Listen on –
On this edition of “Winning the Job”, I was able to speak to Nathan Clark and Sam Huss about their audition success. Thanks to both of them for being willing to speak with me, and congrats on your recent successes!
I’ve known Nathan for a couple of years now, but interestingly, the only times I get to see him have been at an audition that we are both taking. We ended up chatting after a round and grabbing a drink after enough times that I think we just became familiar faces for each other. As such, I know Nathan has put in a lot of hard work and heard many of the same “No’s” that I have at auditions, so I was incredibly happy to hear he had won a position with the marine band. One of the things I really liked about what he had to say was how he talked about actively working to improve his intonation. It’s an example of how “purifying” the audition process can be. If we strive to be better at every audition we take, then eventually we’ll be faced with working to improve issues that are holding us back at allowing us to sound truly free and confident while performing.
I was really happy to interview Sam as well. I met him at the 2016 Ellsworth Smith Competition, where he placed second. I know he’s been working hard to figure out how to be successful at an audition as well. I appreciated him being candid when telling me although he has won a job now, he feels it still doesn’t necessarily make him an expert on auditioning, at least not enough to comment on whether or not you should play it safe in any given round. It’s cool to see he recognizes what works for one person may not work for another, and that there is definitely no one size fits all advice to give. Sam is the man, and I’m very happy for him and his success!
Here are some simple ways to get in touch with these guys. If you liked what they said, send them a message and let them know! I’m sure they would appreciate it.
The Spotify playlist for this episode will be another Presidents Own Marine Band cd for Nathan Clark. For Sam, since the Richmond Symphony doesn’t have any recordings on Spotify, I added the Henze sonatina, which Sam played beautifully at the Ellsworth Smith competition (he even kissed off the last note, so baller), and a couple recordings he likes.
Nathan Clark and Sam Huss – ep. 10
Until next time,
Ryan