Soprano II/Alto I?

Had my bi-annual choir audition this last saturday. Well, it says bi-annual but in reality they had on instituted this policy for a couple of years so this is the first year I've had to re-auditon for this group. When I was in the Occidental Chorale, Jeff used to have everyone re-audition every year, which added to our anxiety around May or so. Especially when we go into the audition with the knowledge that some of us will get axed the following year. Don had meant for the auditions to be more laid back, just a way of "checking how we are progressing" rather than weeding people out. Considering that my initial auditon as rather fast (it was 10 minutes before start of rehearsal and his mind was clearly on something else) I wasn't quite sure that to expect, though I knew that the dreaded sighting reading would be involved. Now, for those who do not know what sight reading is, it involves singing a passage from notes (the first pitch is given, of course). And for those of you who know me well, you will realise that my musicianship is "not very powderful." I usually sit there clueless when people talk about from this major key to that major key, the minor third etc, and pretend that I actually have an idea of what they are talking about. And I had unknowingly signed up for the very FIRST audition spot, and had assured myself of a position when Don was still fresh and alert. On the flip side, that meant he was in a good mood, which might not be the case towards the end of the day.

I arrived at UCLA at 10:50am, ~10 min before my time slot. While I was sitting outside the rehearsal room waiting for my turn, I thought I saw someone from the Occidental Chorale. For I brief moment I thought I was on crack or something, but then Jeff said Hi (I was rather blind and didn't see him at first), I had a little chat with him and discovered that the choir is doing a Mahler concert with the American Youth Symphony the following evening at Royce. It finally made sense, I was seeing my friends, but their rehearsal was starting and I didn't get a chance to chat.

I ended up going second (the lady after me had a wedding to go to so I happily obliged). I believe that these things are set up to be somewhat intimidating, though that wasn't necessarily the intention. I think the point was to make it seem like an audition for a professional group (which we are supposed to be, we just don't get paid :P). So Don was sitting at the piano, with Rae at the door and John (our assistant conductor) sitting at a desk with a note pad. But I did okay, the dreaded sighting reading passage wasn't as hard as it could have been, and Don was rather helpful with giving me the intervals, though we got stuck briefly on some dotted quarters. Don also told me that I am a soprano, and that he would like me to switch to a SII from an AI starting in the Fall. I am left confused as to whether I am a mezzo or a true soprano. Having sung all the women's parts except SI, I was starting to be unsure of which voice part I actually do belong to. I had been told that I was a Mezzo and a soprano by different voice teachers, and the belief I now hold is that I could be either, and only time will tell....Regardless, it would be fun to sing the soprano part for a change. We will be doing the Messiah in the Fall; I already know the alto part, so this will be a new challenge for me.

I heard via Qiang that Alex (our new German postdoc) might be joining our room. That sent shudders down my spine. This guy is a Physicist and his way of asking questions just doesn't work well with me. I'm not sure if it a language issue or a personality issue, but I am not really looking forward to him in my room. Perhaps he will go to Gab's desk instead.