<p>Coach C brought up these auditions yesterday on the thread about CC poster Samia’s songs because Samia is now here in the US for her MT college program auditions and is staying with Coach C for a few days in Pittsburgh and was going to do these auditions. Here’s a link to her post.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com…t=142088&page=4%5B/url%5D”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com…t=142088&page=4</a></p>
<p>I wrote back that I was glad to know that she was going to be there, looking after her current and past students, including several who are current Michigan students, providing moral support, because my D was one of a horde of UM students who attended these auditions yesterday.</p>
<p>I double posted this on the Summerstock thread but I now just have to give a major “shout out” - in our children’s parlance - to the 13 UM students (including my D!!) who have been called back for today’s final auditions. Go Blue!!! As Coach C mentioned, PCLO (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera) is an important Equity gig that allows both non-equity and equity performers to audition for their chorus. As a self acknowledged civic organization, it is their custom to hire as many Pittsburgh locals as they can and I know that last year several UM students were also called back but none were offered contracts so it is still a major long shot for most of these students. But it is really exciting just to be called back and I know my D and her friends are thrilled. I am so very proud of them all!</p>
<p>But I am also posting this as a form of cautionary tale. During my D’s audition, between the singing of her two 16 bar cuts, one of the auditors talked to her and asked about the significant ballet training/performance on her resume. She was then asked if she was still dancing en pointe and when she said she is, she was asked to bring her pointe shoes to callbacks today. (NOTE: when you audition at PCLO you must choose to audition as a singer OR a dancer for the first round. My D auditioned as a singer in this case. If you are called back, you will be asked to demonstrate the skill opposite to the one you auditioned with as part of the callback audition. Their website states that “Please note that Chorus Members should be able to sing and dance. Most age-appropriate parts will be filled from the Chorus.” ) So my daughter DID NOT bring her pointe shoes to Pittsburgh!! Tap, yes, jazz, yes, character, yes, ballet slippers, yes… So the lesson here is BRING ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING you could possibly need and that demonstrates your skills to every audition you ever go to. Fortunately, other more experienced UM friends who weren’t called back generously lent my daughter some pointe shoes that seem to fit. As anyone who dances en pointe knows, using someone else’s shoes is far from ideal but should be okay for an audition like this. Phew!!! Lesson learned. I hope.</p>
<p>I hope Coach C will chime in with her impressions of the day and my fingers are crossed that Samia was called back as well.</p>