NYO-USA 2025 violin audition w/ weird editing — Anya Akhmadullina (accepted)

0:07 Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4
1:06 Mozart Symphony No. 39 ms 1-8
1:58 Mozart Symphony No. 39 ms 30-38
2:37 Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2
3:53 Florence Price No. 3 Juba
4:50 Prokofiev D major violin concerto mvmt 1


Judge's comments: (I'm not sure why the first one had so many "don?t"s but that formatting is not on me)
Reviewer 1
Great Prokofiev Concerto. You play with lovely colors, impressive virtuosity, and great expression. Very elegant and musical Mendelssohn. You have polished all the excerpts nicely, with fantastic dynamics!! In the concerto, you have a few intonation issues. Make yourself secure so you don?t have to think about it. In Mendelssohn, let the bow open up all the way (you can go to the tip, don?t worry about the dot on the last note of the bar over the triplet). In the first Mozart excerpt, it is customary to go up the D string on the first phrase, and up the A string on the second. It will give you more color. In the Second Mozart, try to use the whole bow. This will make it sound more exciting. Lean on the arrival downbeat more to show phrasing. In Rachmaninoff, you are at the upper edge of the temple. try to control the bow a little bit more, I am hearing lots of little noises that I think don't need to be there. One thing that will help is if you always try to set the bow after a rest. Your quarter notes can be slightly longer.

Reviewer 2
So many excellent points to your playing! Really lovely Prokofiev, your intonation excellent in this opening section. Fantastic change of character! Great work on the Mendelssohn! From the intonation to the tone and spiccato and dynamic control, this was a great excerpt. Way to go on your Mozart excerpts - especially the rhythm was timed well. This was a very well played set of excerpts.
I only have a few areas that I recommend you continue to work on. In the Prokofiev, experiment with a lighter bow weight so you can use more bow, I feel that it would give you a wider range in your phrasing. Overall, your Rachmanioff was well done, especially in the dynamic and phrasing area. I would encourage you to work on your spiccato in the molto marcato style. Some of the passage was getting too rough. Watch to see if you have flat hair on your bow and if your bow is relaxed enough.

(Recorded in November 2024)