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Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 11:45 am
by anonymous4
bort wrote:
Carson McTeer wrote:I would have been happy playing there for the rest of my life but I was very fortunate to be able to accept a position at West Virginia University and live in the same town as my wife and daughter.
If that doesn't speak to the sacrifices necessary to make a career as a professional tuba player, I don't know what does...
Absolutely. A professor of horn I know has an unofficial rule in his studio that undergraduates are not allowed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend until they win an audition.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:25 pm
by dctrtuba17
I was fortunate enough to get invited.
The excerpt list is pretty "healthy". Fountains, Bydlo, etc.
I'm enjoying working up the Sarabande from the 6th Bach cello suite. :tuba:
Working hard!
-Eric

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:06 pm
by hockeyched
I hope that was a typo or a joke. Its the 5th cello suite.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:03 pm
by Ace
hockeyched wrote:I hope that was a typo or a joke. Its the 5th cello suite.
Typo or joke? As you may or may not know, there is a lovely Sarabande in the sixth suite, also.

Ace

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 11:08 pm
by dctrtuba17
yeah I meant to say 5th suite. Hopefully this will be a good experience.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:59 pm
by happyroman
dctrtuba17 wrote:yeah I meant to say 5th suite. Hopefully this will be a good experience.
I believe that was likely just an off hand remark, but I also think it reveals a mindset that is self limiting.

Don't go for an "experience" or that is all you will get out of it. Go to win.

If you are going for the experience, my question is "Experience for what?" The next audition? There may not be another one for years.

Tuba auditions for a full time orchestra are a rare thing, and have been for quite a while. Although they were never plentiful, when I was studying in the 1970s and 1980s, there was at least one audition per year, and often more, for jobs that would support someone very nicely. When I was a student, the tuba chair in almost every major orchestra opened up, and since many of those positions were filled by someone who had a good job, there was a trickle down effect that resulted in multiple auditions per year for a while. Because orchestras only have one tuba, and they all (except Cincinnati) currently have one, this may be an opportunity that won't come along again for years.

I heard Warren Deck discuss auditions a couple of times, and one thing he said struck me. He said that you have to realize that every piece on the list will get nailed by someone at the audition, so that's how well you have to play all of the pieces. I believe in order to do that, one must have the mindset that you are going to the audition to win it in order to be prepared at that high level. If you are just seeking the experience, you can talk yourself into settling for "good enough" when preparing the list.

I hope you do well.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:05 am
by UDELBR
Fantastic input in the last two replies! Read and re-read. And maybe even bookmark!

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:19 am
by Mark
bloke wrote:If this has become an advice column, could I attempt to expand on the previous (excellent) post?
One more: If you look at the repertoire list and (with the exception of the Bach) don't already know all the works, it's too late to learn them.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 5:10 pm
by BATsforlyfethorbaer
Everyone knows that the only person that will win this audition will be playing on an extremely shiny 7/4 YamaBaer, that has been cryogenically frozen for a period of 25 years. The winner will have looked at the excerpts on the plane to Cincinnati, and will play the Bach Sarabande two octaves down.

Additionally, a titanium mouthpiece and MAW valves are a must.

These are the only ways to be successful in an audition situation.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:12 pm
by anonymous4
Bloke, you are crushing dreams and breaking hearts as usual. Don't you know that half the people reading this think that all they have to do to land a full time job for the rest of their life is play a few minutes of excerpts really well, and that nothing else matters!? What a meanie....

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:32 pm
by dctrtuba17
Thanks; I of course expect to win and am excited about the opportunity. By experience, I guess I meant getting to travel to Cincinnati and visit the Symphony Hall there. I've never been there. Thanks for the advice by the way. I figure if you take a humble approach to playing, you get a lot further.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 9:06 am
by happyroman
dctrtuba17 wrote:Thanks; I of course expect to win and am excited about the opportunity. By experience, I guess I meant getting to travel to Cincinnati and visit the Symphony Hall there. I've never been there. Thanks for the advice by the way. I figure if you take a humble approach to playing, you get a lot further.
Good luck to you. Your post reminded me of the St. Louis audition (when Gene Pokorny won the job). I was in the warm up room, and noticed a tuba case under a table off to one side. While warming up, Gene came in to retrieve the case. He had been visiting the Arch, saying that he was going to get "something" out of the trip, in case he didn't advance. He not only advanced to the next round, he had a good time sight seeing (after he took care of business, of course).

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:30 am
by dctrtuba17
Thanks :) That's the attitude that I take into auditions. Bust my tail but try to have fun too. I'm spending money to take a trip, so should have some fun after I take care of business :)

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 1:34 am
by MackBrass
bloke wrote:
Mark wrote:
bloke wrote:If this has become an advice column, could I attempt to expand on the previous (excellent) post?
One more: If you look at the repertoire list and (with the exception of the Bach) don't already know all the works, it's too late to learn them.
I dunno...
Some of them aren't "hard", other than they need to be played very, very well. I'm not going to try to tell some extraordinarily talented musician that (just because they haven't - in the past - looked at every single piece on a list of excerpts) they cannot master them (as well as learn the music with which they fit) in a month or two. After all, orchestral musicians are handed music they've never seen before quite often, and asked to play it...usually with only a few weeks preparation time before the first rehearsals.
After looking at the list, to me, the Bach is the most challenging piece on the list. I dont call myself an expert on Bach but i have dabbled in enough his stuff to say this took me for a loop. The best way to approach it is to remove all dynamic markings, phrase markings and any other marks that coinside with someone elses thoughts so you can start with a blank slate. It appears to be simple at first glance but musically this is nothing like you will have ever played before. When you break it down it is very technical but more importantly making sence and music will be the biggest issue for most players.

Since this is an audition for a job as a musician and not a tuba weightlifting contest, the Bach will most certainly be a descriminator to cut most out, thats of course if you get that far. If i were organizing the audition, i would have this as the first piece to be played. Most will look at the bach and say, thats not hard, but after looking at it for a while, its the toughest piece on the list. I like the bach so much now i think its worthy of a YouTube video someday, maybe. Oh, one word of advice to anyone preparing it, prepare the repeated sections as written without ornamentation.

If you truly dont want any chance in advancing then go ahead and ad some out of charactor triplets, turns and sixteenth notes as this movement doesn't warrent them. Good luck to all.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 5:05 pm
by MackBrass
Curmudgeon wrote:The Bach is very common on bass trombone audition lists. One of their "standards." All about control and phrasing.

I like seeing Nabucco.

+1

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 8:11 pm
by THE TUBA

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 1:23 pm
by doublebuzzing
I like how they specify "CC tuba only" for the Bach. As if anyone on that committee would be able to tell if it was being played on BBb.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:25 pm
by bgozdowski
doublebuzzing wrote:I like how they specify "CC tuba only" for the Bach. As if anyone on that committee would be able to tell if it was being played on BBb.
The committee is obviously specifying that you play the Bach on a contrabass tuba and not a bass tuba. Since the overwhelming majority of professionals have chosen the CC tuba as their contrabass of choice, it's what was put on the sheet.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:48 pm
by Mark
bgozdowski wrote:
doublebuzzing wrote:I like how they specify "CC tuba only" for the Bach. As if anyone on that committee would be able to tell if it was being played on BBb.
The committee is obviously specifying that you play the Bach on a contrabass tuba and not a bass tuba. Since the overwhelming majority of professionals have chosen the CC tuba as their contrabass of choice, it's what was put on the sheet.
I agree. They don't want it played on a F or Eb. This may be to show how smoothly the player can move around on a big tuba.

Re: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 12:53 am
by bort
Um, I believe it says "C tuba only", and not "CC tuba only." It also says to play it one octave lower.

Clearly, this is an exercise in paying attention and following instructions. Obviously, they want:
-- you to play a French C tuba
-- to hear your abilities in the low range on the smallest and weirdest of all of the bass tubas
-- to hear a historically accurate performance of the piece, the way Bach intended it to be played

:wink: :?: