Clutching at Strauss

There are many reasons why an orchestral career might never get off the ground. But, among viola players anyway, the most likely destroyer of your dreams will be a guy called Don.

If you get accepted for an orchestral audition it is almost guaranteed that you'll be asked to prepare excerpts from Richard Strauss's bodice-ripper Don Juan. It's also almost guaranteed that you'll bollocks it up, and what's more, it's a pretty good bet that you'll go on bollocksing it up for the rest of your life.

The one comforting thought is that if you somehow manage to beat the odds on the day - nailing the rest of your audition pieces along the way, of course - and get the job, you'll never have to play it right again! At least, you'll never have to play it again all on your own under the intense scrutiny of an audience bent on judging you, looking for any reason to criticise.

Which makes Martin Stegner, a viola player with the Berlin Philharmonic, a Straussian hero in his own right.



Stegner plays the excerpt - one assumes voluntarily, but is there a slight look of 'I can't believe I'm having to go through this again' in his expression? - as part of an online tutorial to aid candidates applying for the latest YouTube Symphony Orchestra project. YTSO 2011 is a week of orchestral rehearsals, masterclasses and chamber music culminating in a concert at Sydney Opera House, and it follows from the inaugural YTSO at Carnegie Hall in 2009.

In order to participate, musicians must post videos of themselves performing set repertoire and orchestral excerpts (and yes, of course the viola list includes Don Juan). These are whittled down by a panel which will include conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and members of the LSO and Berlin Phil, before YouTube users get to vote for the final selection online. The prize: an all-expenses paid trip to Sydney to meet and play with fellow musicians from around the world.

You have until 28 November to submit your audition video, online public voting runs from 10 to 17 December, and the event itself runs from 13-20 March 2011 with the final concert streamed live. Tune in and you'll see the viola section, all people who, for once, will have managed not to succumb to that fateful Don.