Assistantship Results

Assistantship results came in an email from Dr. Miles immediately after band today:

" We had 3 Graduate Teaching Assistant positions open this year and had 10 applicants for these positions.  I plead your case to the rest of the faculty as they discussed the strengths of their applicants as well.  At this time, you are first on the waiting list for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship should one of the other three reject our offers. "

Not as good as I had hoped, but it is highly possible that one of the three chosen applicants will take an assistantship somewhere else. I guess this means I will still be waiting for a final update.

Audition #3 Done

My visit to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio was pretty awesome. I arrived at about 2pm to warm up briefly and meet the professor, Dr. Ben Miles. Dr. Miles seems like a really good teacher and a good guy in general. After giving me a tour of the department's facilities and letting me listen to the Wind Symphony's rehearsal, he led me to the recital hall so that I could warm up more for the audition. The recital hall is basically a tiny lecture hall with a piano on the stage... for WSC students, think along the lines of the art room (19?), but a bit bigger, a raised stage, and theatre seating and lighting. My audition went very well, I played Hindemith 1 and 3, as well as Civilization 1 and 3. Immediately after the audition, Dr. Miles told me that I was basically 'in', but that assistantships would not be decided until today.

After the audition, I sat in with the Tuba/Euph studio as they rehearsed for their studio recital on the 15th. The ensemble played a Gabrielli piece that I recognized and John Stevens' The Liberation of Sisyphus, with grad student John Hardisky of the Air Force Band of Flight playing the crazy solo part. Like much of John Stevens' work, it was pretty fun to play.

After a quick supper at Penn Station (a really good sub shop), we had a lesson. Dr. Miles pushed me a bit, and gave me some great pointers for the Hindemith. After the lesson, we went and watched the Wind Symphony concert. They were sounded very good, and played pieces by Steven Bryant and John Mackey that I really enjoyed. All in all, this was a very pleasant visit, and I left feeling very excited about the possibility of studying there.

Audition #2 Done

Greetings from South Bend, Indiana and Eastern time.

Holy cow, has it really been 2 weeks since I blogged?

Yesterday was a long day of driving. I started at 9am from Wayne and got to Iowa City at about 3pm for my audition. I didn't realize that the 'old mall' that UI's school of music had relocated to temporarily was just that: an old shopping mall. After the audition and stopping to fuel up (again), change, eat, &c, &c, I left from Iowa City at about 6pm, and drove to Indiana through southern Chicago, arriving in South Bend at about 10:45pm CST (11:45 local time). What a long drive!

The audition went very well, and I feel that I showed off what I was capable of. I played through Hindemith 1 and 3 with a few mistakes, but tried to keep it very musical, and Marcello 1 and 2 went just a bit better. I really felt like I NAILED the orchestral excerpts (Ride, Die Meistersinger, Symphonic Metamorphosis, and Prokofiev 5).

Audition #1 Done

Well, audition season has officially begun for me. Lincoln on Saturday went pretty well, I thought. I played through movements 1 and 3 of Hindemith without accompaniment first, and while I missed a few notes, I felt like I played it musically. Next, they asked for Ride and another excerpt of my choice- I played Prokofiev 5. Ride was ok, but Prokofiev showed me off a bit better in my opinion. I would say that Prokofiev was the best thing I played for them, and it was also the last.

In other news, the car died again, this time in Lincoln, on South 27th, right across the street from Southpoint mall... I am now going to have a discussion with Arnie's to express my serious dissatisfaction at their service.

More on Graduate Schools

For those who haven't heard yet, yesterday was a pretty good day. I applied online to Iowa, UNL, and Wright State. I also got a few professors to write letters of recommendation. I am really excited about Wright State... it seems like it might be a really good fit for me, and everything has just kind of "clicked" with them. Dr. Miles has a pretty open day for a visit and a lesson on the Wednesday that I'll be there, and that night, their Wind Symphony (which is their highest band) has a concert. They also have a concerto competition and an annual honors recital, both of which are apparently very competitive. Dr. Miles was also able to reply to my email, even though they had a snow day (Kent State has not been as good yet about replying). Things are also working out pretty well with Lincoln, as it looks like I will be able to go down there on graduate audition day, and Mr. Fuller has been very willing to schedule a lesson for me. Lincoln also has an assistantship in technology, which I think I would really enjoy. Iowa is right now the most uncertain, as Mr. Manning's current assistant is still contracted for another year, but there is the possibility that he will find a job and the position will be open. Iowa would be an amazing opportunity. First audition is Lincoln on the 20th, and Iowa and Wright will be the 8th and 10th, I believe.

One other awesome thing of note is that both Mike and I will be in Intercolleiate Honor Band, which is awesome, because it really shows how far our studio has come - we are showing up some of the big schools.

Refocused

After a long night of practice (3 hour session), I have decided a few things.
1. 3 hour sessions are not as productive as they would be if broken down.
2. I can play for 3 hours when needed.
3. I am going to apply to only as many graduate programs as is reasonable.
4. I am in much better shape than previously suspected  with the VW... but not there by a long shot.

I did some more research on grad schools after practice, and here is what I have decided on:
1. Iowa
2. Kent State University (Open TA confirmed) -Kent, OH
3. UNL
4. Wright State University (Open TA confirmed) - Dayton, OH
5. UNI

Based on what I found out tonight, all i need to work on besides solo repertoire is:
1 Bordogni etude
1 Kopprasch etude
Orchestral excerpts including: Die Meistersinger, Ride of the Valkyries, Sensamaya, and Symphonic Metamorphosis

I think that cutting down the options is going to help relieve some of the stress and anxiety from earlier in the week.