Opinion: Dare to be different

Your big day is arriving: the audition is nigh, and you need to show yourself at your very best. So, what better place to start than the great masterpieces for your instrument? Good thinking – or is it? For you can be sure that 95 per cent of all the other auditionees have been thinking exactly the same thing. In reality, the best place to start is to spare a thought for your adjudicator!

It is a strange fact that the easier it has become to access a huge variety of repertoire, the more likely it is that candidates will arrive with the same few pieces. In so many masterclasses I have given or panels I have sat on, the choice of music has been entirely predictable. So much so that those players who have brought something different are firmly entrenched in my mind…