……For the first time in ten auditions I moved past the first round. I was entering new territory. Not knowing what to expect I tried to continue what I did for the first round. Then came the waiting game. After they were done with the prelims they wanted to listen to the 5 trumpet semi-finalists. It was already 7:00 when they started the semi’s for trumpets and they spent 20 minutes with each. Then the trombone finalists began. I went to my room to get ready and start the beginning of each excerpts and hitting spots to get to the sweet part of a note. The Final round excerpts were
Organ Symphony
Appalachian Spring (2 excerpts)
Mahler 3 (1 excerpt)
Hungarian March
Tannhauser
Once again, I was the last person to play for the final round. I received an encouraging text prior that read, “Keep it simple. Breathe Breathe Breathe.” and I that’s what I wanted to do. I knew my body and face were a little tired from the days activities (festival schedule, morning rehearsals, etc.) but I still wanted to do my best and not worry about that. I walked in and there were five or six on the panel.
The excerpts went well for the most part. On the sustained excerpts (Organ, Mahler, Tannhauser) my control of the sound was not strong. It is a tendency that I am working on– keeping the longer notes more stable. It was very noticeable to me in Tannhauser, in addition to just losing gas. I did for the most part keep things in the box dynamics-wise. At the end of Tannhauser, the conductor asked if I could play it again as if I were playing over the orchestra. It went okay.
As I finished, I knew I had a long shot at winning. I learned a lot from that round, such as PACING myself! Endurance is what hurt me the most. But I feel fortunate to have gotten that far. It gave me hope in myself.
I really appreciated the encouragement and prayers from my friends at Masterworks. It was humbling to hear people whom I never told about the audition come up to me saying they were praying for me. What a great place to be in the music world.
As for now, back to practicing more excerpts!
PS A special thanks to Amanda Davidson for helping me throw this audition together in a week. Greatly Appreciated for your efforts!
From
Jer
Micah 6:8