And this morning...

an email came from Mr. Samuels (Duqesne University in Pittsburgh) saying that he accepted me into his studio. This is exciting for two reasons: a) I got in to a school at which, during my visit, I got to hear the amazing Pittsburgh Symphony, discovered what a good teacher he is, and realized how nice it would be to go to school in a city, and b) I have now heard from every school to which I applied!

The schools I now must consider are, in order of most information/most certainty:

Ohio University: officially accepted
Baylor University: recommended for admission and assistantship by clarinet professor and faculty committee
University of Oklahoma and Duquesne University: accepted into clarinet professors' studios
University of Georgia: accepted by professor, University admission pending GRE

Money will play an important role, and we will see whether my GRE is good enough for admission to Georgia. I may not have enough time to study for it! We'll see what I can do. I've talked to friends who have taken it (one of whom has a condensed study guide he made up), and I've bought the Kaplan's review book. We'll see how much I can prepare for it.

That is all. In the meantime, I must do homework so that I may graduate.

Another update...

I got an email this morning saying that Dr. Etheridge at the University of Oklahoma accepted me into his studio! I'm quite excited, as it would be great to study with him, but now to see about money. As per my father's recommendation, and as per common sense, it would be best to pay as little for graduate school as possible. Oi. Still much to be traversed in the decision-making process, and I also still have several schools to hear from officially. The only school I know anything about financially is BU, and I'm not going to go there. The list now stands:

Ohio University - accepted
University of Oklahoma - unofficially accepted
Baylor - unofficially accepted
Georgia - unofficially accepted by the prof, pending GRE

Duquesne - still waiting

BU -accepted, not going
FSU - rejected

Of course, I need to hear about how financially feasible any of the top five might be before any steps can be made toward a decision. It does look like, however, that I will not be in the northeast for graduate school. Though I love Boston, I think I'm okay with that.

Mission: Auditions... complete!

The middle of last week brought my final audition, this at UGA. I really liked the professor. I think he could help me establish some good habits in my playing that would bring about much improvement. In addition to two clarinet assistantships open next year, there is also a band assistantship available, because of which he had me play for the band director as well. We'll see what happens. I have to take the GRE now, because Georgia hasn't waived the GRE requirement for performance majors (all the other schools to which I applied waive the GRE for grad performance majors). Pain in the butt.

Speaking of things left on applications, I found out that because of a single course that I took at Hudson Valley Community College during a summer and because of credit I earned at SUNY Albany in high school French 4, I need transcripts sent from them to Baylor University to complete my application there. Another pain in the butt. Grr. Especially when the music school doesn't even care. Dr. Shanley indicated that the faculty were sending positive recommendations both for admission and for an assistantship to the music graduate program. Oi. All these steps make me wish that music programs were separate from the universities, but on the other hand, music schools probably don't often have the finances to run well without a larger institution.

When I got back on Thursday, there were two pieces of mail for me from Boston University. They actually accepted me, but I didn't get any money from them, so I probably won't go. I like Boston, but not enough to spend at least another $60k to stay here two more years, especially when there are good teachers and other cool towns elsewhere.

Finally, I went and got myself an A clarinet on Friday. It came with a double case, and I bought a case cover with it. This makes me elated. Now I have my own set of instruments and can call myself a real clarinetist! Hopefully the instruments will hold up for a long, long time. I'm going to be sending in the form for insurance ASAP, either today or tomorrow.

One to go and then....

I wait.

I just finished my audition at Duquesne University. Tomorrow I leave for the University of Georgia. For now, I'm spending St. Patrick's Day at my grandmother's house, having just eaten a dinner of corned beef and cabbage, and I should be writing a paper and practicing. Oh well.

So, for an update, for the sake of ease of communication, I'll do it in list form:


Florida State - Rejected. :-( Makes my decision easier though. Everyone wants to study with Dr. Kowalsky. Maybe I'll audition again for my doctorate.

Ohio - Accepted! Waiting on financial information. From what I heard from the students, it appears that every graduate music student has an assistantship of some sort (not necessarily in the major area), so we'll see. I really enjoyed my visit, and I think I could grow as a player here. I might not end up being pushed as hard as I like, though.

Baylor - Sent in a CD, unoffically accepted, and unofficially in the running for a clarinet assistantship. From my conversations with Dr. Shanley, I think the expectations there are sufficiently high where I would be pushed to grow as a player.

Oklahoma - Still waiting, hoping to get in. Dr. Etheridge is a great pedagogue, and the overall music program is super strong.
Duquesne - Just auditioned, hoping to get in. I think the teacher here might be the best match for me as a student. Plus, they have the Pittsburgh Symphony, which I got to see on Saturday, March 15, and it is truly a first-rate group!
BU - still waiting, don't particularly care if I get in (I was unimpressed when I went for my audition)

University of Georgia - I audition tomorrow. Dr. McClellan said that he has a couple assistantships available, so we'll see how my audition goes and if he likes my playing.

Arizona State - Sent in a CD and haven't heard anything. I haven't applied there either, so I'm not that worried about furthering this. I've got my eggs in enough baskets.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Choosing a clarinet (last post, continued)

This is a long overdue post.

So the concert went acceptably - I only played in one of the two pieces, though it was indeed a major work (Dvorák Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"). I played second clarinet and my teacher played the first part. The other piece was the Fauré Requiem.

Now about the choosing of the new clarinet. I was terrified to go pick out a new clarinet by myself. Okay, maybe not terrified, but pretty darn scared. When I picked out my first new R13 at the end of freshman year, my teacher had come with me to help me do it. This time, I was on my own. At the last lesson I had with him before I went, I asked Mr. Kirkley to give me the things that I should look for in the new instrument. First priority was its scale, in other words, having good tuning of each note on the instrument in relation to the other notes. Then, I needed it to be free-blowing, but just a hair more resistant than my ideal, as the instruments tend to free up over the course of a year. Finally, if it came to this, I would pick the instrument with the best tone out of the ones with good tuning and ideal resistance.

Now, these are criteria by which I think I never would have been able to judge three years ago. However, I was surprised at my aptitude a couple weeks ago. There were 13 instruments to try - all Buffet, all R13s. I tried them in groups of three (the last group was four though, since 13 is a prime number and nothing goes into it evenly :-P). I liked one each in the first two groups, none in the third, and two in the fourth. From these, the tuning test rendered the two from the last group as the two finalists, and due to one slight tuning advantage, I chose the one whose tone I preferred slightly less. Now mind you, all of these instruments are the same model, so we're talking minute differences. They all sound like clarinets, but the ease with which one can get the desired tone is what varies between instruments (in addition to tuning and resistance). So in sum, the one I chose had a slightly better scale, slightly better consistency of tone through all the registers of the instrument, was a little less resistant, and had a touch more brightness in the tone (American and German-school clarinetists generally prefer a dark tone).

Sorry for that quasi-technical, maybe boring, likely unsolicited lesson in clarinet qualities. The importance of this is that I realized that, believe it or not, after four years of studying the instrument, am developing some sense of independence as a musician. I am now able to analyze and make choices based upon certain minutiae. Dorky as it may sound, I think this helped me realize that I'm a real musician now. Theme related to the title of this blog: I found out I know more than I thought I did. What a pleasant feeling.

Now onto other things.

Recovery step one... complete!

So I did it. I got a new instrument. I went to University Music in Lowell and played all of the R13 clarinets they had in stock. For those clarinet non-aficionados in my (assumed) limited readership, an R13 is the basic professional model clarinet of French clarinet manufacturer Buffet-Crampon.

It took me two hours. I tried them in groups of three. I picked one from the first group, one from the second group, none from the third, and two from the fourth. Then I took advantage of the music store owner's offer to help me choose one. We eliminated the clarinets from the first two groups pretty quickly, and thus had to decide which from the last group would be the winner and which the runner-up.

It was a hard choice; both instruments had a very good scale (were well in-tune with themselves), and both had an overall gorgeous tone. In the end, I ended up deciding based on the fact that one of them had a scale ever so slightly more in tune than the other, combined with a slight advantage of evenness of tone between registers. The trade-off with this instrument (the one I chose) was that its tone was just a tad brighter than the other. Regardless, the tone of this (now my) instrument is still beautiful and robustly clarinetty. I will just have to make a couple minor adjustments in my playing, mouthpiece, and/or barrel to keep it dark.

It turns out that choosing a new clarinet happened to be a very important and therapeutic experience for a couple reasons, but more on that later. I have a concert to play in less than two hours.