Re: Conservatory Auditions


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Posted by Bill Pritchard on October 23, 2001 at 15:01:19:

In Reply to: Conservatory Auditions posted by Andrew P. Welborn on October 20, 2001 at 21:58:34:

hi,
1. play a solo which represents you best abilities, don't try to play something you can't. Something standard might be a good idea (ie. Vaugn Williams, Gregson etc.) but make sure it's something you can or have performed.
2. You would also want to offer a etude or two. The best way to do it would be one lyrical and one technical, so you can show them what you can do.
3. Most of the big schools are looking for orchestral excerpts, so showing your knowledge or the standard rep. (see the tuba source book for a good list or if you don't have one, check with your techers or email me).

If you are particularly good at something (ie. triple tounging or really fast or clean slurs) try to work that into your audition at some point. The idea is to sell yourself as a player. Start forming ideas about what kind of carrer path you want to follow and why that particular teacher or school would be good for you, because they just might ask you that very question. Analyze you own strenghts and weaknesses as a player and musician and be honest with yourself. And make sure you know all of your scales (maj and all forms of min) because there are some teachers that will aks them.
As far as the atmosphere, I had a great time at Eastman and I learned so much from Don Harry and from the other teachers there (Mark Kellogg, Jeff Anderson, Doc Marcellus etc..) and it was great to be around wonderful musicians every day.
Since I did my masters there, at my audition I had my CC (Yamaha 822 at the time and my F PT10). I'm not totally sure how many people auditioned, but the next year when I sat in auditions I thinkk something like 25 or so showed up (but I could be wrong). All of te grad auditions I took were really cool, no one tried to freak me out, they just wanted to hear what I could do and wanted me to be as relaxed and as comfortable as possible.
good luck, sorry for such a long post,
Bill Pritchard


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