Friday, January 3, 2014

Audition Thoughts Part 10

Originally blogged May 22, 2012

I felt very unprepared for this audition (I'm noticing a theme...) because of 2 excerpts I simply didn't have ready. But the prelim round was standard and despite some rather obnoxious warm up behavior from another bassoonist, I was very pleased with my playing. Everything went without a hitch and my Brahms excerpt...well...it was stunningly quiet! I heard the audition before me, a bassoonist that did advance. He took everything fast but also very clean and flawless. I'm not surprised at all that he advanced and realized that compared to him my playing was clean but not as impressive. However, this whole process really is individual and comparing myself to others is not a worthwhile endeavor.

I am happy with my dynamic range and musicality. I'm happy with my tempos and technic. I think that I now need to really work for that *sparkle* of sound, work for more forward movement - without speed necessarily - and I think I might need to achieve just a slightly darker tone. I know I am a bit on the bright side which is dictated by what I do locally as a free lancer but I don't think it's working for these second bassoon auditions.

Birmingham is a lovely city! If this audition opens again, and I can get a reasonable flight, I will definitely take it again.

Overall, I'm very content with this audition and so much happier with what I did here, over what "went down" in N'Orlans 2 weeks ago.

Funny realization: after chatting with a few other bassoonists, I realized I was not the only one who had adopted the strategy of going to Alabama assuming all the hot shots would be in Jacksonville for that audition. After chatting with my best friend who was at the Jacksonville audition I learned there were only 26 at the Jacksonville audition. In Alabama...over 40!

Whoops! I guess we all had the same brilliant idea!

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