Ask any violinist about the first time they got “the shakes” in a performance, and they’ll respond with the name of the piece: the Schubert Fantasie. Shostakovich 8th quartet. Mendelssohn concerto. And since this week’s repertoire at the LA Philharmonic is Mahler’s ninth symphony, the grand-daddy of all shaky pieces, those terrible tremors have been lurking about! […]
Stacy LeSartre won my New York violin audition Challenge with an unexpected strategy
Week by week last fall, the number of violinists still remaining in my New York Philharmonic violin audition Challenge dwindled: sixty, thirty, twenty. By the time we got to the home stretch, the last few weeks of nearly four months of audition preparation, only fourteen violinists were left. It was pretty clear that those fourteen […]
Only 14 finished my New York Philharmonic violin audition Challenge!
300 violinists started my Challenge. What did it really take to make it to the finish line? To read my original post introducing the New York Philharmonic Audition Challenge, click here. Preparing for an orchestra audition takes it out of you. You get knocked down, banged up, and stressed out. Your chances of victory are slim, since […]
The New York Phil violin audition Challenge
Note: This Challenge accompanied a 2015 New York audition. For help with the 2018 New York audition, click here! On November 12, 2015, the New York Philharmonic will hold the final round of auditions for its four violin openings. Those violinists competing there that day will be among the most accomplished in the world. They will have […]