| Juilliard
application was heaven and hell for gifted USU student
By MJ Henshaw
April 17,2008 | Talking about the
interview process is still a little unsettling for Adam
Nelson. His entire life he had dreamed of going to Julliard
and it all came down to one moment at the piano.
“Applying to go to Juilliard
was ultra traumatic for me because in my mind I thought
this is the only thing I want to do; this is the only
thing I have,” said Nelson. “I felt like my entire life
hinged on if I got in to Juilliard or not.”
According to USNEWS.com, Juilliard
has the lowest acceptance rate of any college in the
country at seven percent. By getting into Juilliard,
Nelson would add his name to a list of alumni which
include Oscar winner Robin Williams, Emmy winner Kelsey
Grammar, and Superman hero Christopher Reeves. In order
to get into the school one must first go through a grueling
application process.
“All the way through the audition
process they are weeding out whether or not you are
good enough,” Nelson explains. “In order to just get
an audition you have to submit a recording. They will
only listen to 800 recordings. Then they will invite
100 of those to come and audition in person. Out of
those they will usually take about six.”
Nelson said he practiced hours upon
hours for his audition, just like he had done since
he began playing when he was six. Nelson, who now stands
at 6’5” and has a frame that would intimidate most football
players, said even at such a young age he knew he had
a special gift.
“The most interesting part
about my music abilities is that I could naturally sight-read
the music,” said Nelson. “I remember when I was six
and I first started to play the piano. My mom sat me
down at the piano and would point at a note on the paper
and then would show me where the note was on the keys
in front of me. She only had to show me once and I just
got it. Some people will practice and practice and practice
that, but I could just do it.”
Most mothers will spend time begging
their children to practice the piano each day, but Nelson
was different. Not only his mother, but his entire family
would have to beg him to stop playing. By the age of
eight, Nelson was sight reading music and would accompany
local choirs. He said his only limitation at that time
was the size of his hands (or the lack thereof).
Nelson’s love for the piano carried
from his childhood in Layton, Utah, on through his teenage
years. One of his fondest memories as a pianist came
at the end of high school when he was invited to play
at a competition in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“When I was 18 I did a series
of competitions in Indianapolis. There was one performance
when I was asked to played for an hour. I can’t really
remember what I played, but I can remember what I felt.
It was like for one full hour I was invisible. Sometimes
when I play I will come in and out of the music, I’ll
worry what the audience is thinking. It wasn’t like
that in Indianapolis; it was like a perfect performance,”
said Nelson.
This experience solidified Nelsons
decision to continue his musical dreams. When it came
time to apply to college, Nelson said he decided to
audition at Utah State University for one of the “best
teachers in the whole world,” Julliard alumni Gary Amano.
He said he decided to play a well-known, fast paced
piece by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov called Flight of the
Bumble Bee. The piece get’s your heart pumping and makes
it sound as if bees are flying around your head.
“I remember I came up and auditioned
for him. He wasn’t very impressed with the piece I played,
so he put me with another teacher,” said Nelson. “After
a few months of playing with that other teacher, Gary
finally accepted me as a student.”
Over the next few years with Amano
as his teacher, Nelson said it was amazing how good
he became as a pianist. He worked hard to hone his skills
and practiced six to eight hours every day. Sometimes
he practiced so hard it would cause his fingernails
to crack and bleed.
“When you practice the piano
you have to curve your fingers in order to play correctly.
This causes the pianist to play on their finger tips,”
said Nelson. “Since I have such big hands I have to
curve them more than other people. This causes my fingers
to sometimes crack and become very swollen, which can
be very painful. I will put Band-Aids on the tips of
my fingers to give a little cushion to keep them from
hurting, but I have literally spent hundreds of hours
practicing with Band-Aids on the tips of my fingers.”
The most intense practicing came
as Nelson was preparing to audition at Julliard.
“I practiced so, so, so much
to the point that I would work myself into a panic thinking
if I didn’t play well, I will never get in and then
what will I do?” said Nelson.
As part of the audition, Nelson had
to prepare an hour of music to play for a panel of six
or seven judges. According to Nelson, the hardest part
of auditioning was not knowing how much they would allow
him to play.
“I walked into the room and
saw the judges. They were very cold, no one said hello,
no one asked any questions. I just sat down and started
to play,” said Nelson. “I had prepared an hour of music
and they only ended up listening to about five minutes.
I felt really terrible about it; I thought there was
no chance of me getting in.”
After a brief callback, Nelson got
the news he had been waiting for. Out of thousands of
applicants from around the country, the 800 recordings
listened to, and the 100 in-person auditions, Nelson
was one of six master students to be accepted into the
program.
The following fall after his addition,
Nelson uprooted his life in Utah and moved to New York.
During his time at Julliard, the study was very intense.
It was piano all day, every day for two years.
“There were times when I wanted
to give up, but I was living my dream so I just pushed
through. I didn’t have choice,” Nelson said.
Then just weeks before he was supposed
to graduate he began having thoughts about walking away
from the piano.
“There was a time when I wanted
to give up the piano. I was so sick of it, I couldn’t
even concentrate for five minutes. I couldn’t even memorize
any of the notes. I would sit down at the piano and
I would try to play something and I couldn’t remember
anything I was supposed to play,” Nelson said. “I had
applied for all these competitions and I hadn’t gotten
in to any of them. I was just ready to be done.”
Nelson said he would tell himself
that he was perfectly capable of doing other things
and wanted to explore other options. Then the week before
he was set to graduate, Nelson said he receive a phone
call from a man in New Orleans who told him that he
wanted him to come play in their competition.
“When he called I thought to
myself, ‘For the last two years I had been trying to
get in to a competition and now the week I am going
to quit someone finally wants me,’” Nelson said. “I
thought to myself ‘I don’t want to do it, I don’t want
to practice for it, I don’t want to show up.’ For several
weeks I contemplated what to do. I don’t know why, but
I finally decided to do it.”
Nelson said the competition ended
up being just what he needed to keep going.
“In New Orleans I had another
one of those performances like I had when I was 18 in
Indianapolis. I felt invisible again; I felt in sync
with the music. It was another perfect performance,”
Nelson said.
After graduation Nelson decided he
needed to take a break from the big city and came back
to USU where it all began. He said he tries to perform
as much as he can.
“Music just connects to my
soul, I can feel it when I play” Nelson said. “Everyone,
I hope, has something that speaks to them like that.
For some people its art, for others its cars or motocross.
This is mine, and I just love it!”
MS
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