It’s about starting over . com

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been planning to audition to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston for some years. Actually, it was in my thoughts from the moment I learned about the articulation agreement that Berklee has with the Rimon School, which I’ve already attended for three years.

How does it work?

For the curious–it works like this. The Berklee College, not to be confused with any of the colleges or universities in Berkeley California, has an articulation agreement with what are called BIN schools around the world. The agreement works like this (in a nutshell): you take certain courses at the BIN school and, as long as you get a grade of B or better in each one, you can transfer those credits (and yourself) to Berklee. Once you’ve completed the required courses, you’re in. You don’t need to be accepted because, by virtue of the fact that you’ve completed these courses at the BIN school, you’re in.

What’s the catch? Really folks, there isn’t one. A word or two about studying at the Rimon School though–I’ll tell you right now that it’s pretty easy to get in, as long as you possess a modicum of talent, but it’s not at all easy to stay in. It’s hard work and the less educated you are in music theory, the harder it is. I came in with nothing behind me and it’s been a real uphill battle, but one I adore. I adore the challenge, the hard work, and most of all, the results.

Why did I audition?

So, back to the Berklee thing. Everyone who applies to attend Berklee, BIN transfer students included, must audition. The purpose of the audition is twofold. First, it’s for placement. They test you in various areas and your placement in classes at Berklee is based on the results. The second and, for me, more important purpose is for possible scholarships. Without a substantial scholarship, I cannot attend.

Is there much competition or is a scholarship a sure thing?

Hmmmm, well, the competition is pretty tough. Now, I think that Rimon is one of the smaller schools in which auditions are held. They were scheduled back-to-back, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. over a two-day period with a one-hour lunch break in the middle. Each audition was supposed to last only 15 minutes. So, that means 4 musicians per hour, 7 hours each day, two days: that’s 56 musicians auditioning at Rimon. Oh, and this is called, “The World Scholarship Tour.” They’ll be auditioning musicians at multiple locations around the world. That’s a lot of competition! And believe me, Berklee is one of the best music schools on the earth so a lot of people want to get in.

How many people will be granted full scholarships? Not many. I think it’s something like seven to ten. You can read about it here.

So, how’d it go already?

Okay, I’ve gotten so many emails asking how the audition went! I promised I would post about it, so here it goes. It was aMAZing!!!!! I had such a good time! It was a real challenge because I knew I needed to stand out, to show why I’m special, and that I would have less than five minutes to do so. I had started out some months ago thinking I would sing Achinoam Nini’s Ave Maria, a song I love. I found a wonderful guitarist, Nadav Peled (if you hear that he’s performing somewhere, go see and support him. He deserves it!), and we worked together a few times. He was so good that we didn’t need more than that. But then I recorded myself singing with his beautiful playback, and I realized that it wasn’t outstanding. It was just another person singing a song. BTW, this was only a week or so before the audition. I thought to myself, oh boy, this isn’t going to cut it. I have to do something, and fast. This is where the big challenge began. I had to create something that would show off several of my talents, and perform it tight. I asked everyone I know to send up prayers for me and sent up quite a few as well, and did a lot of thinking. After a few days, I came up with something really fun. But I thought to myself, how am I going to pull this off? I’ve only a couple of days left until the audition!

What I did

I met with a jazz pianist I’ve been working with (Rada), and we turned my idea over a few times. The thing about jazz musicians is that they’re very adaptable, very versatile–seriously, that’s the spirit of jazz. The music tends to be made, to write itself, inside live performances. Oh, yes, she was definitely up to the challenge. The arrangement crystallized in my mind, I could literally hear it! She agreed to try to do this, and so, literally two days before the audition, I contacted Nadav to let him know what was going on. I pieced together a recording that would outline the arrangement for him and emailed it to him. He loved it, and so we were set.

“Wait a minute”, you might be saying, “you went into an audition without any rehearsals?” Yes, we did. This was one of the talents I wanted to show to the Berklee people. My ability to work with quality musicians and get my ideas across and create a seamless arrangement on the spot. Well, I’ll confess, we did meet and run through it a few minutes just before the audition–this was where we ironed out any rough or unsure transitions (the piece took us through a few different styles and had several tempo changes). Here’s where I tell you all that there is nothing like working with top-notch jazz musicians. There was absolutely no tension or uncertainty involved. They were as eager and happy to put together a creative, unique and interesting arrangement as I was. And they were as happy with the outcome as I was. Seriously, I have never had so much fun!

Were the Berklee people impressed? Well, when we finished, the main auditioner (is there such a word?) said, “You guys are GOOD! Do you play somewhere? Are you a group?” I had the extreme pleasure of explaining that they had only met some minutes ago. He was surprised and seemed impressed–I explained that it was all in the spirit of jazz. I actually thought he was asking Rada and Nadav and not me, but they later said that they felt that the question was directed at all of us.

I also performed my original, Rutz, which they also seemed to like.

I really need to say here that the Berklee representatives are extremely nice people. It’s very possible that I came out of the audition feeling so good just because they are extremely supportive and encouraging of everyone who has the guts to audition. Based on their behavior, it’s really possible that everyone who auditioned felt good and successful by the time they left.

The remaining “tests” and the personal interview seemed to go well. How well? Only time will tell. In other words, will all this translate into a substantial scholarship, or any scholarship at all? I should know within a month.

But what I want to say is that life is to be lived and for me, challenging myself in this manner is living, really living! I’ve done a lot of things in my life, and I seriously can’t remember ever having so much fun! I’m talking about the whole process, including the indecision, which culminated in the actual audition.

People, I highly recommend doing something like this to EVERYONE! Whatever your thing is, do it, love it, enjoy it, slurp it up! Regardless of the outcome, it will stay with you always and whenever you think about it, will put a beautiful smile on your face.

Oh, and if you’re so inclined, it would be wonderful if you would continue sending prayers up–getting a super-substantial scholarship (or best, a full scholarship) would make going to Berklee possible, and ultimately, enable me to do some real good in the world.

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A HUGE thank you to all of you who are being so supportive, and especially to the folk community.

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A word about Rada, my pianist

Rada is classically trained and I believe has a degree in music. She is highly educated and versatile. If you live in the Kfar Sava or surrounding area and are looking for a piano teacher, she is reasonably priced and an amazing teacher (she’s really nice too!). She has also written some beautiful songs in Russian, so if you would like to arrange a living-room or other type of concert for her, please contact me at joannak1 at netvision dot net dot il (you know, replace “at” with @, and “dot” with . and remove the spaces–this is to prevent spamming) and I’ll make the connection. Of course, if anyone needs accompaniment, she’s also available and, as I’ve said, very good and extremely easy to work with. She has a day job at a local public school, so scheduling can sometimes be tricky.

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Nadav Peled

You can hear Nadav’s music and find out more about him at http://www.myspace.com/nadavpeled

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