AUDITION TRAINING -INTRODUCTION
Skye Carman, director
In my
experience as Concertmaster, member of a violin section, teacher, jury
member, chamber musician, and soloist, I have come in contact with violinists
of every level of ability. I have found that one of the most sadly neglected
aspects of a musician's education is the preparation for a job in an orchestra.
Fortunately, this problem is being currently addressed by many conservatories
and music schools. Unfortunately, even being brilliantly prepared to function
in an orchestra means nothing if one can't get the job! This means being
trained to take auditions.
My own personal experience of having taken more than twenty auditions
for orchestras has taught me that auditioning is a science and an art.
For anyone pursuing an orchestra career this can and must be learned.
But how?
In most cases, as in mine, one learns by simple experience. Trial and
error. My first audition was a horror I shall never forget and one which
I vowed never to repeat. I wrote down everything that had gone wrong and
everything I had to change. This list included aspects of my playing,
simple logistical pitfalls, everything I could remember of the whole awful
experience. A week later I took another audition and was offered the job.
I had proved to myself that through simple measures, just by being aware,
I could improve my performance significantly.
It goes without saying that one has to be able to play one's instrument
sufficiently well to warrant a job in an orchestra, and one needs self-awareness
to know if the level for which he aims is concurrent with his abilities.
Our aim is not to teach one to play. We aim t o teach the participant
how to present himself to the maximum advantage by showing him how to
prepare every aspect of the audition properly and to the best of his ability.
As Concertmaster I have been on the listening side of auditions,and have
seen others make not only mistakes in the music, but mistakes in behavior
and in judgement which have prevented them from succeeding.
Nine years ago I consolidated this information and created the Audition
Training. Since then I have given this Workshop in the United States,
Holland, Spain, and Denmark. We give the training at the Meadowmount School
in New York, and in Holland, as part of a training sponsored by PodiumKunstWerk
and the Landelijk Bureau Kunsten. In Spain the Workshop is being given
to the various regional youth orchestras. In Denmark the national musicians
union sponsored the training.
All music students can benefit from this training. Young people who
have already decided on an orchestra career, certainly, but also those
who plan to become teachers or chamber players. The exceptions of course
are those who are destined to become soloists. This last category can
prove a bit tricky, since so very many players set out to become soloists,
but "end up" in an orchestra.
This attitude does much to thwart the attempts to train orchestra people
early for an orchestra career - there is often a stigma attached to those
who have already "given up" their solo career plans. I feel
that if there was serious attention given to preparing students at the
pre- college and college level for taking auditions, and learning the
repertoire expected at auditions, it would encourage young musicians to
prepare for any path that their careers might take
.
This does nothing to diminish the real problem of lack of time. Many teachers
know that they should be preparing their students for auditions and teaching
them orchestra repertoire, but the demands on the students to learn technique
and solo repertoire make this impossible.
The Orchestral Auditions Training team suggests that our course can
give the students the basis for learning how to prepare themselves for
orchestra auditions by
- familiarizing them with audition requirements
- showing them how to prepare specifically for auditions
- giving them knowledge of and experience with required repertoire
- giving them the self-confidence to cope with failure and move on