"Marco has always been very responsive and helpful - easy to work with."
Gary Robertz
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Audition Procedures
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Live Audition (Orchestra Musicians)
Live auditions, our preferred auditioning method, are held in a number of major cities around the world. During these auditions, you’ll be evaluated on those musical skills that you must possess in order to qualify as a musician on a modern cruise liner. Here are some of the skills that we will evaluate:
- Sightreading
- Finger technique
- Tone quality
- General Musicianship
- Doubles (all saxophone players are required to double on flute and clarinet)
- Improvisation (not required but always good to have)
- Knowledge of diverse musical styles
- Playing to click track
The production shows that are played on most cruise ships typically include many different musical styles and lots of tempo changes. Being able to play to click track is thus imperative.
Below are examples of some charts rhythm section players may encounter on ships. Bass players do get some "chord charts" but they need to be able to read charts like the one below as well.
The bass part above was taken out of a Real Book which we believe are great sources for practicing sightreading.
Drummers must be able to read and interpret the charts they get. Please refer to this article on our forum for more information on this subject. Drummers that have had some Big Band experience tend to be more comfortable with the charts they'll encounter on ships.
Piano players should be comfortable reading classical music as well as all styles of modern music such as jazz, rock, pop...
Saxophone players must be equally strong on saxophone, clarinet and flute.
Please contact us should you need help with your preparation for upcoming auditions or to request more information. Read the following articles about auditions on our forum which may help you prepare:
- Seven Steps To A Successful Audition
- When Is The Right Audition Time
- The Perfect Demo
- Important Notice Regarding Auditions
We also talk about auditions in one of our podcasts.
Private Audition (for Orchestra musicians)
This audition is used for people that cannot travel to one of the major cities in which we hold auditions. Here is a quick description of the procedure:
30 minutes prior to the audition time, you'll receive an email with instructions on how to download the sheet music and the audio file you'll need for the audition. When we contact you, you'll play the music along to the audio track you've downloaded and you'll record yourself using a digital video camera (not a webcam) and mail the media to us after your audition. We will also ask you to prepare more music ahead of time. Contact us for detailed instructions and to set up your audition.
Note that you'll need highspeed internet access, a printer and a means to playback one mp3 file.
Video Recording (for all solo entertainers and ensembles of all types)
All bands, classical ensembles and solo entertainers apply by submitting the following:
- Demo DVD
- Repertoire list
- Biographies of all individuals involved
- Band pictures and/or headshots
- Contact information
The demo DVD should show about 10-12 short samples of songs in various styles of music. This will give us a good overview of competency and versatility. Ideally, this would be recorded in front of a live audience so that we can gauge your interaction with the crowd.
If you have enough short examples on a website, you can send us the link to the site instead of mailing out a hard copy.
We prefer to receive all supporting material like repertoire list, biographies, pictures etc. through email, the DVD, however, should be sent via regular mail.
Contact us with questions.
