It was finally Sunday morning. It was time to check the results from the audition on Saturday for the Regional Junior High School Orchestra. It was the first time I would be auditioning for anything, and it was even harder for someone who wasn’t very comfortable with being judged as soon as a horsehair hit a string. To this day, I will never forget the panicked and anxious cacophony of sound that always emitted from the warm-up room, which only fueled my anxiety. When the results finally appeared, disappointment washed over me as I was unable to locate my audition number. “It’s ok, Jenna, you can just try again next year,” said my father, slightly disappointed, but empathetic. I wish I could have warned him that I would most likely fail that next year as well. The second time, the disappointment from my parents was elevated significantly, as all of my teacher’s other students were accepted, and I was the only one who was not. As an 8th grader left behind by all of her friends who did make it in, I lost motivation to practice more and improve my playing skills. I did not handle these two failures very …show more content…
I had to change the way I viewed the audition. Rather than viewing it as a chore, or something that all of my friends did, I approached it as an intriguing challenge. I decided I would do it for myself. I would practice and audition in order to make myself and the three judges listening to me, happy. I avoided immersing myself into my anxiety, and was surprisingly relaxed by the time I reached the entrance of the building. Even as I walked into the warm-up room, the air thick with tension and fear, I managed to calm down and warm up properly, facing the wall away from everyone else. My responsibility as a musician was to create beautiful music, and display my love for my instrument. I focused on making the piece sound beautiful and pleasant to the ears, rather than displaying the technique and style of the
This past fall, I was given the opportunity to audition for VA district 13's district chorus. As a member of the FUMA choir, I saw this as a breath of fresh air. Our choir is ok, but it has its strengths and weaknesses. Passing the audition would be easy, a short song and sight reading, I mean, it's not rocket science. Passing the audition with flying colors, I had about two months to prepare the chosen songs. (Learning a part solely by piano can be a long and tedious process, but thankfully we were provided practice recordings of our parts.) With only two months to learn my part, I hit the ground running listening to the mp3s whenever I had a chance to.
During my junior year, all high school students of the Coachella Valley were given the opportunity to audition for the All Coachella Valley Honor Band, with a guest conductor H. Robert Reynolds. This was a significant educational opportunity I took advantage of. The audition consisted of a couple of scales, and excerpts from the music that was going to be performed on the day of the concert. When the day came I sat in front of the judge with my music and clarinet, where my nerves began to rise. Before I began to play my heart began to pound along with my hands beginning to sweat. Throughout my audition I had a few mistakes,but I stayed persistent and completed my audition. After I finished my audition, the judge said I had done great, I was
The auditions were in January of 2012. I did not know of the results of my performance, and neither did Mr. Carter. I began to put it off until for the rest of the day. I really did not know what to think. I believed that it was a successful audition, but my doubts had come into play, and the thought of it all started to just make me nervous. I mean, how could a child, who knew little about music, possibly accomplish such a
In seventh grade, I decided to audition for the higher ranking jazz ensemble at my middle school, Jazz I, one of the few bands in the school that had both seventh, and eighth graders. As always, I did a great job of finding things to worry about. Things such as what if I wasn’t good enough to be in the band? Since the moment that I picked up my dad’s trumpet and tried to play, I’ve loved playing. I wanted more than anything to be in the jazz band. We had played some jazz in band before, but nothing like what they play in Jazz I. I brought home the audition sheet the day that it got posted on the wall, and practiced every night until the audition. On the day of the audition, I walked into the room, greeted the teacher, and played through the sheet of scales and exercises as well as I could.
The cast list for the upcoming spring play was finally posted. We had been waiting anxiously for it and there it was. Audition day was the most nerve-wracking experience I had ever had as a freshman in high school. I wanted everything perfect so when I completely froze and forgot the next part of my monologue, you can imagine how terrified I was. From that moment on, it was prayer and improvisation. As I continued to scan for my name, my hands were shaking uncontrollably. I made it. I do not think any freshman girl could have been more excited than me at the moment. I felt so accomplished. The first rehearsal was incredible but little did I know what great blessing God had hidden in this entire experience.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I auditioned for District III. District III is an organization of music educators in the region of Maine, spanning from Freeport to Camden. District III holds various music festivals for different age groups. I auditioned for the high school honors band. I wasn't very aware of the audition piece and I didn't take the needed time to practice it. The day of the auditions, I entered a large gymnasium full of talented high school musicians from various schools in the region. I realized all of these incredible people have dedicated a lot of their time to the auditions. I knew I didn't put in all the time I actually needed to orchestrate this piece correctly. I didn't make in into the honors band, but I was affected greatly.
Finally, around 10, it was my quartet's turn to audition. I hauled open the heavy classroom door and walked in with a faked confidence, my heels clicking against the linoleum floor as the rest of my quartet followed behind me. The room was a refrigerator, more due to the judge’s cold stare underneath his combover than the air conditioning being on too high. Our pitches were plunked from a piano in the corner of the room and we began singing America the Beautiful. The rest of our excerpts followed. Somewhere halfway through, I began to enjoy myself and how our group sounded as we cascaded down heart wrenching scales in perfect intervals and held clashing notes we had worked so hard on making just exactly
Like most places, an audition has to take place and knowing me, I was scared out of my mind. The Camerata Strings came first, which was easy to do because everything they asked
As I at in front of the judge with my music and clarinet my nerves began to rise. I then began to play my audition, which included scales and excerpts from songs, that determined whether I would be in the All Coachella Valley Honor Band conducted by H. Robert Reynolds at the McCallum theatre. After I finished my audition, the judge then said I had done great but I was still nervous inside. The next day the results were going to be posted online. That day I checked anxiously until the results were released, I then noticed that I had placed fifth chair playing second clarinet part. As soon as I received the music I began to practice because in the next couple of weeks we were going to be having practices, to prepare for when H. Robert Reynolds
After school today I auditioned for the play the Music Man. In order to audition you must prepare a song and memorize a set of lines the teachers give you beforehand. Even though I am well prepared, I am still nervous. My hands are trembling and my body is heating up. I paced outside the auditorium doors and rehearsed my lines over and over again. The auditorium doors open and it was my turn to audition. I walked in slowly and see the teachers and the student director sitting in the audience. I could feel a meltdown about to happen. I wanted to run out of the auditorium, but I knew I had to audition. I wasn’t going to let my nerves get the best of me. I walked to the piano and placed my sheet music down. They said that they needed to take a few minutes to organize
“I wasn’t accepted?” I wondered out aloud as I opened the letter from my dream school. I thought I had everything I needed to reach the goal that I had set years ago. As I normally do, I began overthinking the situation and immediately had many questions. “Will a different college accept me?”, “Did I not accomplish enough in high school?”, “Were my SAT scores not high enough for their standards?” Everything felt open ended and clearly there was no one to get the answers from. The feeling of frustration grew quickly as I tried to figure out where or what went wrong. I began questioning everything. I know that I worked just as hard as everyone else, but the results were short of my goal. One question was at the top of my mind, should top
I felt my heart stop. This audition would determine what I will spend the rest of my year doing. Making it would mean that I spend the year working on jazz music. I take a deep breath and listen to my starting note, a C. I open my mouth to sing and begin remembering all the training I’ve done for this. It remind me of the state competition.
I have always been a planner, ever since I was little. SO when it came to being ready for the talent show, I was a little more invested. A critical step was to change into my talent show costume at the end of class, to ensure that I was ready. I had to pretend to my friends that I would be so embarrassed for everyone to see me in my costume even though I felt excited for the attention on the inside.
It was May, two years ago. I walked into a room filled with girls, each accompanied by their mom or dad. My mom, dressed in a nice sweater and black pants, pulled me up to a table with a woman sitting in front of it. This woman looked in her 30’s and was wearing a light blue dress. She said “Please fill out this form and feel free to take a seat while you wait.” My mother dragging me along, walked to another table and sat down. I proceeded to sit next to her. It was obvious I was nervous. My sister stood next to my chair telling me I was going to do fine. This was the first time I had auditioned for The Fulton Theater.
It was an awesome show, and the lead female role, Ariel Moore, seemed to be just like what I could potentially do onstage. So, I decided to audition. I chose a great belting song to show off my voice and I didn’t worry about the dancing. I just had fun. And then I got a callback. My very first callback.