So in the "miscellaneous" portion of the audition process, miscellaneous here referring to anything where I didn't have to perform, there was:
one (1) written essay of 300-500 words
one (1) video essay of undefined length
three (3) recommendations from teachers who know you as a musician as well as an academic student / person in general.
NYO actually only requires you to have two, but I gave them an extra because my out-of-school conductor and my in-school conductor both know me well enough to write me a rec, yet I felt that each one would give a different description of me. And with my private teacher as the other rec, I felt that they would cover most aspects of me as both a musician and as a student. I didn't actually get to see what they wrote about me (do people usually do that? I've never known what people write about me in recs for anything!) partially because I didn't ask and also because recs are sent by the writers directly to DecisionDesk through email. You know how in my first post in this series I talked about how I submitted five days early or so? Yeah, I did that specifically so I could give my recommenders at least a month to write a rec. I wasn't sure when DecisionDesk would send them an email, an hour later or a day later or only when the application window closed, so I did it early just in case.
For my video essay, I talked for about two minutes in response to this question:
Who inspires you musically and why?
I talked about Misty Copeland, and how her story inspires me to achieve things regardless of haters. Course, I didn't actually say "haters." :) I didn't prepare my response ahead of time, I just kinda outlined in my head beforehand what I wanted to say, with a sentence or two that I really wanted to use (because I liked the wording) exactly as scripted. I actually did that for all three of the questions they gave us, and then a day before I picked which answer I had best developed and went with that.
In actually recording the video, I had planned to have a friend do it so that I'd feel more comfortable talking and "my real personality would show," whatever that means, but because the friend who I'd wanted to do the recording couldn't make it, I did it with my dad and my sister (manning the extra camera), which I think made my response a bit more stiff but also more structured. Stylistically, I chose to use the video captured from an angle, as that made it seem a bit more natural than using the one where I looked at the camera straight on. That was a personal choice, and I know lots of people prefer to record head-on, but I think that the angle one seems more like an interview and so is a bit more friendly. Also, as a viewer, I know I find it a tiny bit awkward having to stare at the speaker as s/he stares right back at me, talking, so in case the judges felt the same way, I went with the angled one.
For videos in general, it's definitely not necessary to go out and buy high-tech equipment and go all fancy, as I went with a simple personal hand-held camera, but like an iPhone recording might be a bit too informal. (Personal thought here, please ignore my statement if you disagree!) I mean, I'm sure some of the people who got accepted did their recordings on iPhones and Androids, so it's probably not that big of a factor, but if you're unsure, just go with the higher-quality one. Just to be safe.
Another thing about videos, and just life in general, when you're stating your name to someone/an audience who doesn't know you, just isn't familiar with your name at all, SLOW DOWN. This is a super big problem because everyone is so used to saying their own name that they just go "adamsmith" without stopping and if you have a name like Cindhu Parateeja (made up) and you don't slow down it may sound like "sind ooparatee-ja" for all people know and nobody will actually grasp your name. Same for stating anything that has some sort of name, like city, state, school, etc. This was a problem in my video, which is why I put the captions, it's a problem in nearly every audition video I've come across on Youtube, and it will be a problem in your video if you don't enunciate and pause between words.
I did the video essay in one take, in case you were wondering; I didn't really have enough energy to stress out too much about that video. (Probably because I knew I wasn't going to be assessed on the intonation of my voice or anything.)
And for the very last, yet most important, part, the written essay. So what they gave us to work with for 2015 (I think it's the same for the 2016 season) was as follows:
I also didn't actually know what they meant by "background" initially; like, do they mean race, or upbringing, or musical education, or academic legitimacy, or what? I just kinda ignored that part and hoped they would infer some sort of response for that from the rest of my essay, which is tbh what I usually do with most of my essays in school :)
So I spent a lot of time writing many drafts, and then picking one and working on that one, right up until the time came for me to submit it. I'm a very indecisive person, so I was deciding on minute things like wording, or placement of the paragraphs, for a long time.
So I submitted that, and with the spoken essay also submitted, my application was complete! *Commence long torturous wait for results* I think the best part of the audition/application process as a whole was preparing the excerpts. I know that seems kinda weird to enjoy, but I really did because it forced me to listen to pieces I never would have otherwise, and in actually practicing them I was able to put my own spin on the pieces, which although of course allowed in the solo piece, was particularly important to me in the excerpts because everyone was going to be playing the same thing, as a standardization technique (like I said before). NYO also picked really nice excerpts themselves so it was pleasant playing the pieces once I finally learned them :D
This year NYO has given us excerpts that they've used before; however because I've never auditioned before, I'm super excited to learn them! So yeah I'm diving straight into those, and polishing my new solo piece, just getting ready in general for the new application cycle for 2016! So I can't wait to see you at one of our concerts, if you can make it, and good luck if you're auditioning for next summer! As always, post any and all questions below, anonymous if you'd like, and stay tuned for more!
In actually recording the video, I had planned to have a friend do it so that I'd feel more comfortable talking and "my real personality would show," whatever that means, but because the friend who I'd wanted to do the recording couldn't make it, I did it with my dad and my sister (manning the extra camera), which I think made my response a bit more stiff but also more structured. Stylistically, I chose to use the video captured from an angle, as that made it seem a bit more natural than using the one where I looked at the camera straight on. That was a personal choice, and I know lots of people prefer to record head-on, but I think that the angle one seems more like an interview and so is a bit more friendly. Also, as a viewer, I know I find it a tiny bit awkward having to stare at the speaker as s/he stares right back at me, talking, so in case the judges felt the same way, I went with the angled one.
For videos in general, it's definitely not necessary to go out and buy high-tech equipment and go all fancy, as I went with a simple personal hand-held camera, but like an iPhone recording might be a bit too informal. (Personal thought here, please ignore my statement if you disagree!) I mean, I'm sure some of the people who got accepted did their recordings on iPhones and Androids, so it's probably not that big of a factor, but if you're unsure, just go with the higher-quality one. Just to be safe.
Another thing about videos, and just life in general, when you're stating your name to someone/an audience who doesn't know you, just isn't familiar with your name at all, SLOW DOWN. This is a super big problem because everyone is so used to saying their own name that they just go "adamsmith" without stopping and if you have a name like Cindhu Parateeja (made up) and you don't slow down it may sound like "sind ooparatee-ja" for all people know and nobody will actually grasp your name. Same for stating anything that has some sort of name, like city, state, school, etc. This was a problem in my video, which is why I put the captions, it's a problem in nearly every audition video I've come across on Youtube, and it will be a problem in your video if you don't enunciate and pause between words.
I did the video essay in one take, in case you were wondering; I didn't really have enough energy to stress out too much about that video. (Probably because I knew I wasn't going to be assessed on the intonation of my voice or anything.)
And for the very last, yet most important, part, the written essay. So what they gave us to work with for 2015 (I think it's the same for the 2016 season) was as follows:
Approximately 200-300 words that describe your background and musical/educational experience and addresses how participation in NYO-USA would help you achieve personal or artistic goals.
This was really tough for me to write as I found it difficult to incorporate a really brief resume, a brief musical bio, and my interest in NYO all in 200-300 words. In fact, my first draft was I think at least 700 words and it was painful trying to whittle it down word by word, deciding in desperation that maybe I didn't actually need that paragraph there, or this paragraph here, or ANYTHING ANYWHERE GOD WHY IS THIS SO HARD?!? In the end I think I went over by 20-30 words (I don't remember anymore; I might have actually hit 300 exactly) and I just submitted what I had.I also didn't actually know what they meant by "background" initially; like, do they mean race, or upbringing, or musical education, or academic legitimacy, or what? I just kinda ignored that part and hoped they would infer some sort of response for that from the rest of my essay, which is tbh what I usually do with most of my essays in school :)
So I spent a lot of time writing many drafts, and then picking one and working on that one, right up until the time came for me to submit it. I'm a very indecisive person, so I was deciding on minute things like wording, or placement of the paragraphs, for a long time.
So I submitted that, and with the spoken essay also submitted, my application was complete! *Commence long torturous wait for results* I think the best part of the audition/application process as a whole was preparing the excerpts. I know that seems kinda weird to enjoy, but I really did because it forced me to listen to pieces I never would have otherwise, and in actually practicing them I was able to put my own spin on the pieces, which although of course allowed in the solo piece, was particularly important to me in the excerpts because everyone was going to be playing the same thing, as a standardization technique (like I said before). NYO also picked really nice excerpts themselves so it was pleasant playing the pieces once I finally learned them :D
This year NYO has given us excerpts that they've used before; however because I've never auditioned before, I'm super excited to learn them! So yeah I'm diving straight into those, and polishing my new solo piece, just getting ready in general for the new application cycle for 2016! So I can't wait to see you at one of our concerts, if you can make it, and good luck if you're auditioning for next summer! As always, post any and all questions below, anonymous if you'd like, and stay tuned for more!
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