We're Here!

We go live in 3, 2, 1...
Hi! So I'm officially at NYO right now. I meant to post yesterday but couldn't find the charger for my laptop; so I apologize. But yes. I am here!
It's been a really chill, really cool day so far; I've gone around meeting everyone I see, and while that's definitely been fun, it's also exhausting. I can only be social and outgoing for about 1-2 hours at a time; after that I just crash wherever I am and stick with whomever I happen to be next to. But I've met people across all the sections and instruments; I met all four bassoonists, most of the rest of the wind section, and of course tons of strings. I actually don't think I met any brass players today. But I also did meet plenty of percussionists and apprentices. I was really surprised actually at the speed at which I got along with so many of the people I met. The ones who came early (apparently I was early, but I arrived around 1-1:30 ish) wandered around welcoming others as they came in, while figuring out where everyone was from at the same time. There was a camera crew there, and it was pretty funny because they actually made some of the people who arrived on the shuttle get back on and off so that they could record it.

Audition Prep Season: Part 3--Essay(s) and Misc.

So this is my third and last post of the series I made to talk about my NYO audition process. If you missed the last two, you can check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Before I wrap things up, I just want to say that all of this is my personal opinion and experience, so what I say isn't definitive by any means, nor is it all-inclusive. You can read what I've written to see my take on it, but every single person who made it (and those who didn't make it) had a different experience, so to get a holistic impression of the audition process that I'm describing, you'd have to ask many different people. Alright, let's start the end!
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:

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!

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!