<p>Has anyone ever had a problem with the accompanist provided for an audition? My son recently auditioned and was quite discouraged at the number of mistakes made by the accompanist…every few measures. At this point, I suspect his admittance may be in jeopardy. There’s no way for us to know if she was just having a bad day, and how much that will reflect on his audition. With so many errors, it was hard for it not to affect his performance.</p>
<p>My daughter once had a poor accompanist for a scholarship audition (at a school where she did NOT intend to major in music but was eligible for an arts scholarship.) She sent the music weeks in advance as requested; two days before the audition, we received a phone call asking if we were going to send the music. We knew someone had received it (had a delivery confirmation), but rather than quibble, we just faxed the music over. I don’t know whether it was due to the fact the music was lost the first time around, leaving the accompanist little time to practice or whether the accompanist really was not very good, but in my daughter’s estimation, she was “the worst accompanist I’ve ever had.” My daughter felt she had to “bulldoze” her way through the song, trying to pretend their was no accompaniment at all in the hope the adjudicators would recognize where the problem lay. In doing so, she felt she ended up sacrificing her interpretation but was just grateful to get through the piece.</p>
<p>Ultimately, she did receive a scholarship offer, although it was less than she had hoped for. Could the lesser amount have been, in part, a result of the poor accompanist and the associated struggle to sing well? We couldn’t say and never tried to find out one way or another; sometimes stuff just happens. What the poor accompanist did do was open my daughter’s eyes to the very real differences between schools with “music lite” programs vs schools with substantive music programs. This same piece was played flawlessly by the accompanist at another audition (and the school my daughter ultimately opted to attend).</p>
<p>My D has been generally pleased with the accompanists she encountered. She was fortunate that there was practice time with the accompanists at two auditions. In another, the pianist got completely lost in her second piece and she just kept going, finishing quite a bit ahead of him as he struggled to find his place. He probably should have just stopped. He was very apologetic and she felt he was nervous. It didn’t really bother her and the panel didn’t really react. It was clear he was lost. In another audition, the pianist was good, but just chose to play both of her pieces really fast. Rather than rush to keep up, she kept her tempo and he adjusted to her. That was not a disaster but any little glitch like that can affect the musicality and the concentration - especially on a piece that has been chosen to highlight legato. I guess there could be a problem if the panel believes the tempo the pianist chose was the correct one and that my D’s interpretation was not correct, but she didn’t feel that way. I was thrilled that she took it in stride and saw it as part of the process. I don’t want her to think otherwise, but we haven’t heard from those two schools yet so we’ll see…</p>
<p>DD was fortunate in accompanists for the most part. She did say she had trouble with tempo on one. It was a safety school for her and they still offered good scholarship money. And once or twice they did one of the sections differently than she had practiced, but she adjusted. Our experience was that the better the school, the better the accompanist was. For most of hers, the accompaniment was done by one of the professors. She did not send the music ahead to any of them. But her classical rep was pretty standard, too.</p>
<p>The best pianist my daughter has had was at the local state school - but there was an accompanist fee there so they probably were able to entice better accompanists than they would have otherwise. We also have Peabody down the road so there is no shortage of hungry pianists. However, a great pianist doesn’t necessarily make a great accompanist. The key is the ability to “accompany.” The best not only accompany but have a goal of making the singer look good. One was a great pianist but he played more like he was playing a piano solo - sounded great but didn’t really accompany. That was fine - she was grateful for no major problems.</p>
<p>Very true cartera!!! A great pianist does not a great accompanist make! One concentrates on their own playing making sure they play the piece the way the composer intended it while the other concentrates on following the singer and allowing the singer the freedom to add their own personal touch to the piece.</p>
<p>My daughter has experienced the gamut from the amazing Curtis and such conservatories where they had the arias basically memorized and just asked what she wanted as an intro, to others that shall not be named that asked for the music weeks ahead of time and then tried to convince my D in their 15 minutes of practice time together right before the audition NOT to sing a particularly difficult aria because she couldn’t play it well (did not come out and admit it but my D went with her voice teacher’s suggestion much to the accompanist’s dismay and the pianist really botched it). There is NO WAY the accompanist’s poor playing would effect the singer’s acceptances unless they were thrown by it dramatically. Unfortunately in life you will not always have incredible accompanists (even those with fabulous resumes can fall far short). The key is to keep singing no matter what you hear! That’s why my D never brings her own accompanist to competitions and auditions and practices by singing acapella in front of a piano and randomly hitting notes to insure she is on key. That is part of the audition - working out the kinks with the accompanists assigned to you and dealing with the issues on the fly in a very stressful situation. I’m definitely not saying it is wrong to bring an accompanist!!! I’m just saying this is what my D does - she apparently loves the challenge. That doesn’t mean it always turns out perfectly! That audition I mentioned, near the end of the VERY long aria, the accompanist was SO far off that it even threw my daughter for a few notes and the entire panel of judges leaped to their feet and screamed “Keep singing”, lol. The auditioners are on your side - they are rooting for you to do well and get in - they are not the enemy :)</p>