Ithaca College Audition
I absolutely hate driving and going places with my mom. I can't stand it. She's soooo slow. And then you have to add brian. So it was hell in a car, a game where they basically competed against each other to see who could piss off andrew more. Drove me crazy. We left at 1030 and I wanted to warm up before I left the house. So they went to get gas, which means brian's got shotgun, then came back to get me. Ok. so... you see my mom with keys, get in a car, and brian in shotgun and you're in the back... oh man... you better get something to knock yourself out or you're not gonna make it. But I'm an idiot. I got a big cup of coffee and drank it in 15 minutes. So I was really fidgety and bouncing off the walls and man, that made my tolerance level for my mom and brian a lot lower. My mom gets lost in her own backyard and brian... brian just likes to whine a lot and be useless. If you're riding shotgun you shouldn't be sleeping. I wanted to get shotgun so we could actually get there at a decent hour and not get lost if my mom really wanted to drive. But no... anyway, we got there around ... 430 I wanna say. Checked in to a new hotel, hampton inn. Got to the Whalen Music Center around 530. Practiced until 730. Then we went to King Buffet. A chinese buffet is not a good idea on a college campus. You get a lot of business, but It was sooo crowded. It's probably like that every night. so then I went to wall mart to buy a tie and a new shirt. Brian just got a shirt, no tie. Moron. Then we went back to Whalen and practiced until 1130. I'm not gonna lie. I was very nervous about my audition. Cause I sucked at my lesson on thursday. But after those few hours in a practice room, I was golden. I'm doing that at every audition from now on. Get there the night before, check in, play for a few hours in a practice room. I recommend that to anyone having to take an audition. So then we went back to hampton and crashed.
Next morning. Got up at 7. My mom decides to tell me that we have to check out that morning as I get up. Ok... I shower, go downstairs to eat breakfast and I'm all set to go by 8. Registration is from 830-930. I still got an hour and a half. I come back up and brian's just getting in the shower. I pack up all my stuff. Brian decides he needs another tie. Wall mart is right across the street so I would have felt bad to have my mom drop me off first and make brian late. So we leave the hotel and check out by 9. My mom likes to take her time and get breakfast and do all these stupid pointless things and dawdle. Brian gets to wall mart and picks out a tie by 915. And we get to whalen at 920. 10 minutes. Friggin 10 minutes and we woulda been screwed. Jeez. That's the last time I go anywhere more than half an hour outside of town with them.
So the first thing on the schedule was the performance and intro. The guy giving the speech was very prepared with notecards and everything. I was very impressed. I mean, it shows that they care about prospective students. At other schools, you could tell they didn't care. They made your schedule right there as you registered. At ithaca, they have your schedule made already and they just hand it to you. It was very organized. The other thing I liked about the school was that I got complemented on my playing. Ithaca is the only school that I've auditioned at where someone has come up to me and said, hey, no worries, you'll do fine tomorrow, you sound great. Someone did that last year too. But The concert was awesome. They had the string faculty play then the chorus. I wouldn't have expected less from the faculty part, but the chorus was awesome. They go on tour and stuff. They did this venezuelen ranch song where they imitated different rhythemic instruments and pipes with their voices in three separate circles. "Dreams" by Eric Whitacre was the second piece. That was cool. They paired off and faced each other. Each partner of the pair had to lead with one hand and show the partner what they wanted to happen to their part, and follow with the other hand to match the other person. That was cool. Then my favorite piece was leonardo and his flying machine. It was all choreographed and they acted out the song as they sang it. Good stuff. Then I went to meet with Alex Shuhan, the horn teacher. He's very cool. I asked him about the ensembles they have, how many you could be in, and I switched over to music ed/ performance. Then I went to warm up, took my stupid sight singing test, warmed up some more, and went to my audition. Guy's name was Alex Shuhan. He said he remembered me from last year and that I sounded great, and he wanted me to go there. So that was cool.
I had a lesson with him at 2 and he's awesome. He's gotta be one of the coolest horn teachers I've ever met. You could tell he really liked teaching and was very philosophical. A few points he made, "we make far too many assumptions without the proper knowledge to back it up." We assume the horn is gonna work a certain way, but it doesn't always. You can't know how to do something if you haven't learned how. He said he hated how in the education system, often teachers are more concerned about the product, rather than the process getting there. And he taught by asking questions, a bunch of them. He made me think. Just from the board outside his wall I could tell he was cool and everyone in the studio seems to like him. So... I've decided that if I'm accepted, I'm going to Ithaca.
So is erin.
Then I got to drive home and we made it in just under 5 hours. But then I had to work today. It was pretty dead though.
Next morning. Got up at 7. My mom decides to tell me that we have to check out that morning as I get up. Ok... I shower, go downstairs to eat breakfast and I'm all set to go by 8. Registration is from 830-930. I still got an hour and a half. I come back up and brian's just getting in the shower. I pack up all my stuff. Brian decides he needs another tie. Wall mart is right across the street so I would have felt bad to have my mom drop me off first and make brian late. So we leave the hotel and check out by 9. My mom likes to take her time and get breakfast and do all these stupid pointless things and dawdle. Brian gets to wall mart and picks out a tie by 915. And we get to whalen at 920. 10 minutes. Friggin 10 minutes and we woulda been screwed. Jeez. That's the last time I go anywhere more than half an hour outside of town with them.
So the first thing on the schedule was the performance and intro. The guy giving the speech was very prepared with notecards and everything. I was very impressed. I mean, it shows that they care about prospective students. At other schools, you could tell they didn't care. They made your schedule right there as you registered. At ithaca, they have your schedule made already and they just hand it to you. It was very organized. The other thing I liked about the school was that I got complemented on my playing. Ithaca is the only school that I've auditioned at where someone has come up to me and said, hey, no worries, you'll do fine tomorrow, you sound great. Someone did that last year too. But The concert was awesome. They had the string faculty play then the chorus. I wouldn't have expected less from the faculty part, but the chorus was awesome. They go on tour and stuff. They did this venezuelen ranch song where they imitated different rhythemic instruments and pipes with their voices in three separate circles. "Dreams" by Eric Whitacre was the second piece. That was cool. They paired off and faced each other. Each partner of the pair had to lead with one hand and show the partner what they wanted to happen to their part, and follow with the other hand to match the other person. That was cool. Then my favorite piece was leonardo and his flying machine. It was all choreographed and they acted out the song as they sang it. Good stuff. Then I went to meet with Alex Shuhan, the horn teacher. He's very cool. I asked him about the ensembles they have, how many you could be in, and I switched over to music ed/ performance. Then I went to warm up, took my stupid sight singing test, warmed up some more, and went to my audition. Guy's name was Alex Shuhan. He said he remembered me from last year and that I sounded great, and he wanted me to go there. So that was cool.
I had a lesson with him at 2 and he's awesome. He's gotta be one of the coolest horn teachers I've ever met. You could tell he really liked teaching and was very philosophical. A few points he made, "we make far too many assumptions without the proper knowledge to back it up." We assume the horn is gonna work a certain way, but it doesn't always. You can't know how to do something if you haven't learned how. He said he hated how in the education system, often teachers are more concerned about the product, rather than the process getting there. And he taught by asking questions, a bunch of them. He made me think. Just from the board outside his wall I could tell he was cool and everyone in the studio seems to like him. So... I've decided that if I'm accepted, I'm going to Ithaca.
So is erin.
Then I got to drive home and we made it in just under 5 hours. But then I had to work today. It was pretty dead though.