I used to go to auditions all the time. Sometimes I wasn’t feeling great. Sometimes I was running late and ran into the audition room breathless and stressed out. I always sang anyway, even when maybe I shouldn’t have. “Hey,” said youthful arrogance, “even me at less than 100% is still better than everyone else, […]
Category Archives: Auditions
Infamous Gigs: My First Time on Stage
You know, I wasn’t always going to be a musician and performer. It took a couple of excellent teachers who saw potential in me to give me the courage to discover one of my greatest passions, and even then it was almost a disaster. When I was in 8th grade, the high school was auditioning […]
How to Sing When You’re Nervous
I know how to sing when I am sick. Many people tell me. “Oh, I’m not feeling well today. I can’t sing. I have a cold.” But the truth is, professional singers often don’t have that luxury. I would have to be preeeeeety sick to cancel a performance. But the thing is, being sick doesn’t […]
The 5 Stages of Preparing for an Audition
STEP ONE: Find out about the auditionThis is the easy. but very important, first step. This crucial part of the process is when your agent calls you to tell you that you have an audition scheduled, or when you see an audition on YAPTracker and send in your form. Your audition date is set. You […]
Audition Season! Concert Season! Audition Season! Concert Season!
As if the lives and schedules of singers weren’t dysfunctional enough on their own, some sadist out there decided to make the months of November and December, and more specifically the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, both audition season and concert season. Why opera companies would want to hold all of their auditions during those […]
Tenor Dad and the Ghost Light
A week or two ago I was driving to an audition in New York, and because it was an early November evening, the sky was pitch black. I drove through the darkness, out of Vermont and down the east side of New York State, with no terrifying incidents to speak of, but when I got […]
Driving Home From an Audition
Man. What happened to all the Twizzlers? I wish there were more in the bag and less in my stomach. I’m not feeling sick or anything, I just wish I wasn’t so far along in the process of eating the entire bag. Having Twizzlers in my stomach is not the good part. The good part […]
What They Say and What We Hear
Isn’t it funny how our own personal situations skew everything we hear through a filter of our own flawed perspective? It’s so difficult to step outside of ourselves and really hear what people are saying to us because of the assumptions, prejudices, and lack of critical thinking that we nourish in our own little dens […]
The Problem With My Brain
There is a problem with my brain. I suspect that I may have ADD. Or ADHD. Or whatever they are calling it these days. Thinking about it now, I was definitely that kid back in school, and even though they didn’t have Ritalin in those days, I’m sure they would have tried to give it […]
It Was All Downhill After I Broke the Toilet
Ah, November. The season of auditions and thankfulness. It seems like I am in New York auditioning more than I am home these days, but if you want the gigs, you have to do the auditions. I was back in the city yesterday for yet another one, but it didn’t go as well as I […]