Thursday, September 23, 2010

better late than never

(I wrote this a while ago, but with Timmy's ordeal it just never got posted. I felt it still deserved to be posted ... so here goes!)
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It is true, our summer activities have been done for about a month so why has it been so hard for me to blog????


I had an audition


It was actually a really big deal for me and occupied any extra brain space that I had left. I know that your next question is ... "how did it go?" I wish I had an easy answer, but here is what happened.


It was a blind audition. I was pretty proud of my playing in the first round, despite my nerves. I made it to the second round :-) and played better, I even got all of the hard spots in Tombeau!! (This is the excerpt that was my Nemesis. I couldn't even play it a month ago!)


Verdict comes back that they hired .......... no one. Yup, that's what I thought too! How could they hire no one? Well, they invited us to go and meet the panel and get feed back if we wanted to do that, which I definitely did! (I do VERY well with feed back).


I met the panel and all seven had raving reviews of my playing! The only thing that they had any issue with at all was my rhythm. This makes sense to me because I can have this tendency to play a little uneven when I am:
A) nervous
B) not playing with a metronome/conductor
C) all combined

They kept raving about my great pitch, my musicality, my hard work (after they realized that I prepared an audition with 2 small children at home), my dynamics, my ability to "nail the hard stuff" and finally ending with telling me how close I was and that it was just "not quite good enough to offer me a full time position" (dang rhythm). They did offer me a contract to play the Christmas concert with them, which of course I accepted. One of the women on the panel is involved in a smaller orchestra in a different small town and asked my permission to give them my name. Later I got an email from the oboe player asking if she can pass my name onto yet a different orchestra. So where I didn't get the job I went for I "kind of" got three jobs. I know they didn't offer anything to the other auditioners and so I was the best there, which is good news.

The panel kept saying over and over that they really want me to come and audition next year, which I will.

So the overall result was more positive than negative and I feel good about myself and my playing. Though I can't help but feel a little disheartened. Nobody likes to hear that they are really really good, and a very impressive player, just not quite good enough. Oh well!


7 comments:

Lisa said...

I think that with the little time you had to prepare you did an awesome job and were the only one offered a job and possibly more. You should feel proud and give yourself a pat on the back. I'm proud of you!!

Dorienne said...

I love your attitude. I love that you wanted the feedback. Way to go. And, how is Timmy?

Fred ... said...

Good job, I think you play perfectly. I'm feeling good about next year.

Brandon J. Leavitt said...

No need to beat yourself up. :)
I just found out that my judge I worked for two years ago that I applied for this year decided to hire someone else WITHOUT EVEN INTERVIEWING ME!!!! That was a blow to my self-esteem. I want to take back all the nice things I said in my cover letter.

Peter and Mandy said...

Hey I take all of that as good news, Congrats!

lori lester said...

if there was a like button on this post i would press it. :)

Alycia Grayce (Crowley Party) said...

It has been awhile since you have really been playing like this, so don't sweat it!
Looks like it has really opened some doors for you! &and if you can find the time with your crazy schedule and get some more oboe playing time in, I am sure you would have no problem at next years audition!
YOU ARE AMAZING :)