March 7, 2005 at 10:48 AM

Had auditions for Uni Orchestra today. We had exerpts from Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 2, Mozart Symphony number 40, and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet suite 2.

My lesson today was spent on those exerpts as it was my only lesson time I had since receiving the exerpts and the audition this afternoon. I then spend two hours at uni practicing them. By the end of that, they were sounding really good. I was pretty confident.

It didn't really matter how I did in this audition, as all the string players were garenteed a spot, the audition was just for desk placement. I guess I really wanted to perform well though, just to prove it to someone.

To UWA.

I'm at the Conservatory of Music, which is part of the Western Australian Acadamy of Performing Arts. It's one of two music instutions in WA, the other being the School of Music at UWA. UWA is rather pompous - it has the highest entry requirements of any of the universities in WA, and of course, this makes everyone want to go there believing that they will do better there, or their degree will be worth more because it came from that uni.

Most of the string players attend UWA, because they have a "better" teacher in Paul Wright. I admit, he is a very good teacher, and I would like to learn from him one day should a better offer not come along. However, I have more chance from learning from him, me being at a different uni, than every first year that applies there.

UWA would love to run the con out of business (my opinion only). Most of the orchestra will be of UWA players. Last year, the only two oboists enrolled in a performance course were from the Con. So what did UWA do? They begged and pleaded with an old oboist (and very good mind you) who wasn't doing Performance any more, to be in the orchestra.
And once it got to the final concert, they decided that they wanted a fully UWA wind section, so all the con players were told they were no longer neccessary.

So, I guess I kind of wanted to show UWA in my mind that the con does produce good players, of the quality of UWA. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.

I wasn't really nervous before the audition. But I was put in an unfamiliar circumstance. I had to go into the audition and not say a word. THe Adjudicator was behind a screen. I was told to write my name on a sheet of paper, tune up, then start. My Rachmaninov wasn't too bad, a bit of nerves, and I hoped that they'd go away as I kept playing. However, they didn't. Mozart started ok, but got worse. Prokofiev was horrid. I missed my shifts, was vastly out of tune. I was ashamed of my performance.

I probably didn't sound too bad, and I'm sure that if I had been able to see the adjudicator, I would've been more confident, and he would've been able to see if I was nervous or not. Now I have to hope that the adjudicator heard nerves, and not "this person has bad technique."

I was going to do some practice tonight, but it's boiling hot. ANd after the audition, I think I just want to grab a beer and veg out in front of the telly.

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March 7, 2005 at 10:48 AM

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