Here are a few words to sum up our tour of Cincinnati and New York:
1.Eye opening
2.Confusing
3.Worthwhile
4.What just happened?
Our trip to Cincinnati was first, and after a ridiculously early morning flight (we deemed Liz's hairbrush as the paddle) we finally made it. Thank god for friends; we were able to relax and not worry about rides and hotels. The Cincinnati facilities were very nice (although Liz's first impression was of urban decay years ago; she has been corrected). However we did not have total smooth sailing. Practice rooms were hard to come by; current students were practicing in the hall landings and bathrooms and apparently that has been happening more often this year. Once in a room we practiced for a little while then went to this GREAT Korean restaurant for lunch. Lunch basically made the trip! As well as seeing Sohyun!
Ryan's audition was scheduled with the violins (which we were assured wasn't an issue but the only viola teacher there would be running to a different room and apparently would be double booked) so he was able to fix the issue with the teacher. However there was still a double booked audition and ending up being confusing and showing a different face of the school. As well as the meeting we were required to go to. It seems that the school has different ways of giving out money by competitions. Which could be interesting but also a hassle. Our auditions were pretty straightforward and short, although we had different people in ours and it was video recorded. It also snowed! And the practice building was very Gothic; nice gargoyles outside the windows!
After our TERRIBLE travel day the next morning (where we got between 1-2:30 hours of sleep respectively) and drove from Dayton to Cincinnati, flew from Cincinnati to Philadelphia [layover], Philadelphia to Boston [layover], Boston to JFK, then took the Airtrain to Howard Beach (Ryan's smart innovative idea) and the subway all the way to 190th st. Needless to say we were super exhausted and delirious. But still had time to be in awe of Melissa and Raman's super nice apartment (and very organic and eco-friendly apartment).
Neighborhood we stayed in
The next day we went to Stony Brook (3 hour trip, which we realized was the equivalent of going to Greensboro!) and froze our butts off. Our first impression of the school was that is seemed it was under construction. (Ryan said it was very New York). The building was nice, but there were only two "public" practice rooms and the rest were student offices shared by 3-4 people. Since the school is primarily a graduate school it made sense but were not sure what the few undergraduate students do. Fortunately we have friends in high places and were able to use a student room instead of just warming up 30 minutes before our audition like the majority of prospective students. This worked well since we worked with an accompanist for this audition. She was very flexible and musical! But we were surprised that she was so young since we have been addressing her as Ms. or Mrs. (in Liz's case) However it helped solidify the audition. We were surprised to find the violist of the Emerson quartet in our audition (why we didn't think of this before I don't know) but overall the audition was relaxing and more chatty than others. We were also familiar with the viola teacher so it felt more comfortable since he already knows our playing and has expectations rather than going in and meeting people for the first time (Music is often all politics that way, which is why you really have a make a great first impression to get accepted). Afterwards we made the trek home (after eating at the Wang student center- good asian![and Liz dropped Ryan's fruit tray...].
The next day, Valentines day, we went back to Stony Brook to have lessons; super important for the audition process! That night we had our Valentines Day Dinner Date at a great burger bar. Wednesday was our fun day, we woke up late and went to the Rose Center and watched a trippy space show and then went to the 9/11 memorial. It was nice to get away from music for awhile and the 9/11 memorial was especially worthwhile to go to, although difficult to see. Throw in some wine, emergency Liz supplies and shoe shopping and we had a great day! (Plus we got to have some great New York pizza while we were there).
The next day we went to Rochester for our Eastman audition. After ANOTHER super early morning (going all the way to JFK and making a close call to our departure time) we went to the school on our hotel shuttle and observe some lessons (the teacher did not teach prospective students during the audition season since she had so many). They were very interesting, and we learned a lot: about both the teacher and the current students. We met a French saxophonist at the hotel too! And laid around our hotel rooms and caught up on much needed sleep.
The next day at Eastman was very organized and informative; we were happy that the school mentioned that "we are not only auditioning you, but you are auditioning us" which most schools ignore. The program seemed pretty straight-forward, and the facilities were the best! However, true to the tour theme, there was a serious lack of practice room space. We also had various opinions on the student body as well. However we played our audition, and then had a viola program meeting which was also very informative. Hopefully we can make it to the Viola Congress at Eastman or one sometime in our lives. (Though we probably would have thought that was the lamest thing ever a couple years ago). It also was snowing like crazy!!! (aka. Blizzard according to us!) The next day we checked out of the hotel, camped out at the airport and got into Greenville around 1:30am.
SNOW BLIZZARD!
All in all, it was good to audition and see the schools, however it is becoming clearer that there will probably never be the "perfect" school.
