Violin Video Lesson: The Many Stories of Bill Fitzpatrick: Aspen Audition

It was 1971, and this was my first audition at the Aspen Music Festival. I was very nervous, so I decided to read quartets with my Nashville friend, Lenny, and some students, to calm myself down. We read this particularly difficult last movement of a Haydn quartet, and when we finished, I decided to look at it more carefully. The next day in my audition, I played part of my Tchaikovsky concerto, and then the music director, Jorge Mester, placing some music on my stand said with a twinkle in his eye, "Read this." I looked at the music, and sure enough, it was the same movement I had looked at the night before. So I thought, "Should I tell him?" Then I thought, "No." I got the highest chair a student could get in the festival orchestra, fourth chair in the first violin section.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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