“Advance” (Part 1)

Hello All,

It all started about two weeks ago. A friend from Masterworks told me I should audition for the Principal position in the Northwest Indiana Symphony. Hesitant at first since I would only have a week to prepare, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to at least try to get a slot. I emailed my resume and received a slot and was told I was the last one in the first round.

As I prepared for the audition, almost all of the excerpts I already knew; the others I was familiar with and learned them quickly. Thanks to help of Amanda Davidson, I felt prepared and went into the audition knowing I just wanted to do my best. Since Kylee also had to leave Winona Lake for an interview in Ohio, I borrowed a friend’s car (that was almost as big as I was).

As I arrived, I found out they were also doing principal trumpet auditions at the same time. Basically, they would listen to a few trumpets, then trombones, etc. My audition was the last audition for the day, then they moved on to the finals. The excerpts for the first round were:

Tomasi (first page)
The Ride (minor/major)
La Gazza Ladra
Bolero

The excerpts went quite well. The 2nd excerpt of La Gazza had a few scuffed notes, and they asked for it again which went well. The same was with Bolero. After I played the excerpts, I felt good about them. There was only one other in my group and they quickly told me I advanced…they wanted to hear me again….