A BRAND NEW BEGINNING

The exhausting six-day marathon of talent tests in clarinet playing took place in February, and I was among just six successful candidates out of the total of seventy-five applicants from across the globe. The mental and physical preparations took several years and many hours of hard work. The most intense part of the process started towards the end of last December with the official announcement of the program for the two-round admission tests as part of the final three rounds. The first part focused on solo clarinet playing. There were two mandatory pieces by authors of different genres – Johan Sebastian Bach’s Gigue of Violin Partita No. 2 in a clarinet transcription and Cinq Symboles by Anthony Girard, a contemporary French music theorist and composer. The jury selected thirteen of the best players for round two.

The second round focused on chamber pieces for clarinet and piano and the program was rather varied – a slow movement from the Grand Duo Concertant by Carl Maria von Weber, an early German romanticist, and the first part of a clarinet concerto written by Henri Tomasi, a French composer from last century. The last round was sight reading where the jury wanted to test our sight reading skills and our ability to reproduce sheet music with piano accompaniment. We were given two minutes for preparation, followed by an immediate performance.

The last few hours prior to the announcement of the results were full of suspense. Once the results were announced, the air vibrated with emotion both positive and negative – with crying and laughter, with happiness and sadness.

The school is located in the center of the Parc de la Villette in the 19th district of Paris, close to the Philharmonie de Paris. It offers its students opportunities to perform, meet great musical personalities, study abroad, use its amenities and of course it offers an excellent quality of education. Founded in 1795, the school’s current facility is an architecturally highly interesting structure built in the early 1990s and its modern design catches the eye at first sight. Everything you can possibly wish for is available there in a single location.

This year, I am finishing my three-year concert diploma at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, which has prepared me for my further studies in Paris under the guidance of some of the best teachers and players in the world.

After all my trials and tribulations, I am immensely happy to have made it to the school of my dreams, effectively gaining a new impetus and motivation for further years of study.