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Saturday, May 24 – 10:30am Karl Sievers, reporter Assisted by computer generated slides and audio clips, Rob Roy McGregor presented an outstanding session on audition preparation. As was the case with other presenters this week, McGregor possesses a really remarkable ability to communicate in these settings. His thoughtfully conceived seminar was peppered with lots of humor as well.
McGregor discussed many aspects of preparation, including the necessity of getting good sleep and the advisability of bringing healthy snacks and water to an audition that is not likely to stay on schedule. He further advised that our priority in an audition situation is to maintain focus on the job at hand, even if that means saving until later in the day socializing with old friends whom we might encounter. The nuts and bolts of the presentation had to do with mastering the challenges of the excerpts, couched within the prudent advice that we must keep the musical mind fresh. We must also allow the body the repetitions necessary to master the music. McGregor helps facilitate this by rewriting the excerpts, filling in large intervals with passing figures, slurring tongued passages, tonguing slurred passages, inverting, reversing, etc. All of these treatments may make the technical challenges more approachable, and certainly will make the repetition aspect of the preparation less likely to become stale or boring to the creative process. Before the question and answer period began, McGregor reminded us all that preparation included good maintenance of fundamentals, in addition to the work on the excerpts and solos. This was a fairly lengthy session whose success was evidenced by the total involvement of the audience throughout. Bravo - |
Trumpet Prelude: The University of Kansas Trumpet Ensemble Festival Fanfare by Joseph Turrin The True Game by Kip Haaheim (Premiere) Members: Program: "Audition and Performance Preparation for Trumpet" This presentation will feature a short history of audition procedures and examine specific ways of preparing for them by analyzing the learning
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McGregor began by identifying characteristics of the audition experience that we have all shared, and that he has witnessed over 30+ years as a member of the L.A. Philharmonic. We were all quickly on the same wavelength. What I particularly appreciated however was that he had tangible, useable suggestions, exercises, and regimens to offer that will most assuredly help anyone in the position of trying to win a job in the performance world. 
