Da Capo

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Professor Lyndon got in touch with Stephanie the following day, letting her know that auditions for the string quartet were going to be happening the following Thursday at 8:30 AM in the main auditorium. The violinists trying out were expected to play alongside the other members of the string quartet, and they were going to play Beethoven's String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, Allegro ma non tanto. That was a piece that Stephanie had never played before and wasn't familiar with, so she spent the entire week leading up to the auditions practicing that piece at the Royal Academy, and when she was back at Lydia's apartment, she was listening to recordings of the piece on YouTube.

Beethoven's Allegro ma non tanto in C Minor

By the following week, Stephanie had listened to the Beethoven piece so much that she probably could have hummed the whole thing from memory. She also felt that she finally had the violin part down perfectly, but that thought didn't comfort her much as she made her way into the Royal Academy auditorium the morning of the audition.

"Don't worry, Steph. You'll do great," Lydia said assuredly from her side. Lydia didn't have to teach until the afternoon, so she decided to come to Stephanie's audition for moral support. "It'll be a piece of cake for you. You know this piece backwards and forwards."

"I know, but I also tend to get a shaky bow whenever I get nervous," Stephanie muttered anxiously, clutching the handle of her violin case tightly as she watched the other three members of the string quartet get set up on the stage. About a dozen or so violinists stood around the front of the auditorium, chatting with each other while they waited for the auditions to start. "This feels like the workshops at music school all over again."

"Now you know what my students have to go through," Lydia smirked, placing her hands on her hips. "If they can do it, you sure as hell can."

Stephanie smiled tremulously. "Thanks."

Finally, Professor Lyndon appeared at the front of the auditorium, motioning for the other three members of the quartet to get into their seats on the stage before gesturing to everyone else in the auditorium to quiet down. The chatter that had filled the large room soon muted down into nothing.

"Everybody – thank you all so much for coming to audition for the Royal Academy string quartet," Professor Lyndon smiled widely at all the violinists who had arrived. "As you all likely know already, our wonderful second violinist Reginald recently left the Royal Academy, and we are now in need of a second violinist for our quartet. We have Reina as our first violinist..."

She gestured to the violinist of the quartet sitting onstage. Reina was a young Asian woman, probably only about twenty years old, with large black-frame glasses and her hair in conservative ponytail. She nodded politely at Professor Lyndon.

"We also have Tanvir on the cello," Professor Lyndon went on. A young Indian man with a rather unfortunate-looking bowl haircut nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"And finally, we have Sarah on viola," Lyndon finished. Sarah had shoulder-length brown hair and was definitely the oldest in the group. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties, but still smiled genuinely at all the violinists waiting to try out for the quartet. Stephanie couldn't help but feel a bit relieved to know she wouldn't be the oldest in the quartet if she did manage to make it.

"Now, I will call each of you up one-by-one to play Allegro ma non tanto with the others," Professor Lyndon explained to the violinists. "I will be critiquing you on tempo, tone, accuracy, and of course, overall musicality. Good luck to you all."