Sweet! My U of I audition was awesome.

I spent the day in Champaign on Friday. Here's how it all went down:

I went and warmed up a little in the practice room. I was pretty much blind to how I would measure up. I was the only euphonium player auditioning on that day, and, to be honest, I have never had very many euphonium players to compare myself to. I have no clue how good I am. Compared to other musicians my age - on other instruments - I'm only moderately good, but I wasn't competing against them. So I didn't know whether to be nervous or not.

I freaking ACED my music theory test. My proctor was this UNBELIEVABLY HOTT Eastern European guy, and I'm pretty sure he was my inspiration. It was just this little one-page deal: I had to write out a few scales and key signatures, I had to identify intervals, and I had to do a chordal analysis of a four-bar progression. I did it REALLY slowly and DOUBLE-CHECKED everything, but I still managed to finish a fifty-minute test in twenty. I was the first one out the door, which was good because my audition was immediately afterward.

I tote my big ol' euphonium up to Dr. Moore's office. He's this funny, jolly, pudgy little bearded man who sang songs about how much he loved my euphonium. I have the same model horn that he does. At one point, his wife called, so he insisted on calling her back since "it might be important." He talked to her for a good five minutes about how he forgot to get her a ticket for his recital that night. At the end of the audition he said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I'm recommending you for admission. I'm also recommending you for the highest scholarship we can give you. I hear a lot of potential in your playing." AWESOME!

He kept me for so long that I was late for my music education interview. It was with a choral music ed professor, but he still somehow knew who my band director was. It was a lot more formal than my audition. My mom got mad at me because I forgot to mention that I was going to be on the Smith Walbridge Drum Major Staff, at the Future Music Educators' Seminar at All-State, and that my father is dead. She's real keen on college people knowing that my father is dead. She thinks it shows that I've had to overcome adversity to achieve what I have. Whatev.

I went straight to bed when I got home. I went to bed at 8 two nights in a row this week.

Conference for Speech was yesterday. We cleaned up, as usual. I got first in Oratory and second in Impromptu. In all honesty, though, it would have been extremely embarassing had I not. No one at Conference is even remotely decent. Not even remotely. I'm super pissed that this is probably the only first place medal I'll get all year. BULLSHIT.

I disobeyed my mother last night and stayed at Sarah's until two in the morning. But, God it was fun.

posted at 10:15 AM by Alison

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