I’ve been contemplating when it’s the right time to let go of auditions and move forward. Moreover, how can one come to terms with the notion of ‘moving on’? My audition journey has been significantly affected by the unfortunate timing of events – just when I was ready to give my all, excelling and advancing to final rounds, the upheaval of COVID turned everything upside down.
As life gradually resumed its course after the chaos, I encountered a myriad of audition scenarios: moments where I performed admirably but didn’t progress, instances where I failed outright, and even situations where my performance seemed inconsequential.
Furthermore, enduring long-term effects of COVID has severely impacted my breathing for quite a while (particularly critical as I’m a woodwind player) and made the matter worse. I find myself lacking the motivation to practice; the closer the audition date looms, the further my motivation slips.
I acknowledge that in my current state of mind, winning a position seems unattainable.
Any guidance on how to rekindle my passion or navigate this challenging phase would be immensely appreciated.
Best regards,
Lost in Post-Covid
Dear Lost in Post-Covid,
Landing a job is tough work. It takes persistence, adaptability, organization, endless energy, and positivity. You are in a tough spot because of Long Covid, a thorny and inconsistent illness that is able to affect just about any part of your body or mind, whenever and however it sees fit.
Lost in Post-Covid, you are stuck in a bad pattern. Let’s shake it up and take an eagle’s eye view of the situation. From your letter, you seem to be quite accomplished. You also seem to have a very narrow idea of what you need to be doing for a living – playing full time in an orchestra. First things first – let’s throw that idea straight out the window. That’s the reason you are frozen – you can’t see the forest for the trees. And there are so many lovely trees to look at. Here are some simple steps to shake it up and give you a fresh start on this journey.
Assess your skills: what are your strengths and weaknesses, your interests? Think back on your whole life and find the moments that made you the most curious, the happiest. Dream of how these passions can interact with a career in music.
Research: look past the obvious orchestral audition circuit jobs. What about a university position, substitute orchestra position, or arts management? How about conducting an adult amateur orchestra or coaching talented kids? Peruse Musical Chairs or other job sites for ideas and inspiration.
Set realistic goals: apply for 3 jobs a week, keeping track of your progress. Be patient and take good care of yourself. Eat well, exercise, and continue to make the effort to see friends.
Network: reach out to former teachers or students, the career office at your old school, and friends. Ask advice. And stay organized with the information they share with you. Find ways of playing, whether sightreading with friends, substituting, or in pickup groups.
No one has the career they imagined for themselves when in school. You are stuck right now, but only because you are not allowing yourself to reach beyond your specific (and very difficult) expectations of a career. Happiness and fulfillment take many different shapes. Be courageous and take a step towards a new path, and you may be surprised to find you might actually enjoy the process!
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
Reports on the Telegram channel say that Valery Gergiev will be presented to staff at the Bolshoi Theatre tomorrow as their new boss. He will head a merged administration of the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Mariinsky in St Petersburg. No word yet on what will happen to the Bolshoi’s ousted Urin.
Since Russian balllet and opera are now isolated from the whole world except China and North Korea, this will be of little international interest.
The new chief executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Emma Stenning, kicked off today by putting words before action, issuing a five-point ‘vision statement’ for the orchestra’s future.
She says: This vision statement is a work in progress. We are developing it with our staff and players, but it cannot be completed until we have shared it with both our audiences and the public, in Birmingham and beyond. As we share it, it will evolve and change.
We are embarking on a journey and we want to hear from you, both in response to this document and the experience you have in our concerts over the coming 18 months.
Then, tested, enriched, and improved by your advice, and all of our experience, we will be able to present its final version as a road map for the next ten years of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Please join us on this journey of collaboration, discovery, and joy.
Our 5 Resolutions:
We will share exceptional musical experiences, fulfilling and building the regional, national, and international reputation of the CBSO.
We will welcome audiences, artists, and staff from every community in Birmingham and beyond to everything we do.
We will collaborate and share creative opportunities and resources across the many communities in our diverse city, with the aim of driving real social change and expanding the talent pipeline into the creative industries.
We will respect and celebrate the presence, personality and individuality of our players, choirs, youth ensembles, conductors, staff, participants, and audiences.
We will demonstrate our belief that a symphony orchestra is a uniquely powerful and eloquent vehicle with which to achieve these things.
Hmmmm…
Slipped Disc says:
It’s always a mistake in the performing arts to say what you are going to do before you do it. Nowhere is it a bigger mistake than in an orchestra, which is there to play, not to preach.
Some CEOs feel happiest when they are making to-do lists. In the orchestral world it is best to keep these things to yourself.
With Tony Hall as chairman of the board, expect more verbiage of this nature.
We’re getting worried about the future of the CBSO.
The orchestras of Germany’s business capital issued a statement today warning that ‘antisemitism is noticeable and present again in our city.’
The opera and HR public broadcasting orchestras say the murderous that Hamas attacks on Israel have made Jews in Germany fearful of wearing religious symbols. Jewish musicians feel that ‘we are leaving them alone in this situation.’ The orchestras call on colleagues and fellow citizens to take a stand against antisemitism, before it is too late.
New York City Ballet last night settled a long dispute with its orchestra musicians, agree to a 22 percent pay hike over three years.
Sounds like a good deal.
Musicians at London’s Royal Opera House also ended their dispute but no details whatsoever have been given. The musicians wanted a restoration of a ten percent pay cut they accepted during Covid. Did they get all of it?
All the MU will say is that they ‘accepted a significantly improved pay and conditions offer’. Sounds like No.
Yesterday’s climate protest disruption of Choral Evensong from Chichester Cathedral has reminded some of our more erudite commenters of a former organist who misbehaved far more luridly than the latterday chanters.
Tim writes: Sounds as if this evening’s protesters were much better behaved than Thomas Weelkes the Chichester Organist Choirmaster whose 400th anniversary the Choral Evensong was celebrating. Weelkes was ‘fined for urinating on the Dean from the organ loft during Evensong’. He was also ‘famed for being a common drunkard and notorious blasphemer’. The Dean and Chapter dismissed him for using bad language and being drunk during divine service and although he was later reinstated he repeated the offence.
Christian Climate Activists making dignified and reasoned objections to Chichester Diocesan Synod’s very recent and perverse decision to stay invested in zombie industries destroying God’s ‘good’ creation was a refreshing breath of fresh air compared to Weelkes’ scandalous interjections to divine office.
Hugh adds: Quite a turnaround for Thomas Weelkes that Chichester Cathedral should be celebrating his 400th anniversary, given his spectacular fall from grace with his employer towards the end of his life (he was dismissed from his post as Organist by the Chichester Cathedral authorities for being ‘a notorious drunkard and blasphemer’). It would seem he was an outrageous personality in other ways too, certainly not befitting a cathedral organist of the time (his marriage to Elizabeth Sandham in 1603 was clearly a shotgun wedding, given their first child Thomas was baptized less than 6 months later), so perhaps Mr. Weelkes looking down from above on the commemoration of his anniversary might be somewhat less appalled than the rest of us by the disruptive protest during the service, with his own apparently ‘larger than life’ personality.
Despite repeated warnings for drunken misconduct Weelkes was allowed to remain in his post until his death, aged 47, 400 years ago this week in 1623. He is buried in St Brides Fleet Street, parish church of British journalism which turned a blind eye to his weaknesses.
We hear there was quite some jostling between artist agencies over the right hand of Operalia winner Stephano Park – the hand that signs away his career management.
The winner was announced last night. He is Nathan Morrison of London-based Intermusica. Park will be well managed.
Park, from South Korea, has been a member of the Vienna State Opera studio since last year.
In an overlong and generally unrevealing video interview for Bavarian Radio and the EBU, the BR conductor Simon Rattle comes up with this tiny gem:
‘I sat in the dressing room with Karajan in his later years and he said: “An orchestra is like one of your English gardens, really beautiful things. You have to water them and you have to weed them. And you have to look after it (sic) every day. Never forget that.”
‘This is an important thing. We have to do all kinds of dental hygiene. We have to look after people, both musically and emotionally.’
‘
A philosophical statement from the travelling pianist, issued on the eve of her homeland tour.
Thus spake Yuja: ‘The music on my new recital program guides us on a spiritual path, mirroring one of many ways to enlightenment through life itself, where we begin and end in silence through the cosmic vibration. These works focus on love, illumination, improvisation and nostalgia. Through numerous struggles we find peace and strength. I am curious to see how these works resonate with you and what you associate with them.’
The intendant of the Aachen Theatre, Elena Tzavara, has removed the bust of Herbert von Karajan from its foyer after hearing a lecture on his activities during the Third Reich.
Karajan joined the NSDAP in 1933 and was appointed music director in Aachen the following year, holding the post until 1941. His advancement under the Nazis was stalled by the hostility of Wilhelm Furtwängler, whom Hitler preferred, but Karajan went on to conduct the Staatskapelle Berlin as a poster boy for the regime. He performed the bloodstained Horst Wessel Lied many times and gave concerts in occupied Paris. Karajan never uttered a public word of regret for his Nazi past, which Aachen has just discovered.
‘Herbert von Karajan in the Nazi period was not a blank page,’ said Tzavara, who has despatched his bust to the town museum.
Operagoers will now be greeted by a bust of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Karajan went on, after the War, to head the Sazlburg Festival and succeed Furtwängler at the Berlin Philharmonic.
Tzavara, 46, is an award-winning director of children’s operas.
Linked Lives – National Gallery
Here’s the fascinating story of two paintings in London, each with an ancestral link to a poet in New Orleans and to the inescapable horrors of slavery.
This is the history of the people behind two paintings in neighbouring galleries, the National Gallery and its sister, the National Portrait Gallery, as a young American, Madeleine le Cesne,
traces the hidden history of her family.
In this film, Madeleine speaks with curator Francesca Whitlum-Cooper about François-Hubert Drouais’ ‘The Comte de Vaudreuil’ from the National Gallery’s collection and ‘The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840′ by Benjamin Robert Haydon from the National Portrait Gallery.
