My pre-audition-al auditionie thing

Well, it's the first night of Chanukah, and I got back from HUC (that's Hebrew Union College to all of you who don't know) this morning. And I'm seriously tired, but that's what I get for going out to a bar with the cantorial and rabbinical students instead of going to bed on time!

My audition-ish thing went well. I sang two things for the only two full-time cantorial staff at HUC's Jerusalem campus, one of whom used to be the cantor at my synagogue. Then, I sight-sang some music (not nearly as easy as sightreading music on the violin or piano), and I played the violin. After all of that, my former cantor asked me to chant some randomly chosen passages of Torah and haftarah. They recommended that I apply for this coming year. So now I'm busy filling out forms and asking people to write letters of recommendation.

HUC was nothing like I expected, although I don't know what exactly I thought it would be like. The front building looks like absolutely nothing. The campus itself is in the back, and it was very nice. There are lots of stone archways and gardens and fountains. It felt very peaceful, and almost like some kind of ancient Roman building. But I'm not sure if there are any ancient Roman rabbinical schools, so my guess is that it was just designed to feel that way.

I went to two afternoon classes with the first-year cantorial students (and, as they put it, a few talented rabbinical students). The first was "History of Jewish Music," in which they were learning about Arabic Jewish music and poetry. We listened to some recordings of Yeminite prayers and songs. Apparently, they used kerosene containers as drums. Weird.

After that, I attended cantillation class. That was actually a lot of fun for me, because I had no problem following along. One of the cantorial students shared his books with me so I could participate. They went over haftarah trope, and then translated and chanted a section of Isaiah. It was nice to find out that there's something I'll already know going into the program (if I get in)!

At night, there was a concert. The cantorial students sang beautifully, in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino. It was really a lot of fun to listen to, and made me definitely want to be part of that for next year.

Afterwards, we went to a new sushi restaurant, and then to a bar. All in all, it was a good night. And now I'm awfully tired, because I had to get up early to make it back to Arad in time for my voice lesson this morning.

Good night and happy Chanukah to all.