Klarinet Archive - Posting 000634.txt from 2003/02

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Live Auditions on our local "Public Library" Channel 17
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 21:07:55 -0500

Anne Lenoir wrote,
>I was watching our local library TV Station 17,
>and they were playing a broadcast of a live audition
>for a youth symphony somewhere. It the location and
>name of the clarinetist went by before I could remember
> it. The young lady playing the clarinet was absolutely
>superb. [snip] All I can remember (I think) is that her
>last name is VAM, and she was auditioning for a youth
>symphony, playing the first movement of Mozart K-622.

I think you saw an RCA video, "The Audition," made several years ago with
Sharon Kam. James Judd conducts the European Community Youth Orchestra on
the soundtrack. If it's the same video I'm thinking of, the scene is a
small auditorium with three judges (two men and one woman; the woman
smokes) sitting at a table in the audience. Dark-haired, conservatively
dressed Sharon Kam stands alone on the raised stage, flanked by two large
speakers playing her recorded orchestral accompaniment. She uses a
clarinet in A with a black fabric reverse ligature. She looks completely
impassive, with her face nearly expressionless, but calm and confident, and
no wonder, because the playing is, as Anne says, professional quality.
(Kam has released several recordings now, including one of the Mozart
concerto.)

As she plays, the scene shifts several times to other competitors, who look
like college students, waiting their turns. One young man in a washroom
plays his violin along with the orchestral tutti. The rest of the
competitors look tense, even grim, as they silently listen to Kam through
speakers. The others probably measure their chances against her killer
performance.

Meanwhile, when the camera shows what I interpret to be Kam's point of
view, she doesn't always see the judges. Instead, sometimes the camera
shows what I think the viewer is meant to perceive as her imagination:
people, some of them in period costumes and others in modern dress who look
as though they might be her teacher and members of her family, stand around
in the auditorium, listening to her approvingly. The ones in costumes
include Mozart, Salieri and Colloredo -- the last two hold up signs with
their names! It's a fascinating video because Kam's carefully disciplined,
"Don't show 'em anything" face never reveals the slightest hint of this
vivid mental picture. I've seen this video on the Classic Arts Showcase
channel on Cox Cable. That channel's website is
www.classicartsshowcase.net.

Lelia Loban
lelialoban@-----.net
Please note new address!

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