Listening to the Excerpts with Ben Opie | Preparing Your AYO Audition

Home / Magazine / Listening to the Excerpts with Ben Opie | Preparing Your AYO Audition

As applicants around the country are preparing their auditions for AYO in 2021, each musician will be playing a set of excerpts to be assessed by the panel. You might be asking – how do you give a strong performance of an excerpt? We chatted to oboist, artistic director and experienced audition panellist Ben Opie about the importance of listening in preparation for performing AYO’s excerpts.

One thing that’s really important to remember is we as the panel want to hear you at your best. We’re not sitting there waiting to hear mistakes, we want to hear your personality in your playing. I find a really strong audition is when someone presents themselves with a level of preparedness and we can tell they really understand and know their excerpts or their own-choice piece intimately. We love listening to you play and remember that during your preparation.

Once you have your excerpts, where do you start?

There are a couple of things I like to start with:

• Listen to a few different recordings of the excerpts with your score so that you can get a feel for tempo, style and character. 
• Find out what you enjoy about the pieces! 
• Don’t rush your preparation, create a good plan that will help you develop the excerpts in the weeks up to the day you need to present them. 
• Where possible, find an exact tempo marking early on that you can be working towards in your preparation and refer to.
  

How do you know which recordings to listen to?

My solution when we have so many to choose from is the more the merrier! But try to focus on familiar and renowned orchestras and conductors, you’ll reach a point in your listening where you’ll notice a pretty standard version.

I like to immerse myself in recordings of excerpts until I really feel them in my bones when I’m preparing and practising them, I need to be able to hear the whole orchestra in my head while I’m playing my part.

What are some of the excerpts which come up again and again in orchestral auditions? Why is it valuable to familiarise yourself with those works?

Of course it’s different for every instrument, many excerpts come up regularly because they are programmed in orchestra a lot which on its own is a good reason to get to know them well! Other excerpts are almost never programmed in orchestra, but often they will allow you to display a certain technique.

It might be phrasing, a certain type of articulation, technical proficiency, understanding of a particular style or control over a difficult part of your instrument (for example). Once it becomes clear why it’s on the audition list, you can focus on that element.

What are some key things to look for when listening to the entire piece?

Here are a few things I like to look for:

• Style: I love to hear a clear understanding of different musical styles.
• Role: Find out what your role is in the piece, even in excerpts we might not be the leading voice, it’s good to get a clear picture.
• Context: Learn what you can about the actual piece, sometimes there is a narrative or story that will help you find the character.
• Nuance: Hearing the entire piece may reveal a lot more about how you play your excerpt when you hear.

How do you know when you’ve found the right recording to practise with your excerpt?

I’m not sure there is one right recording, we’re lucky enough to have so many recordings on hand now, so you can look through a huge range of diverse versions. This could include listening to a performance on period instruments to find out what that sounds like, or sometimes it’s great to listen to recordings that help you understand what not to do!

With the help of your teacher you can find a version that helps you create the best version of your excerpt. It’s always great to listen to a recording that is maybe more radical than a standard, but just be aware that although it might be fascinating, it might not be the best model for audition preparation.

What advice would you give to someone auditioning for AYO?

My advice is to focus on preparation and attitude: 

• Create a good plan in the lead up to your audition and write it down! Include what you’ll work on away from your instrument like score study and listening. 
• Observe everything that’s in the music so you don’t make silly errors.
• Include practising your confidence and assuredness as part of your preparation.
• Factor mock auditions into your planning in a few different ways – live to a family member, recorded just for you, or via Zoom to a friend.
• Remember that this is your chance to share your beautiful playing with people that can’t wait to hear you.

Watch our Zoom Webinar: AYO Alumni in Conversation

Watch the live-stream of three AYO alumni; clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, tubist Karina Filipi and Lawrence Lee as they discuss their experience as an AYO musician, share advice on auditions, and tell us about their careers since:

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