Tips From An Audition Panelist

Yesterday I was on an audition panel for the American Viola Society, which is holding its biannual meeting in Los Angeles at the Colburn School. The candidates were all still in college and not yet on the audition circuit. It was a great experience for those young violists to experience what a professional audition feels like.

With yesterday's events clearly in mind, I thought I would share some thoughts about the experience from the committee’s experience.

Hurry Up!

When you step onstage for the audition, the proctor will usually announce your number. From the moment your number is announced, don’t wait more than 10 seconds before playing. The committee is really attuned to those first notes and you don’t want to make us wait too long. When you wait too long, you try our patience and we start losing interest. Is that fair? No, but it’s the reality of the situation.

"But wait," you say. "I want to feel comfortable and ready. Shouldn’t I be able to take my time before I play?"

Yes, but not for 30 seconds! (If you time it out, that’s a really long time to sit in silence.) Remember that auditions are run on a schedule and you are only one of many players during the day!

What If My Brain Isn't Ready?

The point is to make everyone happy. You want to be ready to play with a minimum of fuss and preparation. So you should be mentally preparing in the few minutes before you walk out on stage.

Here's one of my favorite audition tips: mentally prepare for the audition by spending time visualizing yourself taking taking the audition, from your own point of view. See yourself walking onto the stage. Hear in your mind the first thing you need to play. Practice this by walking into your studio as though you were walking onstage. Breathe and begin. Rinse and repeat!

And because sometimes it's hard to feel at ease at the very beginning of your concerto, or the first excerpt, be sure that you always practice the opening few bars of each piece. This way you will be rock solid for those bars to give yourself time to really settle in and connect with the music.

Summary

Don't make the committee wait a long time before you start. The trick to doing this, and to playing your best in general, is to spend a lot of time visualizing yourself onstage, playing a great audition, and going through the motions of walking into a room and playing your first piece within a few seconds.

Playing the actual audition is 90% mental preparation. Be sure you have set yourself up well in order to play your very best!

So get ahead on your preparation and try these two tips now!