i hope your summer is going fabulously! i've been busy developing a clinic on the subject of audition preparation, and i'm delivering it 4 times in various parts of the world. the first class, for the wonderful students of the boston university tanglewood institute (BUTI) percussion department, was absolutely phenomenal.
if you're anywhere near the three remaining locations, please come and say hello! bring your audition preparation questions and i'll give you everything i've got.
6/28: tanglewood (done!)
7/08: south africa
i'm currently smack in the middle of my amazing festival in south africa called the stellenbosch international chamber music festival. my class will be in fismer hall at the music conservatory of the university of stellenbosch from 3-4:30pm, south africa standard time.
this will be my 3rd time (!) teaching at the juilliard summer percussion seminar. the class is from 3-5pm, eastern time, in room 309 at the juilliard school.
i'm so honored and excited to join the indiana percussion academy and workshop this year for the first time ever. my class will be from 10am-12pm.
note: if you are interested in coming to this, please email me and i'll do my best. :-)
hope to see you there!
preparing for an audition?
here's the free 5-step guide to preparing for an audition. (and slow practice doesn't appear once.)
for any instrument.
it’s episode #7 of the auditionhacker podcast, and i’ll go over:
how i spent 6 months perfecting the 12 delécluse études,
the special strategy i used in preparation, called “the magical shrinking self-recording workflow”,
how preparation needs to be structured for a recording vs. a live audition, and
my best tips and strategies to make a recording session go smoothly.
it’s episode #6 of the auditionhacker podcast, and i’m going over:
the legendary and now-defunct practice of challenges,
adopting the olympian mindset as a musician, and
the most accurate indicator of future audition success.
i've worked with hundreds of musicians on audition preparation. and nothing - NOTHING - has been as effective and life-changing as when they start self-recording the right way.
imprecise rhythm is something that can get you cut from an audition IMMEDIATELY (regardless of your instrument). and great rhythm is something that an audition committee can sense, both consciously and subconsciously. hearing someone play in the pocket just feels good.
well, i have a few tricks up my sleeve to straighten out my rhythm, and today i'm sharing one of the most effective strategies.
in today's episode, i'll go over:
my audition journey and how i ended up winning the met opera job,
3 of my favorite audition hacks, and
the one thing that's so much more meaningful than the result of the audition.
things i do on audition day:
warm up by playing on the hotel pillow,
watch vast amounts of tv shows on my phone, and
never drink coffee.
when i was in detroit in february i got to interview three great DSO musicians on how they approach audition day. pretty fascinating to see how their approaches are so different from each other.
i’m endlessly fascinated with how musicians practice (as you know). so i was fortunate to talk to augustin hadelich, international violin soloist, about how he gets ready to play a different concerto with a different orchestra every week.
it's episode #8 of the auditionhacker podcast, and i'll go over my best methods for getting better feedback.