The first of many No's

Whelp, I was not one of the chosen ones for Dresden, Leipzig or Cologne.  I came here knowing that there was more of a chance that I’d be rejected than accepted, and it’s only the first few “no’s” of many that I’ll hear of course.  My Leipzig audition was better than Dresden's, and I think a teacher even cracked a smile (so she probably wasn't from Germany), but it was much more difficult to understand their German dialect at the start when I walked in, so it was a rocky start but I felt better with it being my second audition. Very much get in-get out.  Unfortunately Leipzig nor Cologne gave students feedback as Dresden did.  The committee at Dresden sat the students down before and after the auditions for 1-2 minutes for convo in German, and afterwards gave some pretty blunt criticisms on what they thought about your voice, but it's definitely something to appreciate and value to a point, and the things that were pointed out were things I already am aware that I need to work on.

The audition at Cologne was like a train station at rush hour, so many people and only six practice rooms available for probably around 200 singers to warm up in, definitely one of the more typical/crazy audition settings.  I got one for ten minutes before my audition and then it was time for the next singer’s ten minutes of use.  I was much less nervous and almost care fee mind set because of the chaos and because of the rejections at the last two schools, so I felt my auditions have improved with each school which was a goal of mine.  

The only person who spoke decent German or English around me at the Cologne audition was a girl from Iceland who happened to go to Westminster Choir College of Rider University in New Jersey for her undergrad.  I attended the school's summer voice program in Florence, Italy four years ago and she and I knew the same teachers and singer friends.  Small world.  She said she randomly decided to go to Stuttgart, Germany for a month.  She auditioned for some gigs, and ended up staying in Germany longer than expected, and is involved in some concerts coming up and has been jumping around Germany depending on where her auditions and performances are.  We wished each other luck, and went on our merry ways.

In Leipzig, I had a coffee with one of the music students.  He told me that the singers who get in and graduate from the Masters Programs almost always get jobs in the local opera houses in the city which may also be a reason why these schools accept an average of 5 or less people a year. So from hearing a few of the singers here and knowing the grad students have basically a set career ahead of them after their Masters (unlike the states), it's not a surprise.  Some of the singers I've heard sounded like professionals already, and maybe less than about 10% of the people at these auditions are from non-Asian countries.  Overall, it seems that if you’re not at the start of your professional opera career, then forget auditioning for your Masters in Europe.

I have auditions left in Berlin and Frankfurt towards the end of June, then there's two schools in Austria that I can audition at in September if I decide to.  These auditions are definitely what I needed as far as real-world learning experiences, and am glad I can see and experience it now rather than later.

I've never been so excited to get a good night's sleep as I have tonight now that this first week is over.  I was staying in the a hostel in the Turkish hood in Cologne the past two nights, and got about 3 hours of sleep between the hours of 4 and 5 am and 9 to 11 am. The trend of my stays this past week has happened to be hostel-hotel-hostel-hotel, a perfect balance that makes you appreciate comfort and silence after staying in a hostel, especially when it's across the street from a cell phone shop, still open at midnight, with the owner behind the counter drinking beer, "talking" at the top of his lungs with his buddies.

Visiting Frankfurt for the next two days and then to Berlin!