About:

CelloExcerpts.com is an online resource that helps cellists prepare for orchestral auditions.

Practicing and Performing is the hard part.

Getting the information you need to get going shouldn’t be.

We help cellists:

reduce the time it takes to find recordings of excerpts, and listen to them.
remove the stress of trying to find sheet music and good bowings and fingerings to use.
make plans for success.
become familiar with what the audition day will look like.
learn how to combat performance anxiety so that all that preparation doesn’t go out the window.

If any of that resonates with you- you should join the email list. It’s the best place to start on your journey of improving how you learn excerpts, how you practice them, and how you perform them in auditions. It’s free to join and you can unsubscribe anytime (but nobody ever does). Plus you’ll get my free eBook of the sheet music for the top 10 cello excerpts.

Why are you here?

You’re here because, whether deep down or right up on the surface, you want to be a great cellist-you want to nail your audition. You want your parents to be proud of you and not regret dragging you to those Suzuki group classes when you were 4 years-old. You are sick of driving across 3 states to play in crummy regional orchestras to piece together a meager income. You want to be a part of an ensemble that values your talents. You want to know you’re on the right track.

You’re in the right place.

Celloexcerpts.com is growing collection of resources to help you play your best at auditions.
Future features will include video tutuorials, 1 on 1 skype lessons, and modules on nervousness and performance anxiety. Subscribe to the list to be notified when those go live.

What are Cello Excerpts? (if you’re still confused)

Excerpts are short selections from the orchestral repertoire that are used to test applicants in orchestra auditions. These excerpts are very challenging and exposed sections of music that test all sorts of technique necessary to play in a professional orchestra.

Auditioning for an orchestra is a very unusual process: Auditionees perform these excerpts behind a screen so that the panel cannot tell who the performer is, which promotes objectivity. The performer is not allowed to talk during the audition, except to the proctor if necessary, who is the liaison between the performer and the panel. Often there is even carpet rolled out on the stage so that the gender of the performer cannot be detected from the sound your shoes make!

About the author:

Michaelheadshot2

Hi, I’m Michael O’Gieblyn
I started creating ViolinExcerpts.com in the summer of 2011. The inspiration came from my own frustration in trying to locate and study excerpts. I wanted to create an organizational system where I could see the excerpt without digging through mountains of sheetmusic, and hear the excerpt without skimming through an hour-long symphony for a ten second excerpt. Violinexcerpts.com was the result. It wasn’t long before other string players began requesting similar sites for their instrument. So, Violaexcerpts.com, doublebassexcerpts.com, and of course Celloexcerpts.com, soon followed

I currently live and freelance in Nashville, TN. I’m a sub with the Nashville Symphony and I also play recording sessions, tour with bands, and try to make this website the No. 1 place to turn to when you need to learn some excerpts.

I didn’t receive much education on playing excerpts in my musical upbringing, as concertos, sonatas, etudes, etc. were the bulk of the repertoire. Those are all important works to study, but a large part of what helps instrumentalists win orchestral jobs is their ability to play orchestral excerpts.

If you run into me at a gig or an audition, and have found this site helpful, please say “hi” and let me know what you think. I hope that this site can be a valuable resource on your road to preparing for orchestral auditions. Thanks for checking this site out, and happy practicing!

Contact:

If you have any questions, or need to get ahold of me for anything, please email me at anytime at:
michael@celloexcerpts.com

I’ll try my best to reply in a timely manner, but if you don’t hear anything for a while, try it again cause sometimes my inbox goes rogue and throws emails from really nice people in the spam folder, for no good reason. Grr!