Charles Noble – on auditioning later in life


Patty from oboeinsight made some recent posts highlighting a story about auditioning on Charles Noble’s blog Daily Observations. Check out the story–it is about his recent audition for the Seattle Symphony, and it is a great document the whole complicated and stressful process.

This is a great “insider” classical music blog. I just added it to my blogroll in the sidebar of this blog.

Part I:

Many of you may not have been aware that over the past two weeks I’ve been preparing for an audition for the Seattle Symphony this past weekend (April 19-21). The orchestra had two vacancies, for Assistant principal (2nd chair) and section.

As a relatively young person (38) but also a person who is a good deal older than most active auditioners (mid to late 20’s), I have been wondering about my competetiveness in the audition scene these days. Over the past five seasons or so I’ve taken two auditions, both for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and I did not progress beyond the preliminary rounds. The last time I progressed to the semi-finals was in Minnesota back in 2000 or so, and I’ve only made the finals once: for my current job. (read more…)

Part II:

On the morning of Friday the 19th I’ve driven up to a home of two good friends in the Dash Point area. I take an hour to get I-5 out of my bloodstream, then go over the whole range of music that I need to be ready to play that afternoon. My audition time slot is a range of between 5:00 – 6:45 p.m. I need to arrive at around 4:15 to get a warm-up room and be ready to get the list of excerpts that will be required for the preliminary round. (read more…)

Part III:

The next morning I wake at 7:00 a.m., as I need to get warmed up and look at a few spots before driving up to Seattle for the 10:00 a.m. call (meaning I need to arrive there at around 9:15). This time I get an even swankier soloist dressing room, complete with its own toilet, sink and shower, plus two windows, but minus the tuner and metronome (I guess soloists don’t need either of those instruments). (read more…)

April 24, 2007 · Filed Under blogging, orchestra news

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