If you didn’t know, today is Mozart’s 260th birthday. But that’s not the reason why I always remember January 27th.
Exactly 10 years ago today I was at Eastman School of Music auditioning for a masters degree program. I had just graduated from CSU a month prior, and I had been working hard practicing for all of my graduate school auditions.
This audition always sticks out in my mind because it was such a wake up call for my career. It was my first graduate school audition and I realized how far behind I was in my abilities as a clarinet player compared to everyone else who was auditioning. I heard high school students playing better than me that day!
That day was really hard, tears were shed, but I look back on it now and I am so thankful for the experience. I fell in love with the school (which made my rejection that year that much harder), and I worked really hard in the year that followed.
Many life changing things happened in the year that followed. Most notably, I fell in love and got engaged to my husband, Ben. We both made the decision to apply to Eastman for the next year…and I absolutely crushed it and was accepted into the program at Eastman on the 2nd try.
But that first audition on Mozart’s birthday has always stuck out in my mind. It reminds me that failure is ok, and in fact it is necessary for success!
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet 
One reply on “Happy birthday Mozart!”
The word fail has a kind of negative connotation to it and it is just a word. words are sometimes inadequate because your dominant emotions and thoughts around the word at the time it comes to mind surround it. Young people on social media use the word fail in a kind of humorous funny home videos context. Maybe the dictionary should redefine the word fail to mean -stepping stone to success, learning experience, an important step along the journey etc..