We recently sat down to chat with Philip King, a freelance music director, composer, arranger, pianist, and conductor. King is a Central Florida Vocal Arts and Opera del Sol veteran. Having Music Directed Hansel and Gretel, Scalia Ginsburg, and Cocaine Bear: The Opera, King is also slated for CFVA’s upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance with Space Coast Symphony Orchestra.
Though King has an extensive resume, he shares that his favorite projects are “the big, splashy, dramatic things. Hunchback of Notre Dame was a great experience for me…Les Mis is always a good time. The really big, grand, things are the ones that are really exciting to me”
When asked about how he views his role as Music Director, he shared that he feels his duty “is to advocate for the score. That’s the primary thing. You’re there to be the advocate for the written music and that can be anything from singing the right notes to casting the right voice type for a role.”
Similarly, we asked King for the recipe to a successful audition? He shared 3 ingredients for a memorable and stress-free audition experience.
He shares that what he looks for “are the same, core things [he] looks for in a great performance in general, and, as pianistic as this is, rhythm is first…The rhythm of how they move into a room, or the rhythm of how they speak…You can learn a lot about somebody.”
The next thing that I would say is understanding of text and connection with text. A discounting factor in my mind would be someone singing a lyric and going “they have no idea what that means. You can just tell.” …There are so many people who sing so well…that kind of minutia becomes the deciding effect…There isn’t a lot of glory in singing the right notes …That’s an easy goal, a director friend once said the goal is not to learn the show, the goal is to do something beyond…At the end of the day it’s a communicative art form, and if you’re struggling with that one way or the other, that’s something that I’ll take note of.”
The last one (and this would be a whole conversation) is type. It’s important because of the audience…and there’s nothing you can do about that. Change of perspective can be encouraged over time, but it is something that you have to keep in mind. If you cast comically, mis-heightened people with each other, then they’re going to look funny on stage and that’s going to take the audience out of the story. If You’ve got characters that are very specifically mentioned as having certain attributes, and they don’t have those attributes. Then there’s a disconnect in the audience mentality and that’s tricky… I wish it wasn’t something we had to think about.”
In contrast, we inquired about King’s experience as an audition pianist, posing the age-old query: How can one create a smoother audition experience for the pianist when they are going into an audition to collaborate with a person they’ve never met before?
King encourages a collaborative approach to auditions. His biggest advice for singers is to communicate with the pianist in a clear and concise way but not to shy away from taking the time you need to prepare for a successful performance. He encourages the singer to share the load, saying “the bottom line is that you are there, the pianist and the singer, as collaborators.”
He also warns against being too “dictatorial.” A good pianist is going to know what questions to ask you. ”I think, listening when you’re in that situation…with a pianist is super important because…you’re there to collaborate. And it’s a very heightened, brief, collaborative experience, but it is something where you have to give and take in the moment.”
Moreover, clear communication with your pianist could actually help you land the role! King muses, “very rarely willI I ever be playing auditions where somebody doesn’t ask, what do you think of that person? The pianist is often asked their opinion of people, especially personality-wise. How were they to work with in the brief period of time you got to work with them?”
In the same vein, we asked this hotly-debated question. How should one give tempi to pianists?
King shares, “pianists have their own internal heartbeat… An auditioner has their own internal heart rate going which is probably highly-elevated. Their perception of tempo is a little askew in that moment and the one thing that I will insist upon people not doing in an audition is clapping or snapping tempo because what happens is they inevitably go faster than they mean to.”
He also shares that every pianist is different when it comes to sight reading and playing auditions. Some pianists need to run through the song with you, some will look through and ask pertinent questions, some will have you sing the beginning and any sections with tempo changes. The one common factor is that they are looking to collaborate and communicate with the singer.
King says he often plays unified auditions where he sees between three and four-hundred auditioners and, very often, his conversation with the singer sounds something like “Can you sing this little bit right here for me and let’s breathe together. Okay, here we go.”
Consequently, what happens if your audition takes a nosedive? Is it appropriate to stop the audition and ask to start over?
King states, “It has everything to do with how you feel in the room that you are in. If it’s a room full of people that you are comfortable with and that you know and something has gone egregiously wrong…yeah, it’s okay to say, “is it alright if I start over?” Just realize that you’ve got to weigh that. I would make that decision before you go in the room…If something doesn’t go well, do I feel comfortable stopping?”
King shares that he, on occasion, has stopped an audition as the pianist. “If a page turn goes bad (like real bad) and the score falls off the piano…Let’s start over, because that’s 100% my fault, and no need for us to try to power through that…however, I would encourage people to to work through it rather than stop the momentum….A discerning and intelligent production staff is gonna know something went wrong, and they’re not gonna hold that against you.”
Every audition is an opportunity for growth and often, that growth comes at the expense of the singer AND the pianist. King shared this experience: “Years ago, I was playing auditions for a production of Kinky Boots and this guy comes in and hands me his music and pops away from the piano and preps himself over in the corner…I was like, “Okay, whatever” but then instead of communicating at all, he just kind of nods so I start, and it’s not the right tempo for him so literally a measure in, He goes. “No, no, no, that’s too slow… and I’m thinking “do we maybe want to talk about it before we do it? Because we could have eliminated this awkward moment here that the whole production staff has seen this as opposed to just having a private moment where you and I talk about it?”
All in all, “You can avoid the awkward moment if you’ve got good communication skills and are leaving a little bit of the ego at the door.”
Moreover, What’s the best way to prepare your music for an audition pianist?
There are differing opinions on this topic but King only has a couple of definitive DONT’s when it comes to playing auditions. “It doesn’t bother me one way or the other. Loose pages are the worst. I would take a book over loose pages and I know that I’m in a minority on that. A lot of pianists say “don’t bring me a book,” but I would gladly take a book over loose pages. There’s a lot of irreputable sources online from which to procure your sheet music. I know it’s 5 bucks, a copy, but, there’s no reason not to have clean-looking sheet music. Just talk to a pianist friend and ask “hey? Does this make any sense?” it’s as simple as sending a screenshot to somebody and asking Is this an actual piano part? As much as I would like to advocate for “go hire a pianist and coach,” I know that’s expensive…and there are cheaper ways. Just ask a friend.”
We also asked if King finds singer’s in-score markings to be of benefit or of deficit to which he replied: “It depends on how dense all of that is and how colorful it is. I’ve seen some sheet music come into auditions where there’s a lot of highlighting and red or blue ink on the page and that can get a little distracting. You don’t want any more information on the page than is necessary. Any breath markings, (especially in opera), if you want to do that, great!”
Many fantastic singers and performers struggle with audition anxiety and tend to perform at a higher level in their practice sessions. When asked for the best remedy to audition nerves, King offered, “There’s 2 parts to that. One is the psychological part of it, which is tough to get around and the bottom line there is: The more you do it, the more comfortable you will become…Even if it is about livelihood, there will be other auditions. And so getting over the psychological part of that is the first part.”
“The other part is: It is always better for your prep work to be done well in advance. And I think too often, people will cater their audition song choices or monologue choices very specifically to the show that they are auditioning for. More often than not, that means that they learned a monologue in 2 days, or they learned a new song specifically for this. Maybe even in the car on the way to the audition. I have seen that…Don’t do that because it’s just going to contribute to nervous energy. Always do the thing that you are most comfortable with and the thing that best represents you…If a production specifically asks for a pop song or a song from 1980 to whatever then that’s when it’s good to have that book of audition material that has at least something that fits that bill.”
Finally, of course, we had to ask about King’s audition “red flag.”
For King, “It’s being disrespectful in any way. Whether that’s to an audition monitor, whoever’s working the room, a stage manager, a pianist, other actors in the room or disrespect for the material. If you bring in something, and are, just unabashedly, reimagining it without any real message or point to it, then that tells me that you don’t hold the material in regard, and I think that that’s important.”
Of Course, being a Music Director and Pianist comes with tons of rehearsal time. Constantly having a full calendar can be daunting but King shares that his drive comes from true collaboration.
“My proudest moments are when I see a student or a collaborator take a concept that we have discussed and expand upon it from their own perspective. It is very easy to tell people what to do, but when you offer someone the seeds of an idea or concept, and they take that and make something entirely their own …That’s really an accomplishment to me, and, I think, speaks to my deep connection with collaboration.”
You can see Philip King’s work in CFVA’s upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance running Friday, August 9 and Saturday, August 10 at 8:00 PM and August 11 at 3:00 PM (Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts) & Saturday, August 17 at 7:00 PM and Sunday, August 18 3:00 at PM on the Space Coast.
King is also currently the resident Music Director at Theatre Winter Haven and the Director of Music at Hope Presbyterian Church in Winter Haven.