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 This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2008-09-18 18:32

This Audition really happened - I just confirmed it with Michele Zukovsky

true ........  :)


My Bassoon Audition ~ Practical Joke:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra announces auditions for a bassoon vacancy.

Bassoonists from all over the world will try out for this prestigious position.

The Auditions Committee consists of principal players from each section of the orchestra.

Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, and Conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen will make
the final choice as to who will win this coveted bassoon position.

Unknown to the Auditions Committee, except the regular bassoon section,
(David Breidenthal, Alan Goodman, Patti Kindel), an unusual event is about to take place......

Ray Pizzi, jazz bassoonist, is surreptitiously invited to join the audition finals.

He will be the 75th audition the committee will have evaluated in the past 2
days.....

......listening to the same audition pieces, played over and over and over again.

With everyone in place, Ray Pizzi, dressed in black, wearing a wide brim black fedora hat, walks out on stage, sits behind the music stand, nonchalantly looks through the required music excerpts, then arrogantly shoves the music stand aside.

The Auditions Committee gasps! Wow! he doesn't need the music? Very impressive!

Ray starts the audition with the difficult opening solo to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"

.....when suddenly, he launches into a funky, bouncy, swamp blues
solo bassoon piece of his own, called "Ode to a Toad."

As Ray continues to play, the Auditions Committee members start giggling,

......they've been had.....victims of a practical joke......

.......except for one person......the Chairman of the Auditions Committee.....

........who jumps out of his front row seat, clipboard in hand, and attempts
to stop Ray, who is certainly NOT playing the required material!

Suddenly, the entire bassoon section jumps up and pushes him back into
his seat and is respectfully, yet forcibly, advised to shut up and listen!

By this time, Ray is really huffing, puffing, stomping, building the intensity to the big finish, the Committee is applauding, laughing, howling, whistling, cheering.

Finally...... the last note...... a humongous low B flat......
So humongous, that it causes a large yellow rubber glove to fill with air and slowly emerge from the bell of his bassoon......defiantly displaying the middle digit finger!

With his elite audience in total hysterics, Ray, taking advantage of the situation, slowly turns and flips this gigantic "bird" at the Chairman of the Auditions Committee, who is now laughing and applauding wildly along with the rest of the audience......

.......On his final encore bow, Ray shouts out........"Did I get the gig???"

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: Ed Palanker 
Date:   2008-09-19 03:27

Well, did he get it? ESP

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: skygardener 
Date:   2008-09-19 04:01

Can we get it on youtube???????

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: Tobin 
Date:   2008-09-19 12:25

Hello Ed,

The finalists (as I was just told by a friend of mine) were principal of NSO and associate of Chicago. No one was awarded the job.

James

Gnothi Seauton

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2008-09-19 13:03

Ahh, just give it to Pizzi  ;)


Here's a quote from him:


(Conductor to Pizzi)
"Bassoon player... you are wearing a Hat... will you be able to see me conduct?"
Pizzi replies: "I am happy to remove my hat, maestro, but I play with my eyes closed anyway"

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


Post Edited (2008-09-19 13:40)

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: tictactux 2017
Date:   2008-09-19 13:19

> Can we get it on youtube???????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UkaC3GJrSo

--
Ben

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2008-09-19 13:43

Thanks for the link - there's also a real recording (not midi) of ode on his youtube page too.

I'd never heard the piece before.

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: Old Geezer 
Date:   2008-09-19 23:07

Don't they have double blind auditions at the LAPHIL? If so, how did they see the guy's outfit etc.

Clarinet Redux

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2008-09-19 23:54

Everything I have ever done with Phila Orchestra has been double blind, but I don't know if its that way in LA.

Isn't it a requirement of the union or Orchestra League?

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2008-09-22 12:13

I heard from Ray who saw this - he wrote that he was brought in on the final audition, which are not held behind a screen and that he figures that he didn't get the gig as his "Rite of Spring" scared em.

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: BobD 
Date:   2008-09-22 14:01

Thanks again Dave. His website is a blast too.

Bob Draznik

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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2008-09-22 16:07

Most of us have heard the "over the rainbow" joke where the musician is playing the tune "over the rainbow" on a balcony and can't remember the stanza, gets frustrated and jumps off - then practically in a coma remembers it when the wail of the british ambulance comes near.


Ray was the Sax player in the film about that. (same name film)

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


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 Re: This Audition really happened ....... a keeper
Author: Alseg 
Date:   2008-09-22 16:47

Here he embeds a political statement about half-way through
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdDtZKkR4Hw&feature=related


Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-





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