After achieving my dream of graduating from Eastman with my MM degree in 2009, I chose to not to go back to school for a doctorate (which is what many musicians do after their masters degree) and decided to go for it and pursue a full time performance job. After over a year of working an office "day job" and auditioning like crazy, I have won a job with the U.S. Navy fleet bands and will be shipping out in May 2011. But my auditioning adventures are not over, there is a position open in the premiere Navy Band in Washington D.C.! I will be auditioning for that position in January 2011.
Here I document my successes, my failures, and my overall thoughts on life.
Lately I have been thinking: what makes a virtuoso player, well, virtuoso? Talent? Hard work? Natural physical ability? Crazy fingers? This question is always on my mind, because technique is something that I have struggled with for nearly my entire musical career.. While I was at Eastman, I often felt like I had to work […]
Took some time tonight to do some uploading of the videos from my recital…so here’s the Sutermeister and the Poulenc. That’s all I got so far because my computer is slow! Enjoy!
Ok, so yeah. I have barely touched my clarinets since my last post. I’ve gotten a real bad case of the lazies the past couple weeks. Probably the only productive thing I’ve done in the last two weeks is go to the gym! Oh and I’ve been playing Mario Bros Wii. Man, that game is […]
Not sure what happened between last week and this week, but I am so not motivated. Last week, I got back from DC, I had this crazy, unexplainable drive to get better at clarinet, and I was even back in the practice room 2 days after the audition. I had a good few days of […]
I’ve been kind of avoiding writing a blog about my audition on Monday, but I have come to the conclusion the few people who read my blog are probably waiting to hear details about it! The experience was…normal. It was a pretty standard audition, and I played well. Now, I pride myself in having a […]
I just wanted to take a moment to clarify what my audition is for on Monday…a lot of people are asking me because I am already in the Navy. I am actually auditioning for a separate, premiere ensemble that is based out of Washington, DC. Here is the difference: The program I auditioned and got accepted […]
Its that time of year again. In the academic music world, early spring means one thing…school auditions! Seniors (both in college and high school) are playing auditions that will let them know how they will be spending the next few years of their life, whether its in an undergraduate or graduate program, or something else. […]
This week in lieu of my regular practicing on Tuesday night, I decided that I would do a video recording to re-evaluate how I was sounding. I always initially feel like its a wasted practice night when I make a recording, until I listen back to the recording I made – it always opens my […]
2011 is set to be one of the more adventurous years that I have ever had. Between joining the Navy, moving out of Rochester, running a half marathon (hopefully), I’ve got a lot on my plate for 2011. I am so excited, but also very anxious – new adventures almost always brings new obstacles. Moving […]
The last couple weeks I’ve been really getting focused on this Navy Band audition. I’m the type of person that believes that everything happens for a reason – I try to find the positive result of every negative situation. I think that there is a reason that I’m having to wait until May to join […]
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet