So here I am, still on the road. I'm currently writing from the home of Kathie and Marsha, Kathie being my mom's good friend from college. They offered to let me stay here any time I'm in the area, which will be very nice for my Juilliard/Mannes excursion. It's been quite nice this trip as well, as their home is a very relaxing place, despite their hyperactive (if adorable) daughter Aliya. Two more laid-back people I've seldom met. So this trip basically went like this: Home to my grandparents' house in Ohio, Ohio to Kathie's house in New Jersey, then to downtown New York for my Taos audition last night, out to Joe's house on Long Island, and this morning, from there to my audition at Stony Brook, and then back out to New Jersey. So it's been hectic, and I'm pretty tired out, so I'm collapsed in this wonderfully oversized armchair next to a natural-gas-fueled space-heater. Tomorrow I drive back to Ohio, and then finally back home on Thursday; I'm definitely looking forward to that. Road trips, even alone, are fun; it gives me time o think, to get in touch with CDs I haven't listened to in ages. At the same time, it's always good to not have anything to do the next day, and to have my nice little room with constant internet access, and a steady supply of food.
My auditions went reasonably well. There were high points and low points to both, but at least my Bach and Elgar were very consistent, and went swimmingly at both auditions. For Taos, my chamber music excerpts could have been a lot better, but i suppose they weren't horrendous. My Ligeti today for Stony Brook was kind of horrendous. I was so amped up after the Elgar, I really should have satfor a few seconds and centered myself before launching into Ligeti, but I kinda went pell-mell from Elgar right into it, and wow was it bad. But whatever, at leastI learned something, and i think my Bach and Elgar were good enough to compensate, as, honestly, they were about as good as they've ever been.
So now it's back home to wait for my final two auditions in a week and a half, and waiting to hear from some festivals, and hopefully refining my Ligeti a little bit more; I don't need any more horrendous-sounding Ligeti. Because honestly, I can play that piece really well. I just have to be relaxed, and centered, and in control.
Last night, Joe and i watched the Takashi Miike film Ichi the Killer. I had ordered it through netflix, and it came the day before I had to leave, so I just brought it with me. At a horror movie site it was rated as the fifth most gory movie ever made. I think that's a little overblown. It was pretty horrendously violent, but still, I've seen worse. Good movie though, and bizarre as hell, in typical Miike fashion. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, though, especially for those who are offended by scenes of gratuitous violence against women. But that's Japanese cinema for you.

So today has been good. Although I haven't practiced yet, I managed to land another sub job with the Madison Symphony, meaning my financial situation has finally solidified, and I no longer have to worry about it. That's a load off. And I just got back from Mr. Vardi's studio class, and I must say, I was amazed when this one freshman played the Allemande from Bach's 5th Suite. It was perfectly in tune, poised, and beautifully phrased. I mean there were still plenty of improvements to be made, but wow, it was pretty jaw-dropping. I've now heard all but one of Vardi's new Freshmen, and he is building himself one heck of a studio here. No superstars, but all really solid players who really have the fundamentals down. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see UW Madison become a much more prominent cello school in the next few years.

So today I had my TMC audition. Left at 11:30 for a 2:50 audition. Mapquest put the driving time at 2:30, so I figured even if I hit a traffic snag near Chicago, I'd be in plenty of time for the audition. Ha. Hahaha. Because, and I hadn't noticed it because I hadn't really looked outside yet, it had been snowing for a while. So I thought to myself, a little bit of snow, no biggie. It's too cold to need to worry about slush or ice, right? Ha. Yes, in a perfect world perhaps. But somehow, physics and chemistry somehow conspired together to create a thin, almost completely invisible ice sheet over pretty much the entire highway, from here well into Illinois. The first 60 miles took 2 hours of driving time, since there were at least two large pileups and numerous groups of two and three cars spun off the road. I was fortunate enough to avoid being involved with or even seeing any of these mishaps, but they certainly made the drive interesting. Knowing I would in no way be able to make it in time for my audition, I called the TMC office (I had printed out an E-Mail with their number on it), hoping they might be able to put me in touch with someone in Chicago. No luck, answering machine. Knowing that offices NEVER get back to you the day you leave them a message, I pondered my next course of action. Next on my list was Gerstein, since he studies with Fischer. Again, answering machine. So I call my dad at work, hoping there might be an emergency contact number on the TMC website. Still no luck. But then my phone rings, and it's David, who manages to save the day, by personally getting in touch with Fischer and then getting me the number of some audition coordinator. So yeah, I managed to get an audition at 4:30 instead of 2:50, and all was ok with the world. Of course, I wasn't in great shape to play after over 4 hours in the car, but SOMEhow I managed a respectable audition. The two fast Shostakovich excerpts were crap . . . but everything else was pretty solid. So we'll see if it was good enough. All I know is, I had to play EVERYTHING. A whole movment of Bach, 3 minutes of my concerto, every excerpt AND the prepared piece. Which is good. If I'm gonna drive 7+ hours round trip, I may as well show them what I worked on. So yeah. Now's time to wait. I hope it works out, David's been talking it up, now I actually kinda want to go . . .

Audition in three days, and the bulk of one of those will be on the road. Very little time left to practice, but that's ok, because I think I'm sorta ready. Been a long time since I've had a college audition. Will be seeing Carrie, at least, so even if I fail miserably it's not a wasted trip.
Tonight I subbed again for the Madison Symphony, for a concerto competition concert that's going on TV. The four finalists were pretty damn awesome, especially the violinist who played Tcahikovsky. I've been watching her play since she was about 12, and now she's almost 18 and plays like a pro. Kinda scary; apparently she's already performed in Carnegie Hall, back when she was 15. Hell, when I was 18, I couldn't play like any of these four, not even close. But that's ok, because in tune is in tune, and we all have as many years as it takes to learn to play stuff that way.
As soon as I'm done with Indiana, I have two days to prepare my Tanglewood audition. I don't think it'll be good enough, but we'll see. I can play most of the excerpts pretty well, so as long as they don't pick two certain ones, I'll be ok, and maybe I'll be able to get those two up to speed in the two days I have. Then it's 1 month to memorize a Bach Suite, and master Ligeti and Arpeggione. Plenty of time, but I really hate my rep right now (except Ligeti). If I were able to turn the clock back, I would pick more interesting rep. Elgar just isn't doing it for me, and I've been doing Bach 4 for close to 3 years now, on and off (mostly off, but I'm still sick of it). Shoulda just bit the bullet and learned a new concerto, like Schumann. Yeah it's hard to pull off at an audition, but I'd be sooo much more motivated to practice right now. Once everything's said and done though, which is just over a month from now, I can start a whole new slate of rep, and maybe actually care about playing cello again.