I found the piece that I would conduct the band in for my audition, 'Bricusse On Broadway'. The piece that it was almost tradition for any sax player to use. It made sense to me because it wasnt an overly difficult piece to sight read and many of the melodies throughout it were fairly familiar to most of us which was another plus. I worked at memorizing certain portions of the score that were transistional since they were bound to cause more problems with tempo and key and time signature changes. My day came to conduct and when I first set foot on the podium I could feel my knees shaking slightly. This wasnt the same as being on stage for the musicals where you had everything scripted out for you to say and do. Here, I was the one in charge and the group assembled before me would follow my lead. After talking for a few seconds to everyone, more to give my nerves a chance to settle then anything else, I prepared to start conducting. There was really only one point that I can remember stopping everyone from playing and working to fix a problem in the clarinet section. After that was fixed to my satisfaction for just a run through of the material, I led them on to the finish.
I can admit to it being a bit of a rush knowing that whatever you do up there that the rest of the band will follow your lead. (provided, of course, that they are watching you waving your arms around) I felt that I did an okay job since this was more an exercise designed to see how well I could instictively conduct and lead them initially rather then have the piece sound like its ready to be performed.
There was a few other parts to the audition process as well and another 4 or 5 people trying out besides me. The other parts were more private in nature. One part was an interview with the director. I thought that I would do okay during that as well. The director that year was our student teacher the previous year since Mr. Thomson had left us to continue his education and eventually his career as I mentioned previously. The new director played saxophone as well and was generally a very easy guy to talk to. The interview basically concerned how each of the prospective candidates viewed the drum major's role in the band. Since during the marching season he was supposed to be the on field leader, he wasnt exaclty one of the rest of the band, but he couldnt alienate them as well and expect them to follow. He of course also had to defer to the director as well. I viewed the position and the responsibilies more as a big brother then anything else. Still a member of the 'family' that was the rest of the band, but because of his position in the 'family' he carried more responsibility and would more often then not lead by example.
The final portion of the audition process came one afternoon when all of the candidates met after school. We went outside and we were instructed to issue some basic drill commands to each other. I would assume this was to see how well we could authoritatively issue commands and to make sure it could be done in tempo. We were also required to have devised a basic salute for use in the selection process. To everyone's credit, all of the candidates took every command as seriously as if on the field being judged. I know that in my mind, I wanted to make sure that everyone had the best chance to make it on a level playing field instead of one person goofing up on purpose to try to make a candidate look bad. Besides, I would think that would also have been noticed and held against you.
After a few days, the results were to be announced over the pa system to the school before leaving for the day. I can still remember the principal's voice as he started to say that "We have the announcement for next year's drum major......." I suddenly felt warm as if my face was blushing and lightly shaking with nervous anticipation as well. I swallowed hard since my throat had mysteriously gone dry at the beginning of this announcement. All of those sensations happened in the span of a few heartbeats. Then the principal continued, "Next year's drum major is...." Well, suffice it to say that it wasnt me. I was disappointed certainly, but not overly so. I had given it my best shot, but still couldnt help thinking about what I might have done differently during the audition process. This was also the first time in the school's history that a woman would be the band's drum major. If I had to loose, I couldnt think of a more worthy person to lose to. The young lady that I attended the prom with made a point to let me know that she was sorry I didnt get it, but that God closes a door and opens a window. That was an act that I still remember her saying to me vividly.
The next day, I had a chance to sit down and talk to the director about his choice. It turns out that according to him, the selection was just about neck and neck between myself and the young lady that did get it, but when averaging all of the different phases of the audition, she just eeked out ahead of me overall. He also said that if the band was 15 - 20 members larger, that he would have went with two drum majors for the next year and I would have been selected as well. Ironically, that was the last year that the band had only drum major. Ever since then, they have had two (among them my brother).
Am I disappointed that I didnt get to be drum major my senior year? I was for about a week or so. Then I realized that there a lot more important things to be worried about then that. I made the best of the situation and did my best to help out the drum major as much as I could. It didnt matter to me whether I was up there conducting or on the field playing.... as long as I was out there. Sometimes we dont always get the things that we want the most in life. Its how we deal with those disappointments that most shape who we are in the long run.