Audition Prep Season: Part 2--Solo Piece

So for those of you who have been keeping up with my blog, you know that my last post was about how I went about preparing NYO's given excerpts for the application to the 2015 season. That post started out as a general post about how I prepared for NYO apps in general, but then because I realized it would be waaay too long I broke it into a series of posts, of which this one is (obviously) number 2. So if you missed my last post, check out the sidebar on the right or click here to read the whole thing. (Again, I warn you--it's a lot. I have a bit too much free time--or I'm just really bad at prioritizing.)

Audition Prep Season: Part 1--Excerpts

Because I have almost finished my end-of-year violin recital process (another long and arduous preparation period that honestly could merit its own blog--but alas I lack the time) I get to--no, not rest, are you kidding?! Oh, you were, of course, I knew that. Yes, so now I get to start on new pieces for all the auditions for orchestras and programs in the fall, and competitions in the winter and spring, NYO's 2016 season lying not-so-low among these of course. *If you're a musician and you're crying clap your hands CLAPCLAP* So I thought I'd take the chance today to share with you how I went through the audition process for NYO this past year. Who knows, maybe you'll find something useful out of this basically useless post. Anyways. We continue!

NYO on Social Media

So this post occurred to me because I just checked my Weibo account, which I made two days ago specifically for NYO! (*laughing at myself*) For those of you who don't know (which is totally legit, because I didn't know until like a month or two ago), Weibo is a Chinese social media website, because of course sites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. are blocked in China, and it's basically a cross between Facebook and Twitter. NYO actually made an official Weibo account for themselves (even translated it correctly and everything!) and so I made an account to follow them, and see what it's like! TBH it's pretty hard keeping up with the Chinese everywhere though. I'm constantly translating everything. (For those of you who have a Weibo

Instagram: Welcome to My City, #nyousa!

So currently we are in the "let everyone know that the program starts in a few weeks" phase, and NYO has kindly asked us to Instagram a short video of our hometowns with my title's hashtag, #nyousa.While I have yet to complete the activity, plenty of others have done so already. For example, Tyler Cunningham, Emma Richman, Evan Pasternak, and our very own Social Media Sam basically just showed everyone else how to do it, and also how perfect their cities are.

Some Background

Basic info that you should know before going full steam ahead:
NYO-USA (which I will from now on just call NYO--you'll probably get a lot of NYO-Great Britain hits if you just search up NYO though) is a relatively new program that Carnegie's Weill Music Institute started the summer of 2013. They take about 120 musicians each year, including apprentices (which are like internships but with a music audition part), and tour all over the world, to a new country/countries each summer. This year, 2015, we are going to China, from Beijing to Hong Kong. Last year they did a coast-to-coast home tour of the US, and the inaugural year they went to Russia and England, ending at BBC Proms! The program is roughly a four-week course, with the first half residency training at Purchase College, and the second half of course touring.
NYO commissions a new piece every season to perform on tour, and the composer

Welcome!

So I recently got accepted for the first time into Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra for the USA, and since I am beyond excited I thought it would be a great idea to record some of my memories of the trip on this here blog. I wanted to get started early just so I could get the ball rolling before I actually went up to New York for the summer. I actually originally wanted to vlog rather than blog, but because I don't know to what extent I'll be able to do that at NYO, I decided that I will stick to regular blogging and add video inserts when I can. So stay tuned if you're interested--I promise it'll be a wild ride--and share your own comments/experiences in the comments section below! Enjoy!