So now I'm done with all of my registration stuff. Said "stuff" consisted of a music history placement exam, orchestra placement audition, appointment with my advisor, and a library tour. As for the first on that list, it was split into two halves: a baroque/classical half, and a romantic/modern half, with a general listening section at the end. I knew most of the romantic/modern ones easily, but the classical/baroque half was a disaster, with questions like "who was the music director at the court of Louis XIV?" I answered MAYBE half of the questions with any confidence, another 10 with some semi-educated guesses, and the last 10 I just left blank. And yet through some miracle, I passed out of both section of music history. Their standards must not be very high, heh.
As for the orchestra placement audition, I was well-prepared with excerpts, although I missed some stuff I don't often miss, and the sight-reading was pretty easy after all the reading I did at Tanglewood . . . the problem came at the beginning, when they asked for a concerto. They hadn't mentioned that on the sheet. I had started Dvorak about 5 days ago, but that wasn't memorized yet and I didn't have the music with me. So they said I could play something else, but Dvorak is pretty much the only thing I'm working on at the moment, as I'm waiting to discuss rep with my teacher. So I played the first movement of Arpeggione, which I haven't played for 3 months or so. It went surprisingly well, actually. That's kind of a piece I trust to be always in my fingers at the moment since I've spent SOOO much time on it, and sure enough it was pretty much mostly there, which is all I could ask for. So yeah, scary, but hopefully I did ok. I strongly doubt I'll get principal (unless it's rotating like at Eastman . . . not sure yet how they do that).
The appointment with my advisor was really nice. Unlike at Eastman, you actually sit down with your advisor and do the whole registration thing together, which makes sure everyone takes the classes they need to be taking. This semester is going to be quite busy, as I'm actually taking 18 credits (although we get 6 for lessons here), since I'm trying to get most of my grad requirements out of the way early, such as a counterpoint review theory course, and something called "graduate research", which I guess teaches one how to use primary sources to do research,which will be a very useful tool if I want to do a DMA. I'm also taking a seminar course on the Beethoven string quartets, which I'm very much looking forward to, which will fulfill the requirement that one take at least one seminar course.
And lastly, we come to the library. It's much, much smaller than Eastman's, of course, but it seems to have what I'll need. And if it doesn't, we have borrowing privileges at a few other libraries, including one apparently quite extensive library at NYU. Even better, it's attached to 3 different online music databases, so now I can stream a lot of music. It's also nice to have the likes of LexisNexis and ProQuest again, I can finally start reading a lot of things I couldn't afford to this past year (all that "subsciption required" crap). Being in school certainly has its advantages.
As for the orchestra placement audition, I was well-prepared with excerpts, although I missed some stuff I don't often miss, and the sight-reading was pretty easy after all the reading I did at Tanglewood . . . the problem came at the beginning, when they asked for a concerto. They hadn't mentioned that on the sheet. I had started Dvorak about 5 days ago, but that wasn't memorized yet and I didn't have the music with me. So they said I could play something else, but Dvorak is pretty much the only thing I'm working on at the moment, as I'm waiting to discuss rep with my teacher. So I played the first movement of Arpeggione, which I haven't played for 3 months or so. It went surprisingly well, actually. That's kind of a piece I trust to be always in my fingers at the moment since I've spent SOOO much time on it, and sure enough it was pretty much mostly there, which is all I could ask for. So yeah, scary, but hopefully I did ok. I strongly doubt I'll get principal (unless it's rotating like at Eastman . . . not sure yet how they do that).
The appointment with my advisor was really nice. Unlike at Eastman, you actually sit down with your advisor and do the whole registration thing together, which makes sure everyone takes the classes they need to be taking. This semester is going to be quite busy, as I'm actually taking 18 credits (although we get 6 for lessons here), since I'm trying to get most of my grad requirements out of the way early, such as a counterpoint review theory course, and something called "graduate research", which I guess teaches one how to use primary sources to do research,which will be a very useful tool if I want to do a DMA. I'm also taking a seminar course on the Beethoven string quartets, which I'm very much looking forward to, which will fulfill the requirement that one take at least one seminar course.
And lastly, we come to the library. It's much, much smaller than Eastman's, of course, but it seems to have what I'll need. And if it doesn't, we have borrowing privileges at a few other libraries, including one apparently quite extensive library at NYU. Even better, it's attached to 3 different online music databases, so now I can stream a lot of music. It's also nice to have the likes of LexisNexis and ProQuest again, I can finally start reading a lot of things I couldn't afford to this past year (all that "subsciption required" crap). Being in school certainly has its advantages.
posted by Nabir at 10:08 AM
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