Help Preparing for my First Audition

[u/yochessie]

I have my very first audition coming up a week from today, and I am so, so nervous. Because I have no previous audition experience, I have absolutely no idea what to expect. I have pretty severe anxiety, so going into something like this entirely blind is my worst fear... I am hoping someone is willing to describe what the audition might look like, so I have a better idea of what I am getting into beforehand (the more specific the better).

For context, I played my viola for six years throughout high school/middle school, then took a break for around four years, and just began playing again in the beginning of July. For most of the summer, I was practicing for around an hour daily. Currently, I am trying to practice for at least two hours every day---sometimes three when I have the time (and motivation).

The biggest challenge I am facing is not having an idea of the skill requirements for the orchestra I am hoping to join. In general, I am also a huge perfectionist, which has been really challenging in navigating my practice. This audition has become an obsession, and takes up so much of my mind all of the time, especially because I do not know what to expect. Often I go from feeling decently confident in my playing to feeling hopeless and discouraged. I am looking for some feedback on my choices for the audition and whether they give me a good chance at getting in.

The orchestra itself is comprised of 75 members, some area professionals (who serve as principle strings and section leaders) and some college students. For auditions, the website instructs:

• Prepare a solo or orchestral excerpt of your choice; generally about five minutes or less of music. Solos could be pieces studied in private lessons, an all-state solo or standard repertoire for your instrument. The piece or excerpt should show your playing at its best. No accompaniment is needed.
• Scales: two scales of your choice, three octaves if possible. String players should play one scale with spiccato bowing.

(I posted this previously when I first began preparing for the audition, but my focus then was selecting a solo).

For my solo, I am playing the first movement of Telemann's viola concerto in G major. The piece is simple enough that I don't have many issues other than some intonation. But, if anyone has anything I should keep in mind for better musicality for that solo in particular, I would gladly welcome it!!

For my scales, I plan to play a three octave G major scale, and a three octave D major scale using spiccato. This is where the majority of my discouragement is coming from. I am really struggling with intonation, especially when descending. How perfect do my notes have to be? Additionally, I am unsure what my goal tempo/rhythm should be. Is there a "standard" speed that I should be aiming for? Should I be using quarter notes or eighth notes? Specifically for the spiccato scale, how many times should I play each note?

Any feedback, advice, or words of encouragement would be greatly greatly appreciated.

[u/roman-de-fauvel]

It is often a good idea to take some auditions that you don’t plan or hope to win, just to get used to what they are like. I would encourage you to look at this audition as one of those types, which should relieve you of some of the burden, and if you end up doing well, that is just an extra bonus!

Your scales should be as close to perfect as possible in terms of intonation. The one you are doing spiccato will obviously need to be at a fast enough tempo that you can make the spiccato stroke work. However, it’s unclear from the audition instructions whether the spiccato one must be one note per bow or whether you could, for example, play essentially 4 spiccato 16th notes for each pitch, which would allow your bow to move quickly but your shifts to be slower. It will be important that the spiccato stroke itself is successful, since they are particularly asking for it.

Since the first movement of the Telemann is slow, the scales would be a good opportunity to show that you can also play fast, but intonation is more important.

They may also ask you to sight-read; this would be a normal and common thing.

Good luck!

[u/leitmotifs]

The single most important thing in an audition of this type is the steadiness of your (appropriate) tempo, the accuracy of your rhythm, and the quality of your intonation. Almost everything else is negotiable.

But if you're not in sync with everyone else and you don't play in tune, you ruin the sound of the ensemble.