Musicality in Orchestral Auditions

        As I've aspired to be an orchestral musician, I always thought that absolute accuracy is the key to win a professional orchestra audition. In fact, there are many other candidates who thought and did the same thing. In order to stand out from the pool of candidates, your own unique style of interpreting the excerpts attracts the panel attention. Unfortunately, the nature of judging musicality is truly subjective. That's why risks must be taken in auditions whether your style of playing flavors the panel or not. Below is a video produced by Rob Knopper, who was selected as a percussionist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the age of 24. He interviewed Jacob Nissly, the principal percussionist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, who had also been the principal percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony, about taking musical risks in auditions. (He is certainly very experienced in orchestral auditions!!!)



        In the video, Jacob emphasized that he tried to be as contrasting as he can do. This reminds me that my teacher asked me not to craft the excerpts like a percussionist. In real professional orchestra audition, the audition panel is usually formed by different instrumentalists. That means that they think about the orchestral piece a whole instead of your own part. Hence, one must imagine itself playing in the orchestra while performing the excerpts and portray your own musicality. Of course, that does not mean you can play whatever you want. Jacob also mentioned that flexibility is the key when taking musical risks. You have the consider variables such as how the concert hall sounds like or which mallets (or style/methods for other instrumentalists) the former principal uses.

         Another main point of the video is good musical common sense, which means good understanding of the orchestral piece that you are playing. I would say it's the nature or aim of the excerpt. Especially not all percussion excerpts are solo parts, some are actually technically difficult. For example, it is a common sense that you would not add rubato in a bolero excerpt or Porgy and Bess excerpt. However, you may express yourself freely in a Bach marimba excerpt to "make people look at you".

        To sum up, practicing 10 hours in the practice room is not enough to enable you to win an orchestra audition. Do think from the panel's point of view and work on different aspects of the excerpts apart from accuracy only.