How I Help Violists Accomplish Their Goals
If you live in the U.S., I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day! I celebrated with my wife, Stacy, on tour with our orchestra in Barcelona!
My list has some new members, and I want to welcome them! In case you don't really know me, I am the founder of The Viola Pro coaching, and a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I love coaching people who are developing their abilities as performers.
Most of my clients are in that no-man's-land between their advanced degrees and their first orchestra job. I work to give them the ladder to climb, rung by rung, so they can improve faster than they ever did alone.
My goal is for them to perform their best on the day of their performance/audition. The "ladder rungs" I help people climb come in the form of regular mindset strengthening and technical growth through innovative practice methods.
I am proud of the success that my clients have had. Auditioning for a major orchestra in the United States is one of the most competitive job interview processes you could find. The fact that I have students who have won jobs in multiple major orchestras is one of the crowning achievements of my career, and it's much more important to me than any of the jobs I won on my own.
One of the biggest challenges in this work is just letting people know what they're up against. I find that most students don't understand the challenge until AFTER they've had some time-consuming, costly stumbles on the audition trail. A big part of my mission is just educating people about what auditions are like! There are a lot of myths out that that don't serve anyone...
I have heard many auditions for the LAPHIL over the last 30 years and I know what people are looking for on "the other side of the screen." This is critical--you can't succeed unless you know what your employer wants to hear! You have to begin your preparation with the end in mind. If you don't know where you're going, you really do get lost!
Since you're doing me the favor of reading my emails, I wanted to make sure we were on the same page. You don't actually have to want an orchestra job to be on my list, but there's no use in your being here if you aren't interested in:
continuous improvement
healthy performance mindsets
musical and physical fitness
(On that note, I have a fun announcement later this week.)
I'd love to learn more about you and your playing journey, and it would be great if you could drop me a line by emailing mick@theviolapro.com Even if we've talked before, I'd love to hear your update!