Let's get this out of the way: I did not get into either Curtis or the Academy of Vocal Arts. I did not even make it to the final round of live auditions for either school.
Ouch. That felt like an emotional band-aid. It hurts my pride to put that on the internet. It makes me ashamed. It makes me feel like I've let down all the people who have invested energy, expertise, and love in me, starting with my mother and continuing through my teachers and friends. I feel like I have misrepresented them. For me, that is the worst part of any letdown. Anything less than brilliant success feels like it reflects badly on those who have encouraged me to shine. That said, I actually did close to my best in both auditions. My Curtis audition was fine. I got a massive adrenaline rush as I walked into the audition. I was literally shaking the whole time, which was incredibly annoying because it mostly affected my hands. So I probably looked terrified, whereas I only felt a little bit nervous. The panel was Mikael Eliasen (head of the opera program) and four students. I began with "Faites-lui mes aveux" from Faust, which went well enough. I sang and acted well. I moved around more than I would have liked, but it was all grounded in intentions and emotions. Then I had a little water. They had a little table with a pitcher of water and little cups on the stage, which was nice of them because the air was very dry. Maybe that was the wrong choice. Maybe they were judging whether you could make it through without water. Hmm, I didn't think of that at the time. Well, definitely too late to choose differently. Then they asked for "Svegliatevi nel core" from Giulio Cesare. I did a pretty good job with that one as well. They didn't talk to me or ask for anything further, so I thanked everyone and walked out, sharing a small smile with Mr. Eliasen on the way. Overall, the audition was good. Not my best ever, but definitely a solid try. I am proud of my AVA audition. And I am NEVER proud of an audition. My usual gauge for auditions is, "did I crash and burn and/or sound terrible? No? SUCCESS." This audition demolished that system. I really, truly did my best. I felt calm and energized, my voice was responsive and free, I was grounded and relaxed in my body, my breath was flowing nicely, I acted, and, most importantly, I performed. I was even able to incorporate some of what I learned in an exciting and wonderful lesson that I had the day before with the incredible William Stone. I only sang "Faites-lui," but I did my absolute best with it. The pianist started faster than I wanted to go, so I just slowed him down by singing in the tempo I wanted when I came in. No fuss, no muss; I wasn't even fazed. I'm really proud of that. When I confidently walked in for the audition, they asked me about my name, so I told them the ethnic origins of both parts. I was funny, but I didn't babble. I have a tendency to babble when I talk in auditions, so being succinct but interesting was a real triumph for me. After I sang, I thanked the pianist and the four faculty of the panel, then wished them an excellent day with a smile as I walked out. I represented myself to the best of my ability in that audition. In conclusion, although I did not get into either program, I did my best, learned a lot, and got more experience doing high-stress auditions. I would call this experience a successful failure. I can't wait to fail better in the future.
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When one has a day or two to kill in Philly, what does one do? Go to New York City of course!
I decided on Friday that it might be fun to go to New York. So I texted my cousin, who lives there, and asked if she was free on Saturday. She had some time to hang out, so that was that; I was going. I took the cheaper train ($24 each way) from the 30th street station to Penn Station. It is a surprisingly stress-free and pleasant trip, if a bit lengthy (2.5 hours). Once in NY, we met up at Beach Cafe as she was finishing up brunch with other cousins. We stopped for a smoothie and pastry for me, then walked through Central Park towards where she needed to be. We parted ways in Lincoln Center, after checking out a little local market that was going on, where we both got some apples and she also got honey and cheese. I ended up wandering over to The Met, where they have a small gallery exhibit inspired by Prince Igor. The guard was super nice and even gave me the informational booklet. Some of the art was really good, but most of it was meh. My favorite was a gilt-framed synopsis of the opera by Peter Schjeldahl. It was hilarious. Hearing Werther echo through the halls, I decided to go see Enchanted Island that night. I'd been debating whether to go all morning, but being there really made up my mind. A couple of my programmer friends from SF happen to have been in NY for the past month or three, so I called them both. I met up with one in Chelsea. We walked that overpass thingy near the Hudson with the nice view and it was absolutely lovely. The weather was a beautiful 50-something, so I could wear my winter coat, but not freeze my butt off if I left it unbuttoned. Gorgeous. We looked at some bomb-diggity paintings, then wandered over to Joe's Pizza in the Village. We each had a slice, then met up with our other friend for coffee. I got to see where they've been living, then raced off to the opera. The Met is absolutely gorgeous. I got a $30 ticket in the upper balcony and got to my seat 10 minutes before curtain. The Enchanted Island was very good. I won't go into detail here, since I plan to write a review, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The cast was phenomenal. Like mind-blowingly good. Seeing Susan Graham and Placido Domingo in action was so beautiful and inspiring. I spent the night on my cousin's couch. We went to a fitness boot camp class she often goes to at her gym this morning. The instructor was a hard-ass who was actually incredibly nice. She gave me modified versions of the targeted exercises to do when I told her I'm an opera singer and don't want to work my upper abdominals too hard. I actually kept up in almost all the functional exercises, like lifting people and running. It was only in the core-targeting exercises where I had to ask for special treatment. Go me for not being too out of shape! After the class I went out to breakfast with my cousin and her friend who does the class with her. Good food, good coffee, and good conversation all around. [edit: My breakfast came with homestyle fries. They are not fries at all, but delicious potatoes. If you are offered this dish in the future, accept it gleefully and savor the deliciousness.] Then we went back to my cousin's place so she could get some work done and I just showered and chilled for a bit. I took the subway to Penn and caught the train for Philly. Sitting on this train, I'm truly glad I went into New York. I had a splendiferous time. Synopsis
A couple weeks ago I went to Baltimore to audition for the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. It was a good trip. Prelude My saga begins in an airport. I'm really good at navigating airports. However, I'm bad at remembering to bring reading material. I began perusing the books at one of those snacks etcetera shops in the airport. Luckily I looked around the bodice-rippers because tucked in among them was Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. After a heated debate with myself between buying that or Divergent, which was prominently displayed in the front of the shop, I settled for Speaker, since it was smaller and the writing was better. Also, Ender's Game is amazing, so it stands to reason the sequel couldn't be too terrible. (Side note: it was phenomenal. At least as good as Ender's Game; possibly better.) Anywho, plane boarded and flew blah blah blah I managed to sleep, but my butt hurt by the end because airplane seats are terrible blah blah blah transfer planes blah blah blah easy peasy flying experience yay Jet Blue. Then, EXCITEMENT! I found out you can take a train from BWI to downtown Baltimore for $4! It's called MARC and it even goes to D.C.! So I took that and then a super cheap cab ride to my hotel, which was on the Peabody campus (talk about convenient, right?). Friends After checking into my hotel and showering (ew planes) I wandered over to the information tables in the foyer of the main Peabody building. I was STARVING because it was around 1 pm and cookies at 7 am do not cut it as a good breakfast. So I asked the kind people at the desk whether there were any vocal students around who would be willing to hang out and show me a good place to get lunch. As luck would have it, the young employee at the desk was a former voice major, so he called one of his friends in the department. Doubly lucky, the guy (a senior undergrad voice major) was not only free, but brought two of his gal pals (Masters students) along. So the four of us went to a nearby place called Sascha's, which serves enormous, delicious chopped salads. I couldn't even finish mine. Another grad vocal student joined us while we were eating, and two more greeted us as they flitted by on their way out. That is one thing I can say about all of the vocal students I encountered: they all have very cordial, friendly relationships with one another, which is incredibly encouraging. The vibe throughout the whole school was open and kind. One of my flautist friends from college transferred to Peabody, so we met up before his afternoon orchestra rehearsal. Serendipitously, I ran into another of my friends right before he and I were supposed to meet, this time one of my cellist friends who happens to be my SAI sister (yes, I was/am in a sorority). She was auditioning for the grad program too! So all three of us said a quick hi, then Flautist ran off to rehearsal. Exploring Cellist's mom had taken the tour for parents, so she showed us where the Peabody Library is. That place smells like heaven. Then they picked up some food and dashed off, since Cellist had to grab some music before her audition. I spent most of the afternoon wandering and exploring the campus. Peabody is a maze. It is only about the size of a city block, but you can easily get lost. It's like the TARDIS. For reals, I'm barely even kidding; she's much bigger on the inside. Then I started talking to one of the graduate students and charmed her into showing me around a little. She was incredibly nice; I really liked her. Dinner For dinner, I joined Flautist and his flute studio at a sports bar/pizza place a few blocks from campus. He and the other flautists in his studio go to this place every week for half-price pizza Tuesdays. It was good company, good pizza, and it ended up costing $4 per person for a soda for each person and enough pizza to leave us all super stuffed. Yay, cheap delicious dinner! Then I went back to the hotel and watched a little Netflix and went to sleep at the entirely reasonable hour of 10:30 EST. Pre-Game I managed to wake up with the sun. I stretched for 20 minutes as the sun filled my room with light and warmth, then showered, dressed, got pretty, etc. Then I went to the dining hall on campus because it was close, I knew they would have hot, hearty food, and I figured I should try it out at some point anyway. I had an awesome breakfast of potatoes, ham slices, and cantaloupe. The perfect breakfast. Then I checked in for my audition, got some tea at a local cafe, and warmed up in an awesome practice room in the basement of the main building that I somehow missed in all of my exploring. Then I went upstairs to the audition room. The two students helping facilitate the auditions were very kind and funny. My worst nerves happen at auditions; they are never stress-free for me, and even less so when I've never encountered the institution or company before. So I spent the few minutes before my audition pacing and breathing. Then they were ready for me. THE AUDITION My audition was at 10 am. I was the first audition of the day. I had already given the accompanist my binder when he arrived, so I walked in empty-handed. The faculty member closest to the door, whom I had emailed with a little because one of my friends was her former student and introduced us, stood up and shook my hand, then introduced me to all seven of the other faculty members on the panel. They all had good, open vibes. They all smiled. They all had coffee or tea in various containers in front of them. One of them asked where my music was and I smiled and gestured to the pianist and said, "I already gave it to him." They all seemed to find that amusing. I chose to begin with "Chacun a son gout" (Die Fledermaus), since it is easy on the voice at early hours. The accompanist kept slowing down, so I felt like I was dragging him. A couple of the faculty started mini-conducting (which is scary and not good) whenever he slowed and I didn't. However, they conducted at the tempo I was singing. So at least we agreed. Then they asked for "Torna di Tito a lato" (La Clemenza di Tito), which isn't surprising, since that's my Mozart piece. That went well. Then they asked for a THIRD PIECE!!! WOOT! AND they asked for "Faites-lui mes aveux" (Faust), which I sound pretty darn good doing. Oh yeah, and I acted the shit out of all three. All in all, a decent audition. I feel like I represented myself fairly well and really got the chance to sing and perform. I waltzed out feeling pretty good and hung around and talked to the students there for a while. I got to grill them on their voice teachers' styles of teaching, which was informative. Then I wandered off to go take the theory placement exam. The Tests I glided into the testing room still high from my audition. I whispered that I was there to take the Masters placement exam. They quietly inquired whether I would like to take the G.P.D. (post-graduate degree) version, which would also double as an application for the graduate theory assistantship. I figured it couldn't hurt, so I said, "sure." **FACEPALM** What was I thinking?! So I sat down and worked out my brain for an hour and a half. The material wasn't harder than what I was able to do at the height of my theory prowess; but I am certainly not at that level anymore. Theory is like math for me, in that I can understand it and enjoy it, especially at higher levels, but if I don't practice I forget many of the esoteric things. Luckily this test is only for placement, not admission. After my strenuous mental exercise, I moseyed over to the ear training placement exam room. I was 15 minutes early, so I sat down next to a guy with a stack of Dowland music on his lap and struck up a conversation. He was a cool dude, an applicant for the lute program. Pretty sweet to meet a lutist; you don't see many nowadays. Then a recognizable face wandered up: a composer friend of mine from undergrad, who happens to also be Cellist's boyfriend. She mentioned he would be there, but I didn't actually expect to run into him. Serendipity! We greeted each other with a massive bro-hug, then started catching up. At precisely 1 pm, the door to the classroom opened and the whole mass of applicants trooped inside. The proctor was hilarious, and the ear training test was MUCH easier than the theory test. There was single-voice dictation (piece of cake); chordal dictation, where you had to write out the bass and soprano line and fill in the Roman numeral analysis underneath (one weird chord, but not too bad); and two-voice dictation (harder, but still doable; only missed two bars in the whole thing). Beer After the exam, Composer and I walked to the Harbor, which is the touristy area of Baltimore. It reminded me a lot of Fisherman's Wharf and had many of the same shops. The weather was kind of icky, so there weren't many people around. We spent quite a bit of time in the candy store because it was amazing and then stumbled across a biergarten. I was hungry and they had an excellent array of beers, so we went in. We had crab dip and local beers and it was all delicious. The bartender was friendly and told us other places we should go later. Sadly, we ended up not going to any of them because they were far away from Peabody. It was lucky we went to the restaurant when we did because about halfway through our beers it starting POURING outside. Then it stopped just as abruptly about ten minutes later. We would have been drenched. We bid farewell to the bartender, then walked back to my hotel, where I introduced Composer to the awesomeness that is Star Trek. We watched about half of Amok Time, then he had to go to an informational meeting for composition applicants. I just vegged out and watched Fringe until he texted me that the meeting was over. We met up and wandered in the direction of dinner places. I called Flautist, because he vaguely mentioned being available for dinner, but it turned out he was far away at a party. However, he recommended a place called Brewer's Art for dinner, which turned out to be a wonderful amalgam of brewery and fancy restaurant. The food was solid, the beer was good, and the conversation was nonstop. I'm super glad I ran into Composer, because having a friend made being in a new city more fun and less scary. Epilogue In the morning, I packed, checked out, and headed to a nearby coffeeshop called Dooby's that Flautist had told me has good coffee. He was right; the coffee was awesome. Essentially, I went to a new town and found the most hipster coffeeshop around, complete with rockabilly barista and patron in red flannel. I liked it. Then my coffee and I went to the opera program informational meeting. It was a good meeting; it was informative, and gave me a feel for the tone of the program. Overall, my impressions of Peabody were very positive. After the meeting, I went to Flautist's house for tea and met his roommates, then walked to the train station and had an uneventful and pleasant trip back home. This was a really fun, satisfying, and successful trip. |
AuthorMaayan is a Manhattan-based opera singer. Archives
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