No Mission Accomplished in Portland

It's that time of year again, when I get all excited and nervous at the same time, get on a plane, jet to exotic locations around North America, bust the old bassoon out of its case, sit by myself on a stage in front of judges that are hiding behind a screen, and audition for an orchestral job.

And not get called back.

Yup. Just did it again, this time in beautiful Portland, Oregon. No kidding. That's a nice place. Scenic. Clean. Mild climate. Electric trains. The Columbia River. A principal bassoon job with the local orchestra that paid well.

I decided I wanted it. So did 79 other bassoonists. Bet you're amazed that 80 bassoonists existed in the U.S. I'm amazed myself.

And, no, I didn't get called back. I'm beginning to get annoyed with this audition process thing. It seems to me that, for every shiny new bassoon player to pop out of a university, ready to play, that there should be a great job waiting in some orchestra somewhere within a 1000 mile radius. Is that too much to ask?

So, how do you find something good to talk about when you just struck out in your fifth audition in one year? Here's something: I played at a new level at this audition. I went in and played all the music like I know I've been able to this whole time, and yet so far haven't. Every past audition, I can look back and say, "yeah, it was pretty good except for this," or "the notes were all there, but there was a couple tuning things..." This time, I can look back and say, "I played at my absolute best and presented me as a bassoonist exactly like I knew I could." I was very pleased with my audition. I gave the judges no stupid reason to not call me back. They did, nevertheless, find one anyway.

So, now, I'm left to consider other reasons. Did they not like the interpretations of the pieces? Did they not like my sound? Did they not think I would fit into their existing bassoon section? Who knows?

And that's my good thing that happened in a bad situation: Now I know I can go play those excerpts when it counts. No dumb mistakes. No tuning issues. Now I just need to go do that again a few times, and then we'll see what happens.