Audition 2

This past weekend I went to NYC to audition at NYU. I wasn't really nervous about that audition since I knew most of the faculty, had taken classes there over the summer, and I was acclimated to the performance spaces. I arrived at NYU early enough to check in and warm up. I went up the familiar 9th floor to find a practice room. I practiced for over thirty minutes. The first thing I did was work on my breathing. If your breathing isn't completely under you, then you will push and constant pushing leads to voice loss, which leads to well not having a career.  The first singing I did was warm up my lower and middle voice, which always seems to be raspy, like my speaking voice. I went down as low as I could go on many different vowels. Then I went up, did a few scales, and started to look at my music. I just looked at a couple of tricky parts in the different songs, and then I knew I was ready to go.
I made my way down to the seventh floor to wait. When it was my turn I walked to the stage, handed the accompanist my music, stated my name, song, and composer, and then began. I sang "In Uomini" first because it is my best piece, and it is always best to start with your best foot forward. After I sang they got to chose from my other two pieces. They chose "O Sleep". Since the weekend before they had chosen "Notre Amour," this was the first time ever I was singing this song for an audition. I got to about the middle of the song when Diana Heldman raised her hand and said that was great and they didn't need to hear any more. It was time for sight reading. Instead of administering theory test, they just have you sight sing a few measures during your audition, which arguably is much more nerve-wracking. However, I was calm, and it wasn't difficult. When I was done, they didn't ask me any questions. They simply said thank you, and I left.
My NYU audition went much better than my Eastman Audition. I was in a good place mentally to focus on technique as well as interpretation. I know now I was just to nervous and unsure at Eastman of myself to perform to the best of my ability. As time goes on, I know I will only become more and more comfortable in my auditions.