Injured on the audition day

violindad
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:07:34 +0000

A few thoughts:

1. Does the school accept recordings? Many do and if yours does, then explain your situation to someone in charge. I’m assuming that you have a recording.

2. Is there any possibility of postponing the auditon for a week or so? [I notice you are from Taipei, but I don’t know how long you are around the university at which you are auditioning.]

3. Is there a chance that the nerve will heal well enough overnight to allow pain-free playing?

4. Don’t do anything that would make the damage worse. Playing though pain is rarely good for you in the long-term.

5. While I generally do not think that starting any performance with an apology is good, in this case, I think that I would be inclined to let the faculty know your situation with a brief matter-of-fact explanation. If nothing else, they may require fewer minutes of playing from you or may try to focus on rep or parts of rep that will be less painful to play.

6. Since some auditions allow you to choose what to start with (and since most auditions do not have sufficient time for you to play everything), be certain to have figured out what repertoire is least affected by your injury.