Its a little dark, but working with the Maestro day one
Audition Day… ok folks here we go.
A quick recap of yesterday’s activities..work work work! Its interesting going into this I knew that I would be doing an unusual amount of singing so I tried to prepare as much as I could, practicing an hour to two hours a day and singing full out. I am so thankful that I did because I have been really able to use the resources that are here. Many of the singers have had to cancel working with the Italian teacher or homework pianist because they are just vocally fatigued. It’s a game that we all play as singers and it is so important to recognize when your voice and body are tired. If you push and don’t recognize it you can really damage your instrument. That being said I had about an hour and fifteen minutes session with the homework pianist because there was a cancellation after me. This was extremely helpful because I was able to work on some very specific things in my music and work the small details they had asked for.
After working with her I grabbed a quick lunch and headed to go work with the Maestro. He wanted to work my gala piece again and explained to me again the importance of him knowing the exact tempos which I will be taking. I am not going to lie I have been spending a lot of time with the piece and after listening to the recordings of our last session I tried to make all the changes that he wanted. We stopped and started a few times, but once we got to the end he was very happy. He told me, he was very impressed with the changes I had made and he could see all the hard work. The musicality was super all I had left to do was…..show my soul when I sing. He was very happy and he asked since there was time left to work on a second piece so I sang Rosina. He had several things to point out and fix, but in general he agreed with Martin, is a great piece for me. I was so happy when I left I could not stop smiling all afternoon.
Today is a big day a bit of stress and pressure, but I am feel good, and rested. I do not start with my sessions until two this afternoon so I was able to sleep in and properly prepare. I will have one more quick session with the Maestro, then a career consult and then my first audition. I am honestly not sure who all will be sitting in the audition room, but I know there will be about six or seven people representing two…maybe three houses. They haven’t officially told us because the program was still waiting to hear who all is coming. The great news is that they asked us to prepare only two pieces to sing which means I will likely only sing one, since my pieces are so long. They like hearing a four to five minute piece or slot for the auditions, and my two pieces are five, and seven minutes long. To some only offering two was upsetting instead of the audition standard of five arias,
but honestly its great. For me it takes the added pressure off of presenting something new. So I will be offering Regnava Nel Silenzio, my gala piece, and Una Voce Poco Fa. I will sing through one whole piece and if they need to hear something additional they may ask for my second piece, but they should be able to see all that I can present in just one.
Thank you all for walking alongside of me with this, I know these things can be so overwhelming at times but it is such good for me to know I have a cheering section back home. As a good friend reminded me of yesterday, the only person I am competing with is myself, and I only need to try to do better than I did yesterday. I can’t wait to tell you all how today went and what they have to say….
“If you want to conquer fear don’t sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy”