Do you like opera a bit, but don’t like to stick around for three hours or more? Check out Five:15.
I wouldn’t mind hearing what these folks came up with. I doubt I’ll get to Scotland soon though, unless someone wants to send me there. (Pretty please?! I love Scotland!)
Apparently there were no women available for the project (unless I’m missing something when I look at this) in the area of the Scottish Opera though. Too bad, eh?
With shopping carts. (Or “trolleys”.)
😉
I just found this charming. And I’ll bet those people had lots of fun doing it, too!
Here is a good blog entry about auditions. If you want to know what musicians are up against, read it. Jason Heath has written about the cruel and unusual punishment as well (including a post about his horrible experience with San Jose Symphony —for some reason I feel to blame, which is so darn pathetic and typical of me! Why, oh why do I feel guilty for things with which I have nothing to do?!), and you can read what Elaine Douvas had to write about the issue too.
Ah, auditions. Such a curse. Nearly as bad as making reeds. Or no … I take it back! … WORSE.
I’m thankful I landed my little jobs early on, and that even with the death of San Jose Symphony, which I joined in 1975 and stuck with until it failed in, I think, 2002, I managed to sort of “deal”, due to the creation of Symphony Silicon Valley. (Sure, we have a LOT fewer services, but it’s better than nothing. I think.) I had one audition with San Francisco Symphony eons ago. I didn’t play well and, to be quite honest, I wasn’t even close to prepared for it. Now I don’t plan on auditions. I’m 51. I have work. I love what I do. And I would not love to do an audition. So there you go.
But for all those who deal with this horrendous punishment we call auditions, you have my admiration. And sympathy.
In Other News
… and sort of an audition too, eh .. I gave up on American Idol. I simply couldn’t stand it any more. I thought I’d manage to muddle through, but bad singing is bad singing and I don’t have the tolerance for it. Bad judging is also bad judging and so just never mind about that show. It’s a waste of my time.
… but yesterday I was put on film. I really was. But no biggie, to be honest; UCSC had to videotape a few lessons for my review.
This sort of thing is nothing stressful to me. Maybe it’s not to most musicians who spend time on the stage. I simply don’t pay attention to a camera. I’m there to teach. So I teach.
Truth be told, today was a rather good day. Students sounded fine. I was feeling good. And now I can check one more thing off the list … and I believe I’ve finished everything else for the review as well. It all gets turned in next week. Then it’s up to the powerful people; I continue at UCSC or I don’t. (I don’t have any reason to be fearful, but of course I AM an oboist so a bit ‘o worry will probably creep in.)
Last Week …
I neglected to mention this: I went to UCSC’s orchestra concert last Friday night and they did an excellent job! Bravi tutti to everyone, and of course special mentions to Daniela, Becky, Max, Sylvia, Kevin AND … kudos to Sara and her conducting as well as Sam and his wonderful soloing on the Elgar Cello Concerto. Woo hoo!
Blogging at its freest is like going to a masked ball. You can say all the spiteful, infantile things you wouldn’t dream of saying if you were in print or face to face with another human being. You can flirt with anyone, or try to. You can tell the President exactly what you think of him. You can have political opinions your friends would despise you for. You can even libel people you don’t like and hide behind an alias. (It’s very hard to get back at anonymous bloggers who defame you because, by an act of Congress, Web site administrators aren’t liable for what’s written on their sites. And erasing anything on the Web is almost impossible.) You can assume a new identity and see how it flies—no strings attached.
Read here
(And may I say right off the bat that I’m sort of hesitant to link to this because … well … looks like I’m playing the game or something. Silly me.)
I don’t care for anonymous blogs. I tend not to read them. I like accountability. Anonymity seems … dare I say it? … cowardly. (Sorry to you anons out there, but I am just being my old honest self.)
Uh-oh. I’m probably in trouble now. 🙁
