No job, but a great experience anyway...

I woke up this morning a half hour before my alarm went off- wide awake with anticipation. After breakfast and pacing around my tiny hotel room to kill time, I walked to the rehearsal hall for the Kristiansand Orchestra. There was plenty of time to warm up, and the staff were all very nice. At 9am, ten bass players from around the world picked numbers out of a bowl to determine the order of the audition. I got number 9, so I had a while to wait (and worry) before my audition. I warmed up and wandered around trying not to over play and tire myself out. The picture about is the view from the warm-up room I was in- nice huh? Below is my little setup in the corner of the room (I was sharing the room with another bass player).
When it was finally time to play for the panel, I tried to calm myself down and just play for myself. The pianist was very helpful, and talented, which made the concerto seem a little less daunting. The beginning of the first movement of the Vanhal Concerto went really well, I felt confident about it, and was starting to feel comfortable when I missed an entrance by just a little too long- it was a small mistake, but it started the nervousness all over again. I was able to pull it together, getting about halfway through before they stopped me. They only listened to about 8 bars of the second movement before asking me to move on to the excerpts. My Bach excerpt went really well, but the Berlioz was a bit messy- I got going too fast and had to struggle to keep it under control.

After waiting around for an hour they posted the second round list, cutting the original 10 bassists down to 5. I was not on the list. As much of a disappointment as it was not to see my name, I'm still glad I came and tried. Auditioning has always been difficult for me and this was one of the better auditions I've played, despite the jet lag and nerves. I also got to meet a couple great bass players who were about to give me some good advice about auditioning and playing in general.
This evening I went out to a pub with three of the bass players from the audition- one who was out after the first round like me, one who made it to the second round, and the guy who won. It was a lot of fun to chat about playing and the craziness that is involved in trying to make a living as a professional musician. Again, I'm glad I came, and I feel like I learned a lot about how to play auditions, and what kind of competition is out there.