the auditionhacker podcast

hi, i’m rob. i'm a percussionist in the met opera in new york city, and my goal is to help you win an orchestra audition quicker and easier than i did. during my decade-long career of (mostly) failed auditions, i've struggled through disappointment, rejection, intense nerves, and hopelessness. but i've personally overcome each of these to win my job. i've also helped musicians all over the world break through their struggles to get to finals and win auditions. with the right work ethic and preparation methods, i truly believe that anyone can win an orchestra job like mine.

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Episodes

009 - how “the worst candidate ever” won her dream job

“it was either this job or no job.” today i’m sharing a crazy audition win story with you. in 2019, a cellist named maria reached out to me about her audition struggles. on paper, she was the “worst audition candidate ever” (her words). she had 2 small children, a full time teaching job, and hadn’t taken an audition in 4 years. she was also unable to leave parma, italy, so the only orchestra job she could win would be the arturo toscanini philharmonic. in addition to these limitations, she had h...

Apr 03, 2025•23 min•Ep. 9

008 - 4 ways to get better audition comments

getting audition comments is incredibly frustrating. you’ll get an email from the personnel manager and it’ll say something like: Hi ___, A judge from your audition committee gave you this feedback: “some good things. voted no” I hope that is helpful for you. ok dude, great. now WHAT am i supposed to do with that?! audition comments are hard to get. when you do receive them, they’re cryptic. they’re too short. a lot of musicians i’ve talked to have given up even trying to get audition comments. ...

Sep 29, 2024•20 min•Ep. 8

007 - how i recorded the delécluse album

how would you actually prepare yourself to record an entire classical music album in one session? it’s been 10 years, but i still have the detailed, day-by-day practice schedule i used to prepare for the recording of my debut album, delécluse: douze études for snare drum . it was a funny time. it had been two years since winning my met opera audition, and i was kinda bored. i just got tenure in the orchestra and felt like i needed an audition-level project to sink my teeth into. (i missed auditi...

Sep 16, 2024•31 min•Ep. 7

006 - how to design an audition-winning lifestyle

my first day at interlochen summer camp, i was placed dead last in the lowest orchestra. BOOM. a gut punch, right at the beginning of camp. the great percussionists of the world had gone through interlochen. chris lamb. scott stevens. greg zuber. based on my orchestra placement, it was clear to me that i was NOT one of them. i was just an inexperienced doofus from rural michigan, and a minor character in the inspirational story of other people becoming great and legendary percussionists. it crea...

Sep 02, 2024•29 min•Ep. 6

005 - preventing injury with janet horvath

meet janet horvath, the former associate principal cello of the minnesota orchestra. when janet was in school, she wanted to be the best cellist in the world. she worked outrageously hard at her instrument for long hours and rarely took breaks. it ended in a debilitating injury, and she calls herself one of the "walking wounded." she thought her life was over. she didn't think she would ever play again. she did, of course. she overcame her injury, had a very successful career in music, and more ...

Jan 26, 2021•57 min•Ep. 5

004 - audition feast and famine with jim markey

on one hand, the boston symphony's jim markey has had an objectively amazing career. he's held a handful major american jobs: pittsburgh symphony principal trombonist, NY philharmonic associate principal trombonist, NY phil bass trombonist, and his current job, bass trombonist with the bso. but it wasn't always like that. just like the rest of us, jim has struggled through disappointment and negative audition results. ...there was the one time when he peaked too soon for the north carolina audit...

Jan 17, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 4

003 - sharon sparrow's guide to audition success

sharon sparrow, flutist in the detroit symphony, wrote the book on audition prep. literally. it's called 6 weeks to finals , and it's the only book out there, i think, that walks you through a step-by-step guide to preparing for an orchestra audition. it feels empowering to know that there's not some magical sorcery behind winning an audition. nope: there's a clear, step-by-step strategy that anyone can follow. and it works: it's exactly how she prepared for and won her audition for the detroit ...

Jan 11, 2021•58 min•Ep. 3

002 - how i won the met audition

i'll remember the day forever: may 20th, 2011. i started the day waking up on molly yeh 's couch on 96th street, and ended the day carrying two bottles of dewar's scotch whisky into a friend's apartment to celebrate something i never thought i could achieve. that day changed my life. it still boggles my mind that it happened. well, to be honest, it actually didn't start that morning. it started in mid-january of that year, when i received the repertoire list in the mail about 4 months before aud...

Jan 07, 2021•34 min•Ep. 2

001 - how to hack auditions

if you get rejected from an audition, should you just practice the exact same way and try again? ...HELL NO! to me, auditions are just a game. you prepare for audition day in a particular way, and you test that particular system of preparation by going to the audition and seeing what happens. once it's over, you carefully analyze what happened, brainstorm tweaks to your audition preparation process, and try again using a new and improved system. the most important thing you can do is tweak the d...

Jan 03, 2021•29 min•Ep. 1

official trailer: the auditionhacker podcast

welcome to the auditionhacker podcast! my name is rob knopper, i'm an audition coach and percussionist with the met opera, and i'll be your host. EVERYONE struggles with audition rejection at some point or another. but if you're deadset on winning an orchestra job, then i'm here to help. no matter what audition obstacle you're struggling with, there's an answer. my goal is to help you discover all the best practice strategies that worked for me and other great musicians to perform at an elite le...

Dec 20, 2020•3 min

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