{"id":4592,"date":"2010-05-05T20:27:30","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T03:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=4592"},"modified":"2010-05-05T20:29:43","modified_gmt":"2010-05-06T03:29:43","slug":"more-audition-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/05\/more-audition-nuggets\/","title":{"rendered":"more audition nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Principal violist Jo\u00ebl Belgique leads a meeting before the preliminary round of auditions on Tuesday morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The past two days we held viola auditions for a section viola position here at the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 Turnout was relatively low, around 40 people actually showed up for the preliminary round.\u00a0 A position has been offered to one of the finalists, but I can’t give any more information than that at this time.<\/p>\n

It’s always a learning experience for me to sit on an audition committee (nine players, including the five string principals, members of the section, and an at-large member of the wind-brass-percussion section), and this time was no exception.\u00a0 A couple of thoughts about the process for participants and interested observers over the last two days:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The concerto is just as important as the excerpts<\/strong>.\u00a0 Why? Because that initial impression that the committee gets from the solo is hard to overcome if it’s a negative one.\u00a0 You’ve eliminated virtually any benefit of the doubt that you could have earned from those who are evaluating your audition.<\/li>\n
  2. The spiccato stroke is vital to a good audition<\/strong>.\u00a0 That’s why everyone asks for the Mendelssohn Scherzo<\/em> from A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em>.\u00a0 A good, even, controlled spiccato indicates a high level of bow control and sophistication of technique.\u00a0 Basically, if your Mendelssohn Scherzo<\/em> is not good, don’t bother showing up at an audition – it will eliminate you.<\/li>\n
  3. Rhythm in the concerto\/solo matters<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yes, you do have some leeway that you might not be allowed in the excerpts, but all of us on the committee know how the orchestral accompaniment goes, too, and if you’re doing some wacky stuff that clearly would not fly with an accompaniment, it’s going to cost you some goodwill.<\/li>\n
  4. Play in tune.<\/strong> Seems obvious, but it happens much less than one would suspect in auditions for most orchestras.\u00a0 Play both with a orchestral tuner (the kind with a needle display) and play against a droned pitch.\u00a0 It will work wonders in centering your pitch.\u00a0 I wrote “pitch” in my notes for 95% of the candidates.\u00a0 Our winner played absolutely in tune for all three rounds.<\/li>\n
  5. Dynamics are your friend<\/strong>.\u00a0 A lot of people play in the range of mp to mf.\u00a0 In excerpts that require pp to fff.\u00a0 This isn’t good.\u00a0 It’s hard to play well from very soft to very loud, but it is essential (especially in the softest dynamics, which are the acid test for the best orchestras) to show the committee that you can play the extremes and all the gradations in between.<\/li>\n
  6. Use up-to-date editions<\/strong>.\u00a0 In Mozart and Beethoven, especially, it’s important to have parts that are from a good scholarly edition that has the latest iterations of articulations and errata.\u00a0 Call the personnel manager and find out what parts the orchestra library is using.\u00a0 Then order your own parts.\u00a0 It will help you not only to play the articulations and notes that the committee is reading from the orchestra’s parts, but also will help you to mark the exact excerpts with the same rehearsal letters and bar numbers that the principal will be using at the audition.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The past two days we held viola auditions for a section viola position here at the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 Turnout was relatively low, around 40 people actually showed up for the preliminary round.\u00a0 A position has been offered to one of the finalists, but I can’t give any more information than that at this time. It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[238,2,22],"tags":[3668,2271],"class_list":["post-4592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-auditions","category-the-orchestra-world","category-viola","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-viola-audition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1c4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22435,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2022\/06\/10\/time-flies-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4592,"position":0},"title":"time flies!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My last post here was on January 2nd, 2022. Just over six months ago! How did this happen? I'll tell you. The short story is that I decided to take the audition for Principal viola of the Oregon Symphony, from which Jo\u00ebl Belgique retired during the pandemic hiatus period. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2785,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/30\/viola-audition-alert\/","url_meta":{"origin":4592,"position":1},"title":"viola audition alert","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just saw this message on Edmonton Symphony music director William Eddins' facebook page: ATTN ALL VIOLISTS - The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is holding International auditions for our Section Viola opening on Monday, 28 September, 2009. Guaranteed clean audition, wonderful orchestra, one of the best halls in North America. Come one,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7233,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/13\/another-oso-musician-goes-to-boston-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":4592,"position":2},"title":"another oso musician goes to boston symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Matthew McKay, who just joined the Oregon Symphony percussion section this season, has won a position in the venerable Boston Symphony. He will be joining former OSO cellist Adam Esbensen, who left for the BSO in 2008. Problematic for the Oregon Symphony percussion section is that the runner-up in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Matthew-McKay.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5380,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/01\/new-musicians-join-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":4592,"position":3},"title":"new musicians join symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a spate of auditions at the end of last season, and the results netted us three new musicians who are all now settled in Portland and playing with the orchestra.\u00a0 They are Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney, oboist and English hornist Kyle Mustain, and violist Silu Fei.\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/jonathangreeney.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13062,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/08\/hard-truths\/","url_meta":{"origin":4592,"position":4},"title":"hard truths","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In the world of professional cycling, the time trial is known as the 'race of truth'. You are essentially alone on the road, trying to ride your hardest and fastest sustainable pace for the entire distance, trying on top of that to set the fastest absolute time of the field\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Strauss-Ein-Heldenleben","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Strauss-Ein-Heldenleben-500x287.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3332,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/11\/on-auditioning\/","url_meta":{"origin":4592,"position":5},"title":"on auditioning","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's been quiet here at the blog for some time, so I thought it might be a good thing to tell you what I've been up to.\u00a0 I went down to Los Angeles this past Sunday to take the audition for the 3rd chair viola position (Assistant principal) of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}