Kansas City...part 1

Ok, I'll start with a little bit of the Kansas story today...

I flew in after my BPO concert that started at 3pm.  I was supposed to take off at 8pm, but my flight was delayed slightly and I took off at 8:30. I had a layover in Milwaukee and then I was supposed to be in Kansas City by 11:30.  Unfortunately KS was having tornado watches and Flash Flood warnings so my flight ended up getting in around 2:45 am.  My poor friend Chris was nice enough to pick me up-even with my delay.  SUCH a good friend.  On the decent into KS I really thought we were going to die...I saw lightning going right by the wing, and the turbulance was INSANE.  Anyhow....we survived.  My hotel was another 45 minutes from the airport, and when we got to the airport it seemed like they DID NOT reserve a spacific room I had requested.  Due to the misunderstanding they decided to put me in a SUITE!  HURRAH...it was such a fabulous room. By this time it was about 4:30 am and we (E met up with us) decided to have a really early breakfast and then go to bed. Breakfast was so much fun...and I got to sleep around 6am.  NOT really the best set up for a successful audition. I do not do well with all nighters. I had a lot of trouble sleeping and probably only got about 4 or 5 hours of restless sleep.  

The next day I practiced, went out and bought some audition snacks (if I were to have to hang around the audition site at all) and tried to take it easy.  My practicing felt a little sporatic and not always organized but I think that had a little to do with how exhausted I was (due to the rehearsal/concert week and all nighter). 

Tuesday I got up around 5:45, had breakfast and went into a hotel banquet room to warm up. I left for the audition on the shuttle around 8:30 am (for a 9am check in) and picked number 2 for my timeslot. The prelim round was Haydn D, Mendelsohn Schertzo, Beethoven 5, and Also Sprach Zarathustra.  

In the audition I felt as if everything went ok. Haydn had a few scary moments, but it was the first time I'd ever taken Haydn D out for anything. I tried my best to sound as if the concerto was well broken in, but who knows. Maybe it sounded a little hesitant. I need to get this concerto under my fingers...my cello loves it. I just need to! ;-)  Beethoven 5 went well, maybe a little slow, Schertzo went fine (with my bouncing bow) and Strauss might have needed to go faster but it is an excerpt that I love to play.  All in all, n0t bad, but unfortunately not good enough for 2nd round. I swear the day that I finally get to the next round will be the day I get to finals...sigh.

TO be continued. Time for bed now.