Soooooo, college auditions coming up. Applying to New England Conservatory, Peabody (Johns Hopkins), Northwestern, Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin, and a couple other schools. I'm scared. Shitless.
See, the thing is, I'm not too worried about my preparation level, I'm more worried about my case of stage fright making me make mistakes. I perform in recitals regularly enough, have plenty of auditions, but I've never had this much to lose.

I know most of you aren't classical musicians, but it doesn't matter. Any advice on stage fright or auditions in general would be very helpful!

do some jumping jacks/pushups to get some extra energy out.
Take a shower before the show and rock out hard to get comfortable (haha) but seriously
Take a shot...it does not mean you are an alcoholic
Nothing beats practice and preperation
Go play your set at an open mic night somewhere a few times

Just try not to think about it (I know it is easier said than done, but its possible.)
What instrument do you play/what chair?

Cello. What chair in what? I've been principal of a few youth orchestras, random seats in others.

my tips on college auditions, juries and recitals.
1. if youre prepared youll do fine. its when youre worried about missing notes, rhythms etc that you start getting nervous about that
2. college professors are not out to get you. they arent going to be like oh well you missed that high C yeah you failed. They like anyone else want to be able to sit there and enjoy the music youre making. they want to see you succeed not fail.
2. just breath and play. or sing or whatever it is that you do. if you just do what you do well then youre sure to do fine. its called performance not oh my god i wonder what hes thinking right now.

on that note i hope my jury went well last week.

Practice whatever your playing enough to make it "muscle memory" rather than just knowing it

Don't practice on the day of the show / performance / audition, only untill the minute you fall asleep the night before.

This works for me anyway, and many others

This post was edited by dysgenics on Dec 19 2010 04:18am

Ask the youth orchestra and their board of directors if you can give a small recital at a rehearsal or performance that is coming up. As much as playing for your family and other musicians you know is great, chances are if they know you, they are biased as all hell (I was in the same boat years ago with my trumpet performance auditions).

The biggest way to overcome stage fright is by performing. Ask your teacher if some of his/her colleagues wouldn't mind being involved in a jury. Start with smaller juries but not make them informal. Set a time, give yourself adequate time to warm up before hand, and be professional. Biggest thing when you do practice performances for auditions is performing in the nice dress clothes you would be auditioning in, it works for me.

What rep are you required to audition with? I'm not well versed on Cello literature.

edit below

I forgot to mention I really like the diversity of schools you are applying too. Have you considered Eastman?

This post was edited by MahlerIV on Dec 19 2010 07:54pm

I did consider eastman but my cello teacher was not particularly thrilled with the cello faculty or students when he gave a master class over there.
I'll be playing Tchaikovsky Rococo variations, Bach suite 3 prelude and sarabande, and popper etude #7

Thanks for the advice all. I think I'll try to give a little performance for the faculty of a small conservatory around where I live. I've played for juries for them before so it shouldn't be a problem for me to arrange

cant tell if thats a right tittie in your sig or not

/off topic
Uhhh, you can't even see ANY breast whatsoever only shoulders. I'll show you the stock: