Auditions

So here's the deal: today's walkabout journal was wimpy at best, but I've been meaning to write about auditions. I wrote previously about my first audition and haven’t said anything about them since. So now I will write a review of the experience as a whole so that you can experience it too! I know, auditions really aren’t anybody’s favorite thing to do so you would think living vicariously through me would be rather unpleasant in this situation. But I promise not to get too gruesome. ;)

So you know about my awesome experience at Butler. That Monday, I traipsed over to Bowling Green, and on Friday I went to Pittsburg to audition at Duquesne. Both at Duquesne and Bowling Green, only the oboe faculty listened to me. At BGSU that’s only one person and in many ways it felt like my least formal audition. For one thing, I didn’t go on an audition day, so there weren’t a hundred nervous high school seniors all around me. It was the only place I only had one person listening to me, too. After I played she gave me a suggestion or two, and we talked about Bowling Green while she readjusted my oboe. That last part was pretty awesome. At Duquesne, I met a girl named Kirby who auditioned right after me. I found out that not only would she audition at Baldwin-Wallace and Oberlin as well, but that we would be auditioning at both on the same day again. Sure enough, we met at both schools. I wonder if we’ll play together next year.

Over the course of the next month, I was excepted by the department or school of all three of those schools—within two days of each other, if I remember correctly. Each has offered me an academic scholarship and Butler has offered me a talent scholarship already. I’ll be interested to see if the other two send me any such awards. I get the impression that’s generally decided in March, so I guess I’d be hearing about that soon? I haven’t been so much as accepted into the colleges of Case or Baldwin-Wallace, and I didn’t even apply to Oberlin’s college: just the conservatory. So I know I won’t get an academic scholarship from Oberlin. I can’t say I’m expecting a talent scholarship from them either, but more on that in a minute.

On February 20 and 21, I auditioned at Case and Baldwin-Wallace respectively. Butler was the only place where I could sense the enthusiasm of my audience, although at Case I’m fairly certain I won over the band director. There, I was heard by the oboe professor, the orchestra director and the band director. At B-W, I was heard by the woodwind faculty, and at Oberlin I was heard by the oboe faculty. I met Case’s oboe teacher for the first time at my audition, which really isn’t a great time to do that. I’m not sure what my impression of her is; it’s too skewed by nerves. I’m not sure what her impression of me was either. That was another good thing about meeting the teachers before hand; you already know the kinds of things they think are important and in some cases they’ve even told you that they would like to have you as a student. That’s always really reassuring to think back on, let me tell you.

Oberlin. It’s an impressively competitive college, but it’s a ridiculously competitive conservatory. And Alex Klein, who teaches oboe there, is practically hailed as a god by some oboists. Over at Obohemia, they almost hyperventilated from excitement when Alex Klein agreed to do a master class at Laurier. So I just waltzed into Oberlin and played for Alex Klein and Robert Walters. (OK, I didn’t exactly “waltz in,” there was a $100 application fee, along with a pretty hard core application. PS, Robert Walters isn’t exactly a name to be sneezed at either. He plays English horn for the Cleveland Orchestra, after all.)

For a while now, I’ve been reading blogs that tend to be dismissive of conservatories like Oberlin, complaining about this that and the other that’s approached wrong, and at once I’ve gained enough awe of the place to add up to the feeling that I probably would not get in, certainly wouldn’t get a penny from them (in scholarships), and would possibly be better off anyway. On Friday night before my audition, I met some of their studio and heard an oboist’s junior recital. It opened some door in my mind: “wouldn’t it be f***ing awesome to go here?” I really believe that feeling now, more than I did when I applied or even when I visited at first.

And I have to say, my audition went really well. For all that I had gotten in touch with a real desire to get in, I didn’t approach it the same as the other auditions. I was just excited to be there really, and excited to be playing for the people who were listening to me. I already had some acceptance letters to back me up and remind me of my worth, and I went at the ordeal with no purpose but to make music. That’s what it’s really about, you know? So who knows, I may yet get an acceptance letter from Oberlin. Cross your fingers for me?