Audition!

I have an audition for a local orchestra tonight! I will play:

1) Popper Etude #11
2) Vocalise, Rachmaninov

The Popper is not feeling so great at the moment so I will hope for the best for that one. Vocalise feels pretty good. I'm really proud of getting Vocalise up to performance level. Last year, I went to see a cello performance student's grad recital at Emory. As I listened to her play Vocalise (beautifully!), I remembered thinking that I should add to this to my lesson repertoire. It sounded out of reach at the time but I wanted to play it badly.

I have studied that piece on and off for over a year! The notes in this piece aren't particularly hard but creating the smooth lines was really difficult for me. I had to dissect this piece up and practice minute sections at a time concentrating on constant bow arm movement that is fluid. This was also the piece I started thinking about breathing while playing. At places where I had faltering intonation, I had to practice those areas a few thousand times. Note to all: When you practice something a few thousand times, you actually do get to a point where you can do it right consistently! I never thought I would have the patience to slug through a piece like this for so long. Even if Vocalise doesn't turn out well tonight...I feel pretty good at the learnings I got from it. I hope this is an inspiration to those who are currently on a plateau with something they are working on.