The Arc of an OCSA Audition

Sofie Dooley

The selecting of the perfect song. The day, week or even month before jitters. The sweaty hands before you walk into the room. The haze of it all in the moment. The questioning afterwards, the anticipation, “Did I get in?”

 Pretty much all music-based conservatories at OCSA hold auditions multiple times during a school year. But despite all having the common thread of music, the audition “experience” varies depending on a multitude of factors. But what plays a greater role? Are factors like the conservatory itself the dictators, or is it the mental state of the one auditioning that makes all the difference? Let’s unpack it with the thoughts and experiences of two OCSA students and their most recent auditions. 

First up, vocalist Chloe Garcia (PM ‘26) auditioned a few weeks ago for PM’s “Electric Showcase”. In this show, everyone auditions even though no one is excluded. When asked about the vocal audition guidelines, Garcia relayed that the requirements were to sing the first verse and chorus of a song in front of her whole [Voice ll] class. “It was pretty chill, laid back. You sing your song in front of the class and bing-batta-boom, you're done.” During auditions, fellow voice students are required to fill out a packet with information about the performers and feedback while the teacher conducting the audition grades the performances using a rubric.  Receiving feedback is optional for the performers post-audition.

 While the audition may sound simple and stress-free, Garcia still faced some inner demons. She explained that, although it does feel good to exit her shell, everything is heightened when auditioning compared to, “singing by yourself in the shower or to one other person.” Although many performers attending OCSA have participated in more than a few auditions, proving your abilities in front of others when you know you're being judged never gets easy. 

A different story is told when it comes to Conrad Cain (IA ‘26) who auditioned for IA’s production of “Into the Woods.” Similar to Garcia’s experience,  Cain explained that he had to prepare a one minute vocal audition using any song. Cain expressed his feelings about the audition, “I think this one (audition) was very casual and low key… It felt like just talking to [the director]. It didn’t feel really serious because there were no dance callbacks, monologue or sight singing on the spot.” 

However, the anxiety hits regardless. Cain stated, “Before I had the audition, I was really freaking out. But afterwards I felt really good because I absolutely devoured everyone there and did amazing at my audition.” It seems that Cain used the anxiety to push out his best work and fortunately, it paid off because Cain landed the role of his dreams. 

Regardless of the differences between IA’s production of “Into the Woods” and PM’s “Electric Showcase,” both audition processes seem to have similar qualities according to Garcia and Cain. At the end of day, what you get out of the audition truly depends solely on the mindset that you go into it with.