open its prized new hall,
designed by frank gehry, called the new world center. the organization was getting
massive media attention, the musicians were well-dressed and excited to be part of such
a monumental event in history. life was good, sort of.

i was a first-year fellow, which means that i had two years left in my fellowship before
id be kicked out of the orchestra. that also meant that i had two years to win a job in an
orchestra that could pay the bills. every night id go to bed distracted by the city, but
knowing that if i dont work hard, ill end up an out-of-work, poverty-stricken musician
with nothing to do.
the plan was, at first, to take the nashville symphony percussion audition. the audition
was scheduled for the end of march, and a lot of the excerpts were in my hands already.
that audition had been announced in november. but another audition had also been
announced in december - section percussion in the met orchestra. i didnt know what to
do. but in january, when the audition list for the met came, it was time to make a
decision.

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damn.
what to do?

i struggled a lot with this decision. common thinking told me that i should be taking
every audition i could get my hands on. i talked to all my buds. they said i should take
both. other percussionists in the percussion section at new world were taking the
nashville audition. i basically knew all the excerpts, with a few exceptions on the
nashville list. but the met was a higher profile job. i ended up making a tactical decision
(which i mention at the end of this article), but to get to that decision, i first considered a
lot of things.

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preparing for an audition?

here's the free 5-step guide to preparing for an audition. (and slow practice doesn't
appear once.)

for any instrument.

pdf: download the audition cheat sheet

here are some of the considerations.

1. how much do you want it?

if you're choosing between two auditions, or deciding to take both, ask yourself how
much you really want to have either of those jobs. if you are drawn forcefully to one of
the jobs, chances are you're going to push yourself harder to win. you're not going to
allow yourself to take shortcuts along the way, and you're going to put in that extra hour
at the end of the day. if you want one more than anything, it's going to give you an
advantage to say no to everything else. if you want each of the jobs equally, then there
may not be much of an advantage to choosing one or the other.

in my case, the two jobs that i've set my sights on and gone after full throttle in my life
are the new world symphony and the met orchestra, both of which i won. to me, this is
the most important factor in choosing which audition to take. the reasons i wanted to
take the met orchestra so much were that (1.) it was a top tier orchestra and would be an
excellent 'final' job so that i could stop auditioning, (2.) the auditions were blind through
the end and so my work ethic could show through rather than my rsum, and that (3.)
according to their audition rules, they hired someone every time, which showed me that
i'd have a better chance of winning than an orchestra that doesn't hire, and that if i don't
try this time then i'll lose the opportunity to win that position

conclusion: take the met

2. how similar are the rep lists?

in these two auditions, the lists were very different. nashville was all symphonic
repertoire, while the met was mostly opera excerpts. i was learning the opera excerpts
from scratch - id only learned a few of them out of the 40ish total excerpts. if i was
gung-ho learning the met list, i knew that any work on excerpts outside of the met list
would be taking time away to learn the nashville list. (but it would be foolish to just
not show up to the nashville audition, right?)

if youre going to take both auditions, you are going to have to combine the two lists
into one compilation. this is something i did with summer festival auditions. 5 small
summer festival audition lists would turn into a giant single audition list, which i
prepared evenly so id be ready for everything. you may remember how those usually
went. (rejection.)

if you put both lists together, and the compiled list isnt significantly bigger than either
single list, then you might take both. if they are completely different, the impact on your
ability to adequately prepare for both might be too much to realistically bear.

conclusion: take one, but not both

3. how close are they together?

if the two auditions are one day apart, your audition preparation is going to be parallel
for each. you can work on the notes of both, then you can work on self-recording for
both, then you can do mock auditions for both. whatever your routine is for the week
before an audition, you can do that routine for both at the same time.

if the auditions are far apart, like 4 weeks, then its going to significantly affect your
audition process. if your audition process has you beginning mock auditions 4 weeks
before an audition, youll be starting the mock audition process for audition number 1
during the note-learning phase of audition number 2. can you make it work? is it worth
it?

conclusion: take one, but not both

4. are there many auditions for your instrument in general?

i was torn because in that year there were only 3 full-time percussion openings in the
entire country. (as far as i remember.) there was an associate principal percussion job in
milwaukee (which my new world symphony colleague rob klieger wonbooyah.) there
was nashville, and there was the met job. i had already lost milwaukee. with so few job
openings, shouldnt i at least give myself an opportunity to win each remaining one?

some instruments deal with this issue more than others. there might only be one
principal timpani audition in the united states in a year. it's probably the same way with
harp or tuba. percussion might be similar to instruments where each orchestra has
around 3 or 4 people, like in the woodwinds or brass sections.

but every once in a while, there's a high density time of a bunch of auditions for your
instrument. if you knew that there probably won't be another opportunity to win a job
anytime soon, would that make you take two concurrent auditions?

conclusion: take both

<img
src="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/528d0f00e4b0b97e9634be40/t/5
5469fdbe4b03262af92117c/1430691805581/" alt="santa, with whom i
collaborated at my first professional orchestra concert." />

santa, with whom i collaborated at my first professional orchestra concert.

5. how realistic is this job for you?

before i started at the met, i had basically no professional orchestra experience. actually,
scratch that. the first line of my resume said that i had performed christmas pops with
the fort wayne philharmonic. that was an awesome show, and santa actually showed up,
but other than that i had never had the pleasure of playing in a professional orchestra.
for someone with no professional experienceat all isnt a position with the
nashville symphony a more realistic next step than a jump to the met orchestra?

conclusion: take nashville

so, considering all the considerations, what did i choose?

the choice
as i mulled over all these competing thoughts and opinions, i realized that there was a
tactical element that i could take advantage of. if there are only two major percussion
auditions happening in the united states during the spring of 2011, that means that most
people are going through this thought process. in fact, i knew a lot of the major
audition-takers at that time, and i knew that a lot of them were gunning for nashville.

that meant that after nashville was over, at the beginning of april, they were just
beginning to learn all the opera excerpts for the met from scratch. i realized that if i
started learning the opera excerpts when the repertoire was released, i would have a 2
month advantage over the nashville participants. and since the met audition was totally
blind, voted democratically and without any discussion, i knew that it would just come
down to my work ethic, which is something i've always trusted to come through. (i've
always thought that, regardless of talent or intuition, i have the ability to sit by myself in
a room and work harder than anyone i've ever met. i'll get into that at another time.)

i decided the day the list came that i was going to go all-out, balls-to-the-wall, and
nothing would stop me. i dove into the met list and didn't come up for air. at one point, i
second-guessed my decision. i spent a few days in the middle practicing for the
nashville audition, but i promptly cancelled it after realizing that it would not be in my
best interest.

what would you do?

- See more at: http://www.robknopper.com/blog/2015/5/3/5-ways-to-decide-

which-auditions-to-take#sthash.XWGnvrpa.dpuf
 SYMPHONY AUDITIONS:
PREPARATION AND EXECUTION
The gateway to a career in orchestral music is the audition. Just the word - audition - is enough
to strike fear and trembling in many players. But that does not have to be the case. Like any job
interview, there are things you can do that can help you deal with the process. While, of
course, it is important to play well, there are other things that can help your audition be
successful - things that can actually help you play your best. Knowing the system and how it
works is one of those things.

Over the years, I have written and spoken extensively on the subject of taking
professional symphony orchestra auditions. This resource represents my current
thinking on the issue based on my experience as one who has been on both side of the
audition screen - as an audition candidate and as an audition committee member. This
resource also contains advice that pertains to the taking of high school, university and
solo competition auditions. Each chapter listed below (after the list of other audition
related resources on my website) covers a different aspect of the audition process, and
you can easily navigate from page to page with the BACK | CONTENTS | NEXT
links. For information specifically geared to the high school student who is taking an
audition for district, region or all-state ensembles, see my FAQ on Taking High School
Auditions.

There are also many other articles and resources on my website that might be of interest to
those who are preparing for auditions. They include:

The Bass Trombonist's Orchestral Handbook.

An online orchestral excerpt book with music and commentary about some of the most
frequently asked bass trombone excerpts.

Douglas Yeo's Boston Symphony Orchestra Audition Tape (April 1984).

The audition tape I made when I auditioned for the Boston Symphony was the only tape
accepted for the audition. All nine excerpts I recorded on my tape are available as mp3
downloads.

Trombone Audition Repertoire.

This resource includes lists of the most frequently asked tenor and bass trombone orchestral
excerpts asked at auditions, compiled from dozens of orchestra audition lists. It also includes
links to online music and commentary to excerpts found in my website and in the OnLine
Trombone Journal.

Taking German Auditions.

The book "Mastering the Trombone" co-authored by Edward Kleinhammer (bass trombonist of
the Chicago Symphony 1940-1985) and me includes a chapter on taking symphony auditions.
For the German translation of the book ("Meisterhaft Posaune spielen") Carl Lenthe (Professor
of trombone at Indiana University, former solo trombonist of the Bavarian State Orchestra and
Bamberg Symphony) wrote a new chapter specifically discussing the German/European
audition system. This chapter appears in its entirety here in my website.

How To Pursue a Career In Orchestral Music.

This article gives some practical advice on preparing for auditions, with discussion of summer
music festivals, the International Musician newspaper audition listings and other information.

Pros and Cons to a Career in Orchestral Music.

Every job has up and down sides. This article gives an inside look at life as a symphony
orchestra musician, honestly assessing aspects that one ought to consider before entering into
the field.

The Modern Symphony Orchestra: Turmoil, Liberation and Redemption.

Studies have shown that many symphony orchestra musicians are dissatisfied with their jobs. In
this article, I take a look at why this may be the case and I provide some new insight on how
this might be changed.

Performance Anxiety.

Many players suffer from debilitating performance anxiety. In this article, I address the issue in
a straightforward way, giving strategies for dealing with this condition.

Additional information that relates to the taking of auditions, life as an orchestral

musician, and performance can be found in other places on my website; take a moment
to look at the full listing of materials available in the ARTICLES and RESOURCES
areas of my website.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS:
PREPARATION AND EXECUTION
by Douglas Yeo
A graduate of Wheaton College (IL) and New York University, Douglas Yeo has been
Professor of Trombone at Arizona State University since 2012. From 1985-2012, was
bass trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1985 and on the faculty of the
New England Conservatory of Music. From 1981-85 he was bass trombonist with the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. During his time in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he
served on more than a dozen audition committees, including those that hired the Boston
Symphony's Principal trumpet, Assistant Principal trumpet, second trumpet, Principal
horn, Principal trombone, second trombone and tuba. This article offers practical
suggestions about preparing for an orchestral audition. While written from a
trombonists' point of view, most of the principles herein are applicable to players of any
instrument.
 SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: Introduction

In my many years of teaching on the college level, I have taught hundreds of lessons,
given dozens of master classes and written scores of articles. But in spite of the wide
variety of topics I have spoken or written on, I am most often asked "How did you get
your job?" The question is asked honestly, although I suspect those who ask are secretly
hopeful for some secret I could impart to them. Alas, there are no secrets, only common
sense compounded with a great deal of work.

Of course hard work does not always lead to the end of the rainbow. As a Christian, I
understand that the best - even the only - place for me to be at any given time is where
God wants me to be, whether or not it is what I want. In the years before I got my first
full time orchestral job, my understanding of this important Truth was very incomplete;
I would often pray, "God, you know how much I want to play in an orchestra. You've
given me a talent to play the trombone. Please just let me win this audition and I'll stop
bothering you about this." It was not until I allowed myself to entertain the very real
possibility that an orchestral career was not what God wanted for me did I experience
real freedom in audition taking, as I recognized that the audition was not a "do-or-die"
proposition, but rather a way of seeking confirmation of God's will for my life.

The psalmist writes, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon
and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou dost take thought of
him?" (Psalm 8:3,4 NASB) A profound thought, indeed. But it has a practical
application in our lives as well. For if the creator of the universe, the One who holds the
galaxies together, desires that you be a member of "X" Symphony Orchestra, do you
honestly think he would allow something as trivial as a missed note at an audition to
prevent you from winning the job? This realization does not give the Christian freedom
from working hard, but rather reminds us that God is God, and He will do His work
through us in ways we often cannot understand. Our goal is to seek His will and way,
and to conform our lives to it in order that we can experience the "peace that passes
understanding."

What I have endeavored to do here is to outline some practical steps any musician can
take toward audition readiness. But I write this being influenced deeply by the Creator
of all things. Working toward a goal can be a noble pursuit, but working toward a goal
in the Spirit of Truth can provide understanding and satisfaction beyond measure. Don't
forget the biggest piece of the puzzle in your preparation. Without knowing Him, you
may win the job, but will not have the satisfaction you seek.

Preparing for an orchestral audition does not begin in a practice room with an audition
list and a copy of the Berlioz Hungarian March on your music stand. It begins years
earlier, before you know what an eight-service-week is, before you care a whit about
tour conditions, and before you even know (or care) what the job even pays. It begins
on that day when something inside of you says, "I love music and want to spend my life
devoted to the pursuit of making great music for the enjoyment of myself and others."

It's exciting, it's exhilarating, but it doesn't happen overnight. Many a student has tried
and failed, not for lack of talent or perseverance, but for short-sightedness. There is far
more to winning an orchestral audition than playing excerpts. This essay is an
outgrowth of my own experiences - as a student, an audition candidate, a member of an
audition committee, an orchestral player, and a teacher.

What follows works for me, and it has worked for my most successful students. But it is
by no means the last - or even the complete - word on the subject. Take these words and
seek out the thoughts and wisdom of others, carefully processing all the information
until you find a process in which you feel comfortable. The road is long and full of
pitfalls and frustrations, but should you succeed, you will be rewarded with a lifetime of
inexpressible joy as you grapple daily with that re-creative process known as music.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: MUSICAL PREPARATION

Surround yourself with music. In this world of Muzak, boom-boxes and television, this
may seem like a profound understatement. But it is true that many people live in a
musical vacuum, unaware of the rush of sound going on around them. Music that
becomes "white noise" or background filler is not helpful in developing a healthy
musical world view. Purposefully and consciously listen to music.

Find positive role models. Finding role models that play your instrument is of primary
importance. But there are other instruments, and countless fine performers we need to
notice. My list of primary musical role models includes former teachers (Edward
Kleinhammer, Keith Brown), current and former colleagues (Chester Schmitz, Norman
Bolter, Everett Firth), and great soloists (Glen Gould, Tomofei Dokschutzer, Mstislav
Rostropovich and George Roberts). Seek out these and other role models, and become
able to articulate - specifically - what it you find to be great in them. I would, however,
caution the young instrumentalist against emulating even the greatest vocalists - the
vocal style is so unique and complicated (and often so bizarre) that until you have a
secure musical concept, a singer can easily distract you into a false sense of
musicianship.

Listen to live music. Nothing is better than hearing a symphony orchestra live,
regardless of the quality of your stereo system. If you live near a great orchestra, make it
a point to hear it regularly. You would be surprised how many students I have who live
just two blocks away from Symphony Hall never go to live concerts. It's no surprise to
me that they never get to sit on stage, either. If you live near a not-so-great orchestra, go
hear it anyway. There is always something to be learned, and live music creates a unique
sound that can only be captured in the concert hall. Listen to the orchestra; hear more
than just the parts your instrument plays. Most importantly, begin to see yourself in the
orchestra.

Listen to live radio broadcasts. Live radio broadcasts of orchestral concerts used to be
very common in the past, unfortunately they are increasingly rare due to their high
production cost. However, many orchestras can still be heard in live concerts, and
television increasingly is showing live orchestral performances. Don't become a musical
aristocrat. There is great music on the airwaves, and it comes from places other than just
Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia. No one orchestra plays
everything greatly, so resist the temptation to identify yourself solely with the "greatest"
orchestra.
Listen to live recordings. Recordings made from live concerts (as opposed to those
made in a recording session environment) are almost as valuable as live radio
broadcasts. While "live" albums often are fixed up later with a "patch" session, the
excitement of a live recording usually comes through. Music made under the pressure of
the moment - with all its imperfections - is exciting and real. I treasure many of my live
recordings for their raw energy and excitement, something that "studio" recordings
often lack. My favorites include many recordings by the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)
Philharmonic under Mravinsky. Their live recording of Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla
is one of the most stunning things you will ever hear.

Build a basic compact disc and tape library of standard symphonic repertoire. Again,
don't buy everything by the same orchestra. (The Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner
made some terrific recordings, but not everything they did is "definitive!") While you're
at it, collect other kinds of music as well - piano, chamber, string quartet and folk music.
Record live concerts on tape so you can hear them again. Begin to know conductors and
their orchestra, names of players (certainly the trombone players, but others as well). In
short, get excited about music. If classical music doesn't get your blood pumping
quickly, then stop, make your trombone into a lamp, and do something else. Don't
become a trombone jock, though - become a music lover.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: MUSICAL CURIOSITY

Audition material doesn't just appear on your music stand when you want it - you have
to find it. Most players turn immediately to orchestral excerpt books as their primary
source. As far as they go, excerpt books do very well. But they often do more harm than
good and are woefully inadequate for complete audition preparation. All excerpt books
suffer from some or all of these problems: incompleteness, excerpts written in the
wrong clef, misprints of notes, dynamics and metronome markings, passages attributed
to the wrong player, and lack of reference points (bar numbers or rehearsal letters).
While they are important to have (books by Belwin-Mills, Brown, Gade, Hausmann,
Menken, Stoneberg, Smith, Van Haney and Yeo are some you should own), DO NOT
RELY ON THEM ALONE!

I have recently added a new resource in this web site called The Bass Trombonists
Orchestral Handbook. In this section, I have included the printed music to many
frequently asked bass trombone excerpts as well as my written annotations - an online
excerpt book. Reading this resource will give you an idea of how I approach audition
material from both a performance and teaching point of view.

The best answer to the deficiencies of excerpt books is to purchase full orchestral
scores. They are expensive, but a little detective work will reveal sources for scores at
less than full price (try used bookstores and music libraries that sometimes have sales on
"tired," overworn scores). Dover has been publishing inexpensive scores for several
years, their bindings are excellent and they are full size. The investment will be well
worth it, as scores are indispensable for any understanding of a musical work. Only with
a score can you discover the relationship of your part to every other part in the
orchestra. With a score, you can copy passages that do not appear in excerpt books.

One reason why excerpt books are so incomplete is because of copyright restrictions.
Therefore, scores are your only legal source for many excerpts. Having the score
provides you with a wealth of information which is absolutely critical for your
preparation. Learn the transpositions and clefs of all instruments. In short, become an
explorer - constantly dig and question, figure out why you are playing what you are, and
with whom you are playing. A thorough knowledge of a score in conjunction with
recordings can give you an understanding of a piece far beyond your years of
experience. Be curious!

However, just as in the case of excerpt books, caution must be exercises in purchasing
scores. They, too, have mistakes, and in the case of many important composers
(Bruckner, Dvorak, Mahler, Schumann, Stravinsky and Verdi, to name a few), there are
many editions and versions from which to choose. Kalmus and other "budget"
companies usually use early editions of scores as their source because the work is no
longer under copyright and it can be reproduced inexpensively. But modern scholarship
has often produced newer, more accurate renderings of pieces, and you need to be aware
of them and what makes them different. A little thing like a displaced octave or different
clef can really throw you if you find out about it for the first time on the audition stage.
The more surprises you can eliminate, the more confident you will be.

A third alternative (beyond excerpt books and scores) is to purchase orchestral parts or
copy them when permissible. Buying parts can be expensive and even then you are not
assured of getting an accurate part, since they include mistakes as well. But the actual
part can be a help to you as it cuts out one more surprise when you walk on the audition
stage.

When you inquire about an excerpt list from an orchestra that has a trombone vacancy,
you will often receive legally reproduced excerpts of parts you can't always find on your
own. Collect and save these valuable resources.

Finally, no matter how you choose to collect the music you need, do yourself a favor
and buy German, French and Italian dictionaries and gain at least a rudimentary
understanding of each language. Don't play a piece unless you know the meaning of
every word in your part. In the case of some composers like Berg, Mahler and Strauss,
explicit instructions are given to the player in his part or in the score. Find out what it
means! Don't guess. "Grosser ton" does not mean "gross tone." An excellent little
booklet, "A Brass Player's guide to the German Instructions Contained in the
Symphonies of Mahler" published by PP Music (P.O. Box 10550, Portland, ME 04104)
is extremely useful.

Most players think that the words "nach und nach starker" in the bass trombone part of
Schumann's Rhenish Symphony simply mean "crescendo." But it's not that simple. The
words, correctly translated, mean "little by little stronger," and in my book, stronger
means a whole lot more than just getting louder (how about intensity and direction of
line for starters?). Assume composers knew what they wanted. If you can't read their
words, then you can't possibly properly interpret their music.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: GETTING AN EDUCATION

While score study and practice will go a long way toward making a fine trombonist,
sooner or later you will have to make two big decisions that will help you with your
quest of getting that orchestral position: You will need to choose a trombone teacher and
you will need to choose a music conservatory, college or university.

Hypothetically, one should only need unlimited practice time to become a top rate
player. However, to forsake a college education in favor of the practice room is a very
shortsighted decision. The school environment contributes to your musical development
in several important ways; it forces continued musical study even when you don't feel
like it, it instills a sense of discipline in you life, not only in music but in other areas as
well, it exposes you to music that you might not have chosen to explore if left on your
own, and it surrounds you with competition and more role models - peers and elders -
who can stimulate further musical growth. College is not a waste of time - don't allow
your ego to say, "I don't need it."

Choosing a college is a highly personal decision, so after reading my suggestions below,

be sure to talk over your decision with several people you know and trust before taking
this important step.

There are many excellent colleges in the world. But there is one obvious advantage to
choosing a school near a large city - large cities usually have full-time professional
orchestras, and hearing a great orchestra on a regular basis should be near the top of
your list of things to do. All things being equal, I would choose a college near a large
city with a fine orchestra rather than one miles from nowhere.

Choose a school not on its reputation, but on the reputation of its trombone teacher,
trombone students and trombone graduates. Remember, you are going to school to learn
new insights about music and music making as they relate to your instrument.
Unfortunately, many top conservatories are leaning more and more toward training
students for solo and chamber music careers, somehow considering a career in
orchestral performance to be second best. This attitude usually comes from high-level
administrators, where the president or chairman of the school is usually a soloist who
had no significant experience in orchestral playing.

Solo and chamber music careers on the trombone are virtually nonexistent (although
there are job opportunities in those fields), so look for a school with a faculty that has an
inspiring view of orchestral playing and one where you will have opportunities for
frequent orchestral performance. If a school has 40 or 50 trombone players and only two
or three orchestras, an awful lot of layers will have "excerpt classes" and "orchestral
repertoire classes" as their primary orchestral experience.

For $30,000+ a year, you deserve better than that. Some schools rotate students through
the orchestra each semester, but this is only a partial solution. I feel it is important to
keep a section of three or fourplayers together for at least a semester so they can grow
and interact with each other. When you audition at a school, ask about their ensemble
policies, and find out how many trombonists they have. The player-to-ensemble ratio is
an important factor, so be aware of it before you sign on the dotted line.

Of course, one of the primary factors in choosing a school is the trombone faculty.
There are many things to consider depending on your level of achievement and ultimate
goals. Large private and state universities usually have full-time artist faculty who often
play in local regional and metropolitan orchestras and who are often retired full-time
symphony players. Because of the high volume of students at such schools, teachers
there are often extremely capable of diagnosing and helping to solve fundamental
playing problems due to years of work with players on all levels. The perspective of a
retired orchestral player is also extremely valuable and can serve as a tremendous
inspiration.

Schools near large metropolitan areas, however, usually have part-time faculty drawn
from the nearby full-time symphony orchestra. These schools are found near the big
population centers in the East: Boston, New York Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington,
D.C.; Midwest: Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas; and West: Los Angeles
and San Francisco. The attraction of studying with a full time symphony player is
obvious - you will be working with a person who works at the kind of job you
ultimately want. These teachers all won an audition to get in their orchestras and have
probably sat on the "other side" of the audition screen as judges. Their insights into
audition preparation and orchestra literature are invaluable.

However, a full-time orchestral teacher with a busy schedule may be more of a coach
than a problem solver. Teaching is their second job, with lesson time take out of their
time off from the orchestra. Some teachers prefer to teach only students with definite
professional potential. These busy musicians sometimes do not give their quota of
lessons each semester and make-up lessons are sometimes hard to arrange due to a full
orchestra schedule. So the decision on what kind of school and teacher to choose is a
complicated one and should carefully considered. Having said all this, I believe that an
aspiring orchestral trombonist should concentrate on just that - performing.

Often a student will major in music education so as to have that to "fall back on" if a
performing career doesn't work out. This is, I believe, terribly misguided reasoning, and
often leads to one of two serious problems - an aspiring performer who, because he has
a music education "parachute" doesn't devote himself with all diligence to his primary
goal of performing and therefore fails to achieve it; or worse, a performer who, after
failing in his primary objective as a performer, bitterly resigns himself to a career as a
school teacher. Remember, a music education degree prepares and qualifies you for
state certification. It does not automatically qualify you for a college teaching job,
although what you learn may equip you to be a better college teacher should you
continue toward that goal.

The market for full-time orchestral players is so minuscule (remember that there are
only 30 full-time symphony orchestras in the US, ranging in salary from under $10,000
to over $100,000 per year) that it certainly pays to consider alternative employment
options. My point is that the pursuit of an orchestral job requires a single-mindedness of
purpose. A person training to become a primary or secondary school teacher embarks on
a course of study of the greatest responsibility - the education and inspiration of our
children. If you feel the "calling" to train in music education, then press on with all
devotion to that goal. The education world cries out for people dedicated to teaching.

The option to teach if a performing career doesn't appear realistic always exists. If, after
a number of years, you discover an orchestral job isn't for you, you can always go back
to school for your certification credits, or go for another degree. But please, leave our
children to those who love to teach. Teaching is a profession of the highest calling.
Nothing is worse than looking at a primary or secondary teaching career as just a "job."
The Bible cautions us to remember the important responsibility teachers have, "Let not
many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a
stricter judgment." (James 3:1 NASB)

If you want to perform, then major in performance and go for it. If you want to teach,
then major in music education and continue to perform, and resolve to be the best
teacher you can be. Our children will thank you for the honesty of your decision.

One final word on the subject of college, as unfortunate as it may be. Having been
involved in higher education for many years as a studio teacher, coach, classroom
teacher, conductor and administrator, I have become distressed at the high level of
squabbling and political maneuvering that goes on among many faculty at the college
level. Caveat emptor! Faculty members would all like their students to play in the best
ensembles and get the choice part assignments. In some cases, placement decisions are
not always made strictly on the basis of auditions results - even allowing for the role
seniority sometimes plays in placement. You as a student have the right to expect fair
play and decency in all dealings with faculty - you are, after all, paying their salary.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: THE AUDITION SYSTEM

By now, let's assume that you've committed yourself to preparing for an orchestral
career. You listen to music, study scores, practice your parts, attend a good school and
have an inspiring teacher. What do you do now?

First you need to find out what orchestra has a vacancy. See my article Pursuing a
Career In Orchestral Music for more information and links about places where you
can find out about vacancies. One of the best places to go is

MyAuditions, a comprehensive website of information for people interested in taking

orchestral auditions. MyAuditions posts hundreds of vacancies on all instruments for
jobs both in North American and overseas. They also have excellent articles, news
items, and discussion fora on the subject of the symphony orchestra field.

Most American orchestras, following suggested audition guidelines set by the American
Federation of Musicians (the professional union of musicians in the United States and
Canada), advertise orchestral openings in the International Musician, the monthly
publication of the AFM. If you are a union member, you already get this valuable
newspaper. If you are not a member, either join the union or borrow a copy from a
friend who has one. College placement offices will sometimes have a copy.

Professional orchestral auditions are most often governed under one of the four
following systems:

1. Everyone interested in the position is invited to play in person for the audition
committee.

2. A small number of applicants are invited to the audition on the basis of their
reputation, experience or resume.
 3. A number of applicants are invited to the audition on the basis of the reputation,
experience or resume, and other candidates are required to make audition tapes.

4. All applicants are required to make audition tapes/CDs.

Of these systems the first and second are rather rare today while the third and fourth are
becoming increasingly common. There are advantages and flaws with each.

The first system would seem to be the most fair. Anyone who wants to audition comes
and plays for the audition committee. Until a few years ago, most auditions were run
this way. However, as music schools began turning out more aspiring players, this way
of holding auditions became seriously flawed. Today, more than 200 players may wish
to come to audition for a single position. Such an audition would take days to complete.

The audition committee would have to spread the audition dates over a number of
weeks, since blocks of three or four days off don't exist for orchestral players. To solve
the time problem, there is often more than one audition committee, each with its own
ideas and standards, and each hearing players in different locations. Fatigue and
boredom are big factors for the committee, and the process is simply too unwieldy for
most orchestras.

Further, most of the people who play are totally unqualified for the position, and this is
a colossal waste of time for everyone. False hopes and expectations arise in a candidate
who is allowed to come unprepared, hoping that "luck" will be with him on stage. The
outcome is usually deeply disappointing for the player and results in shattered dreams
and a waste of money.

The second system was an attempt to weed out unqualified candidates. Inviting only
"known" players insures that only good players will come, reduces the number of
candidates to a reasonable number that can be heard in one or two days, and usually
insures that a winner will be chosen. But, the major flaw in this system is that the
resume or reputation doesn't tell the whole story. It has generally been a courtesy to
invite candidates from parallel or higher ranked orchestras, but that doesn't necessarily
mean that those players are viable contenders for the position.

Just because a person plays in one orchestra doesn't mean he will be able to play an
audition up to the standards of another orchestra. Further, this doesn't allow less
experienced players a chance at a job they might rightfully win. Everyone who wins a
job does so with little or no experience at some time in their career. Consider the
following examples:

Eric Carlson: North Carolina Symphony - Baltimore Symphony - Philadelphia Orchestra

John Engelkes: Baltimore Symphony - San Francisco Symphony

David Herring: Florida Gulf Coast Symphony - Minnesota Orchestra

Thomas Klaber: Detroit Symphony - Cleveland Orchestra

Steven Norrell: Phoenix Symphony - Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

 Charles Vernon: Baltimore Symphony - San Francisco Symphony - Philadelphia
Orchestra - Chicago Symphony

Douglas Yeo: Baltimore Symphony - Boston Symphony

In each case, the player had little or no professional orchestral experience to list on his
resume when he auditioned for his first job but was given the chance to play and won.
Each continued to audition and moved on to a position in a top orchestra.

The third system invites known candidates but allows others to make audition tapes of
specific excerpts under specified conditions. This is the most popular system used now.
The decision, however, of who is required to make a tape is often an arbitrary one. What
are the determining criteria? Who you know? Orchestra rank? Salary? A famous
teacher?

The fourth system requires all applicants to make an audition tape. In a sense this is as
fair as the first system when everyone plays live. But many excellent players don't feel
they can make a good tape so don't bother, and experienced players who already have
good jobs feel they should be invited on the basis of their reputation and are sometimes
"insulted" at having to make a tape. The entire process would seem to be one big Catch-
22.

It is obvious that no one system is foolproof. Music is a visceral art, not something that
can be measured with mathematical averages. While the idea of the "Great Trombone
Playoff" is fascinating, it is clear that the art of trombone playing will always be a
subjective call, judged by diverse personal standards and ideals, and subject to myriad
outside factors. Trombone players aren't measured by batting averages; players are
simply judged by whether or not a listener likes the way they play.

It must be remembered that in all audition systems, a given committee on a given day,
with a given group of candidates, in a given time and place, might well choose a
different winner were even one of thousands of variables different. That is the harsh but
inevitable reality of an orchestral audition. Orchestras (usually) try to make the system
as fair as possible in order to insure that the best candidate will be chosen. Usually it
happens, but sometimes it doesn't. This is why orchestras have probationary periods
ranging from one to three years before a member is granted tenure. It is not for you, the
audition candidate, to pass judgment on whether or not the system is fair. It is your job
to do your best to work within any system so you can get a chance to prove that you are
the player and person the committee should hire.

While the end result of any audition is to find the best player for the job, the immediate
goal of the audition committee is to eliminate as many players as possible as quickly as
possible - to separate the wheat from the chaff, if you will - in order to get the audition
to the point where a selection can be made from a small group of outstanding players.
That is why auditions use standardized repertoire for all candidates; it gives the
committee a quick means by which to judge one candidate against another. Ultimately,
the finalists will be judged against the "ideal," whoever or whatever that is (often it
exists only in the mind of the listener), but in the early going, candidates are judged
against each other. All you have to do at that point is to be better than everyone else.
Every audition has only one winner.
 SYMPHONY AUDITIONS:
GETTING INVITED TO THE AUDITION - PART ONE

When you read or hear about an opening in an orchestra, before you even know which
audition system the orchestra will be using, you need to make an inquiry concerning the
requirements for the audition. Sometimes the advertisement will specify information
about the audition - dates, location, and whether or not tapes/CDs will be required. In
any case you need to do two things - write a letter and write a resume.

Letters to personnel managers (the person in the management of the orchestra who is
responsible for organizing audition committees, reserving dates and times for auditions,
insuring that all players are where they belong for each rehearsal and concert and a
million other duties) should be easy to write. But after looking at hundreds of letters
sent in response to openings, I realize how many people have no idea how to compose a
simple letter. Here, then, is the basic form:

Dear Mr. Porcker,

In response to your advertisement in the September 1955 International Musician, I

would like to be considered for the position of principal mute carrier of the Melonville
Symphony Orchestra. Please forward information regarding the date, time, location
and repertoire for the audition. My resume is enclosed for your information.

Thank you.

That's it. It is simple enough, and a letter similar to the one above would bring smiles to
the face of any personnel manager (or more importantly, his assistant or secretary). The
letter simply asks for information. It doesn't ask for favors, doesn't boast, doesn't ramble
and says clearly, "I am a literate human being."

The resume is, simply stated, the main event. It is the single most important document
you will ever create. More than a dry recitation of your musical accomplishments, it is a
reflection of you as a person. That a resume should be prepared with thought and care
is, again, an understatement. But in my experience, I have seen only a handful of
resumes that made a good impression on me. What most people don't understand is that
resumes really do matter.

You may be invited to an audition even if your resume is a mess (after all, if you have
the right qualifications, the committee wants to hear you play the trombone - they're not
going to give you a spelling quiz). BUT, your resume will be looked at after you are
invited. If you get to the final round, chances are that your resume and those of the other
finalists will be pulled out and passed around to the committee members, including the
music director.

Keep in mind that a committee is looking for ways to eliminate people. With all things
being equal between two players, which one would you hire - the player with a neat,
professional looking resume or the one who misspelled a dozen words and wrote it in
long hand with a green ballpoint pen? The choice is obvious. Yourresume says, "Hello,
this is me. This piece of paper tells you that I am a confident, conscientious professional
who will be an asset to your orchestra. Give me a chance and I will show you what I can
do."

Here are a few suggestions for writing that most important document.

1. Your resume should CONTAIN THE TRUTH.

2. Your resume should contain only RELEVANT INFORMATION.
3. Your resume should be ONE PAGE LONG.
4. Your resume should be impeccably NEAT.
5. Your resume should be COMPUTER GENERATED OR TYPED.
6. Your resume should be on WHITE NON-ERASABLE PAPER.

That a resume should be truthful and relevant would seem obvious, but it is painfully
evident that players, especially ones who are young and inexperienced, stretch the truth
and pad their resumes a great deal - to their own embarrassment. A resume must contain
only information that is vital for an audition committee to assess your playing
experience, training and ability, to wit:

NAME

ADDRESS

TELEPHONE NUMBER with area code

PRESENT POSITION(S) WITH DATES

PAST POSITION(S) WITH DATES

EDUCATION - Schools from which you received degrees and the date of graduation;
other post-secondary schools attended and dates

PRINCIPAL TEACHERS with their positions

ONE OR TWO REFERENCES with their positions and telephone numbers

Unless the orchestra specifically asks for it, NO OTHER INFORMATION IS

CONSIDERED RELEVANT! As to what constitutes a present or past position, common
sense and honesty much prevail. Non-musical positions should not be listed, nor should
any high school all-state band or orchestra memberships. Among other things that
should stay off a resume: Membership in the International Trombone Association, Phi
Mu Alpha or MENC, the fact that you are in the top orchestra in school, the dates of
your solo recitals, who your teacher studied with, a listing of summer camps you
attended (unless it is a highly prestigious and nationally competitive festival such as the
Tanglewood Music Center). A committee wants to know what significant musical
experience you have. If you have no experience, your resume should show it. A padded
resume fools no one and looks bad. How you list experience is also important. For
example, if you played extra or substitute with a professional orchestra, list it like this:

- Boston Symphony Orchestra (substitute) 2006-2011

 - Grant Park Symphony (extra player) 2012

To leave out the words "extra" or "substitute" is misleading and again fools no one.
Dates are important. If you are still in college, list your projected date of graduation.
Your resume will no doubt be slim, but your honesty will be appreciated.

In listing references, phone numbers are important. Do not send written references from
teachers and conductors with your resume; they are meaningless. Almost anyone can get
a written reference from a teacher; conductors are only slightly more difficult to pin
down. Every teacher will write a reference saying that his student is great and should be
invited, likewise with conductors (although if you play so well in his orchestra, why is
he writing a reference for you so you can get another job?).

Written references will most likely be discarded. Very rarely will a reference be
contacted by an audition committee - if you have no experience and your teacher thinks
you're the greatest student he has ever had, the committee will probably still want you to
send a tape. You must fight your own battles and let your resume speak for itself. But, if
you are a borderline case and you list a credible reference whose opinion a committee
member respects, it may help, should additional information be requested of you.
NEVER HAVE A TEACHER OR OTHER REFERENCE CALL COMMITTEE
MEMBERS ON YOUR BEHALF. It rarely if ever influences a decision and most
often hurts an applicant by putting a committee member in an awkward position.

If all this information cannot fit on one page, then you need to trim the fat. List only the
most important, significant things you have done. You will find that as you do more and
more performing, you resume will get smaller and smaller.

Finally, remember that a resume reflects how you feel about yourself. Use good, clean,
white bond paper. Most people will use a computer to layout and print a resume; this is
a good idea since you can easily update your resume as your job situation changes. Print
it with a laser printer - never use an ink jet printer because if your letter ends up caught
in the rain, or a committee member drools on it, it will be a mess. Make the resume
attractive. Use good size margins and the tab key to create an aesthetically pleasing
document of which you can be proud. Don't mix eight different fonts and silly graphics
(please, don't use a paste-in of a trombone!). Keep it simple, neat and clean. When you
are done, look at it carefully and re-read it a hundred times. Take care that it accurately
represents you in every way.

GETTING INVITED TO THE AUDITION - PART TWO

If you are highly experienced and have been invited to the audition on the basis of your
resume, you can skip over this section. But given the current climate at auditions,
chances are that sooner or later you will be required to make a taped/CD preliminary
audition. This method of screening applicants is increasingly popular, so, like it or not, it
will pay to learn to make a good quality recording.

After submitting your resume, you will probably receive material from the orchestra
personnel manager detailing how your tape should be made. Follow all instructions
exactly with particular attention to:
 What excerpts are to be recorded

What editions should be used

The order in which the excerpts are to be recorded

The type of recording equipment to use

The type of tape to use

The type of noise reduction to use

The type of recording environment to use

TLabeling instructions

In order to make auditions as fair as possible, most orchestras will send the exact music
required to be played on the tape. This eliminates confusion about which edition to use
and where to start and stop. Most personnel managers are meticulous in specifying
requirements, so don't bombard him with stupid phone calls explaining that you have
seven seconds of space between each excerpt instead of five. Use your head.

For the taped audition system to be successful, the player needs to make a tape that is a
reasonable representation of his playing. However, every audition committee knows
that, in reality, each candidate had unlimited opportunities to get an excerpt right. There
is no reason to settle for less than a perfect "take." The committee has no opportunity to
ask to hear something again. If you let an excerpt stay on your tape that is out of tune or
out of time, a committee will simply say, "That's the way that guy plays, since it's the
best he could do." Perfection is a high standard, but given the opportunity to make as
many takes as you need to get it right, you must settle for nothing less. Perhaps a bit of
insight into audition tape listening will help you understand why.

As a member of an audition committee, listening to tapes varies between boring and

hysterical. Most people will send awful, pathetic tapes with poor technical quality and
poor playing. They are painful to listen to and constitute an utter waste of time.

Interest in a player is contingent on a high standard demonstrated from the very

beginning of the tape. Tapes are not usually listened to in their entirety. Often a cut-off
point is established, usually half way through the requested excerpts, at which time the
committee is informally polled as to whether there is sufficient interest or need to hear
more. At times, only one or two excerpts will be heard if a player seems beyond hope. If
a player is great you know it after one excerpt, if he's terrible, you usually know it after
three notes. Thetimes when a tape will be heard all the way through are when it is
exceptional and the committee is relieved to hear someone who could actually win the
job or when the playing is so awful that a full run-through provides much needed comic
relief. The key, therefore, is to make your first excerpts "perfect" in order to capture and
maintain the committee's interest.

Making your tape should be relaxing, enjoyable experience. If you're worried that you
won't be able to make a good tape, then don't bother to make one. Making a tape is an
audition. But instead of pleasing members of an audition committee, you have to please
an even more discriminating critic - YOU. After years of listening to music, peers and
role models, after countless hours of practicing and score study, after hearing dozens of
live concerts and hundreds of radio broadcasts and records, you know what is good and
what's not. Do not settle for less.

For this reason I recommend making your tape by yourself. Find a comfortable room in
which to make your tape. Remember, follow the instructions your received from the
orchestra. Any suggestions I make here are secondary if they conflict with the
instructions you receive. Concert and recital halls and churches are usually too
reverberant for good tape results; your living room will be too dry. Try a big rehearsal
room or classroom at school or a fellowship hall of a church. Make sure it is big enough
to give you some resonance and satisfaction when you play there, but not so big that
your sound and rhythm get lost in the rafters.

Make sure your environment is quiet and free from outside noise (traffic, kids playing,
telephones, elevators, flushing toilets, etc.). Set up your recording equipment in
accordance with the instructions you received. If no specifics are given, I suggest the
following: Use a high quality chrome tape such as Maxell XL-2 or TDK SA with Dolby
B. Use the highest quality microphones and tape you can rent, buy or borrow. Set the
microphones about 15 or 20 feet from you and about seven to ten feet high. Do not
attempt any fancy stereo effects. Make sure you record on both channels. Single channel
recording is annoying to listen to.

Set your recording level to peak at about + 3 dB, since any higher will probably cause
distortion; any less will give you unwanted hiss in quiet passages. Experiment with
various microphone settings while playing through the excerpts in any order you want,
but make sure you play everything for each microphone/level setting. Keep your tape
recorder on and do this for about 45 minutes. When you're done, make careful notes
about the exact location of you, the microphones and any other large objects that might
be moved. Then pack up and go home.

On the next day, play your tape back and decide what combination of mike placement
and volume level sounds the best. Take notes on how you played: how was your rhythm,
pitch and dynamic range? Did you project too much style into the excerpt, thereby
distorting the rhythm? Be critical; analyze yourself carefully. A committee will.

Then go back to your recording site and make your tape. In a reasonable length of time
(perhaps 20 or 30 minutes), play through all of the excerpts with the tape rolling. Stop
playing at once if you make an obvious mistake like a cracked note (you don't want to
waste your chops on a take that you know you'll never use), but keep playing through
what you think are minor lapses. Don't get frustrated or paranoid, but continue to play
things two or three times until you feel you have captured on tape at least one good
representation of your playing for each excerpt.

When you get home, listen to your tape and choose the best take of each excerpt (no
splicing, please) and with another tape deck of equal or better quality, transfer your final
takes onto another tape. When this is done, listen to your finished tape critically. Ask
yourself, "Would I invite me?" If not, repeat the process up to two more times. If you
can't get it any better, then send the tape as is, or forget it and keep practicing for
another time.

Do not waste your money on a professional recording studio unless you are specifically
told to use one. Their rates are often outrageous (by the time you are done at some
studios, you may find you could have bought your own equipment for the same price),
their product is often not very good (artificial reverb sounds like artificial reverb) and
most engineers do not have the faintest idea how to record a "legit" trombone sound.
Because it is so expensive, you will be putting yourself under a lot of pressure to get
done quickly. You will learn so much more and make a much better tape if you do it
right yourself.

In 1984, I made an audition tape in order to be invited to the audition for the Boston
Symphony Orchestra bass trombone position. I subsequently won that position in 1985.
To hear that tape in mp3 format, and to get more insight on how I made it, go to the
Douglas Yeo Boston Symphony Orchestra Audition Tape page of this website.

There are, of course, many different ways to make an audition tape and a lot of varying
opinions on the best way to record the sound of a brass instrument. For some additional
tips on making your tape, see this interesting article from Electronic Musician
magazine by David Summer titled Record great brass sounds in your personal
studio.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: BEFORE THE AUDITION

Congratulations! Your resume and/or tape has been accepted and you've been invited to
the audition. Now the fun and real work begins. Getting invited was like graduating
from high school. It was a big accomplishment, but very soon it will be history, and
you'll be competing on a new level against only the best players. This is no time to rest
on your laurels. You must redouble your efforts and focus on the audition day.

Continue your diligent practice and study. Concentrate on the orchestra for which you
are auditioning. Find out as much as you can about the trombone players; be able to
recognize them at sight. The International Trombone Association Journal has published
many interviews with trombone sections that can give you important insights. Listen to
broadcasts and recordings by "your" orchestra (you should have been doing this all
along, anyway). If possible, hear the orchestra play a concert in the audition hall and,
best of all, try to get to practice in the audition hall if even for only a few minutes.

Grab some friends and, every few days, play a dry run audition for them. Put yourself
under pressure to make every excerpt count. Play the entire list straight through once
every few days. Play it in alphabetical order; play it in reverse alphabetical order. Put
every excerpt on a 3x5 card, mix them up and choose eight to play. Keep mixing them
up because you never know in what order they will be asked.

Fear no excerpt. You cannot have any excerpt that you hope will not be asked. Every
excerpt must be your best, and they must be known so well that they are nearly
automatic. If you have to stop and think about everything you must put into an excerpt,
you will paralyze yourself. Playing music with conviction and confidence requires the
art of remembering everything, and then forgetting it all so you can be free to express
yourself in a natural way.

Practice in as many different large rooms or halls as you can. Get used to having a
strong reverb come back at you. Be able to "over articulate" in order to achieve clarity.
Know your dynamic limits, both loud and soft. Practice excerpts under and over tempo.
Feel comfortable being flexible. Be critical! Continually set higher standards for
yourself every day. If you get satisfied with yourself, then set a new standard.

Plan to arrive the day before the audition so you are not tired on the audition day. Allow
your body time to relax. Put distance between your plane, train or car ride and the time
you'll be auditioning - travel takes its toll even if you're not travelling outside your own
time zone. Go to the audition by yourself - don't take your wife, husband, kids,
girlfriend, boyfriend or neighbor with you. NO DISTRACTIONS! Keep away from
artificial stimulants and depressants. Alcohol and caffeine are diuretics which act as
dehydrating agents, drying out your mucous membranes. Adrenaline causes some of the
same effects, so you don't need anything else contributing to drymouth. Smoking cuts
down the efficient exchange of oxygen in your lungs, so stay away from any foreign
substance that has an unnatural effect on your body. Don't do a lot of talking the day
before and day of the audition - talking dries out your mouth and makes you distracted.
If you're talking, you're not thinking about what you need to do at your audition. Can I
say it again: NO DISTRACTIONS! Be drinking water and keeping quiet. Calm is the
operative word. Focus on your task. Don't eat anything unusual and resist the temptation
to sightsee if you are in an unfamiliar city. After you win the job, you'll have lots of time
to see the sights.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: AUDITION DAY

Warm up before you get to the audition site - perhaps some very light mouthpiece
buzzing and 15 or 20 minutes or relaxed warm up. Resist the temptation to play too
much. You may have a lot of playing to do over 12 to 16 hours. Because you have been
getting in peak shape for the past few weeks, you don't need a two hour practice session
before an audition. All you should need is some relaxed playing just to get comfortable.

After you check in at the hall, find out when you will play, tell the personnel manager
where he can find you, and then disappear. Don't look up old friends, hang around and
talk trombone with other players, let people try your horn, listen to other people warm
up, or generally socialize. There will be plenty of time for that after you win or get cut.

Don't warm up too much. Get comfortable and then put the horn away. Your chops will
be there; blowing every few minutes just to check them will tire you very quickly. You
may need all the "face" you can muster later in the day. Spend time reading, relaxing,
breathing deeply and being quiet. At my last three auditions, I spent most of my free
time before and after rounds reading the Bible and praying. (Psalms 25, 91, 103, 139
and 145 have been especially helpful to me during auditions.) I walked on stage relaxed
and refreshed, without fear and with confidence. Find something to do that will relax
you even when you are most uptight and cultivate that habit.
Drink a lot of water. Water fills your stomach and keeps you from getting hungry at the
wrong time. It also keeps your body super-hydrated and therefore works to prevent
drymouth. In addition, it also gives you something to do and can have a calming effect
on you if you are a little nervous. If you drink the equivalent of eight ounces of water
every 10 minutes, you will find that you have to go the bathroom every 10 minutes, too
(begin this routine earlier in the day as "transit time" for water from entry into your
body to exit is approximately four hours). When you're not on stage, you'll develop a
path from your practice/relaxing room to the water fountain, to the bathroom and back
again. This routine keeps your body moving and the cotton out of your mouth. But don't
forget to relieve yourself just before you play or you could find yourself in an
embarrassing situation on stage! Drink water only. Keep away from soda, tea, coffee,
milk and other drinks that will stay in your mouth even after you brush your teeth.
Water is the perfect drink. Learn to like it.

Concentrate on your goal. Keep looking at music, playing the excerpts in your mind, not
on the trombone. It's too late to practice now; you simply need to remind yourself of
some of the pitfalls of each excerpt. It may help to write some thoughts down. Don't try
some new breathing place or interpretation you overheard someone else use. Be
confident of your style, even if it seems different from everything else you have heard
that day. It may just be what the committee has been waiting to hear.

Forget about everyone else. It's useless to waste energy thinking about the big name
people who are at the audition and what equipment others are using. Remain alone with
your thoughts and your concepts. Keep away from distractions and concentrate on how
you will project yourself.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: WHILE ON STAGE

If permitted, use your own parts since they will look familiar to you. However, make
sure that they conform exactly to the parts provided by the orchestra, and that you play
only what is required. Be sure your editions match (this is why you checked all editions
before coming to the audition - if something is different, you won't be thrown off by it
now).

Blow some notes on stage only if it is absolutely necessary. This is not a warm up time.
A few mezzo forte notes in the middle register should quickly tell you all you need to
know about the acoustics of the hall. An extended "show off" warm up that quotes
excerpts and concerti is an assault on the already oversensitive ears of the committee
members, and you may lose points even before your audition officially begins.

Blow freely, but don't overblow; don't be careless but don't be overly conservative
either. Neither play as loudly nor as softly as you can. Always have room to spare at
both ends of the dynamic range in case you are asked to play the excerpt again louder or
softer.

If you are asked to play something again differently, make sure it is different! Don't be
stubborn and think to yourself, "That's not the way it goes." You're there to win the job,
not educate the committee and conductor. If they ask for an excerpt double tempo, do it.
Be flexible.
When you finish your round, wait until you are dismissed by a committee member or
the on-stage monitor. Maintain concentration after you finish since you may be asked to
play something again immediately. Do not be depressed if the committee members
speak in a terse, cold manner to you from behind the audition screen. It is a waste of
energy to read things into a committee's behavior. Leave the stage confident that you
projected yourself in the best way you could on that day under those circumstances.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: BETWEEN ROUNDS

Immediately after playing on stage, eat something. Preferably bring something with you
to the hall - something bland and familiar, just to fill your stomach and keep the growls
away. You may have a long or short wait until you play again. Your body needs
nourishment, so eat immediately to allow it to settle before playing again.

Continue your regimen of drinking water and above all, keep up your attitude of
concentration. Don't bother over-analyzing your recent performance. Resolve to play the
next round even better, and stay away from that trombone! You have no idea how many
rounds you may yet have to play. At this point, as the number of competitors begins to
dwindle, don't feel surprised that you have gotten as far as you have. Remember that
your promotion to the next round is your just reward for the diligent work you have
done over the preceding months and years.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: SECTION PLAYING

Many orchestras have a round of playing with other members of the trombone and tuba
section as a part of the finals. This is an important time since it will show if you can
quickly adjust and blend with the other players.

Most important is your ability to play in tune with the other players. Tune carefully.
Listen critically to the others. Don't be timid; approach the excerpts with fullness and
confidence. You are attempting to become a peer of the other players on stage so act like
one. Be respectful, but don't fall all over yourself in awe that you are playing with
"symphony musicians."

Remember that the other section members are in a sense playing an audition, too. There
they are, having to play in a section with a total stranger in front of their music director
after having not played all day long. They want to look good and most likely will do all
they can to make you feel comfortable.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: IF YOU GET CUT

Getting cut from an audition is a painful experience. It's posssible that you could have
had an off day, or that the committee simply didn't like what they heard. Use each
audition as a building block, trying to learn something from it that will help you the next
time. If after several auditions you are not getting past the first round and you feel you
are playing wonderfully, perhaps it is time to review your standards instead of blaming
every audition committee for being crazy.

Sometimes a committee will offer their written comments to candidates. These can be
helpful, so ask the personnel manager if they can be sent to you. Keep in mind, though,
that comment sheets are kept for the benefit of the committee members. Some
comments may seem inconsistent or downright bizarre. If you don't understand them,
throw them away.

SYMPHONY AUDITIONS: SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

As in the pursuit of any goal, the means do not always justify the end. It is unfortunate
that there are players who, in desperation and frustration, will try any means possible to
win a position or prevent another player from doing so. Music is (or should be) a
dignified profession made up of dedicated, hard working professionals. Deal fairly and
honestly with people, give colleagues the respect they are due, and be courteous to all
you meet.

Should you win a position, maintain your interest and curiosity in music - once properly
cultivated, such a discipline will be with you through your career, helping to stave off
"burnout" that affects many professionals. Remember your responsibility to God, the
public, to your colleagues, to those who gave of themselves to teach you, to the
composers, and to yourself.

If, after a number of years, it becomes obvious that an orchestral career is not for you,
do not feel embarrassment or shame. Your hard work and discipline will help you in
redirecting your energy toward other, more realistic goals. The decision to leave the
audition "circuit" is a difficult and painful one, but a courageous one as well.

The audition system is not perfect, but it is the door through which all those who want
to play in an orchestra must pass. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of your quest, you
will have gained a love and understanding of music that will remain with you for the
rest of your life.

I have previously published three other articles on taking auditions from which some of
the material in this article was derived:

"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Tuba Auditions, But Didn't Know Who
To Ask. . ." T.U.B.A. Journal, Vol. 11, No. 3, Winter 1984.

"So, You Want To Play In An Orchestra? A Primer on Audition Readiness." International

Trombone Association Journal, Volume XIV, No. 4, Winter 1987.

"Winning an Orchestral Audition: Some Tips for Wind and Brass Players." The
International Musician November 1992.