Play!

II

They had to wait for another fourty-five minutes until the conductor of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra arrived at the venue, his grey hair flying in all directions as he rushed into the hall to his colleague from the Queensland con, droplets of sweat running down his temple even visible from meters away. Brett, and everyone else, for that matter, observed with mild interest how they exchanged some words before the grey haired guy hurried away again, the resemblance with an old rooster uncanny. Brett could vividly imagine his conducting style without ever seeing him before.

"Attention, everyone!", Mr. Thames yelled, clacking his stick against the conductor's stand, "Mr. Jones is going to assemble his orchestra. You guys make sure to leave out a seat next to you for your mate from the SCSO, so we can start asap!"
"Too many acronyms, if you ask me", Cole mumbled to Brett before he moved over to the second desk, accompanied by Brett's very likely first real snigger of the day.

While rustle of people shifting, groaning and putting their notes on different stands filled the room, Brett forced his back to bend down and his hands to open the claps of his black violin case. His fingers automatically closed around the wooden neck of his instrument, sending small waves of warmth through his palm to his stressed out soul. He sighed, took out the bow with his right and tightened it.

The doors to the hall opened and the members of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra started to fill the remaining seats in-between the Queensland-con students. Heads turned around, trying to take a glimpse of their mates for the next three weeks.
“Hey”, Cole hissed half loudly from two seats away. Brett’s half lidded eyes looked at him.
“Your rival’s gonna sit next to you, right?”
Brett’s gaze wandered to the still empty seat right next to him. First desk second chair. It was no secret that the two competitors were to play first desk until it was decided who got to be the soloist and who’d be concertmaster. As a consolation prize, so to speak. Brett found it was the dumbest idea to put two people competing behind the same music stand, even though the organizers came up with well sounding explanations, how this strengthened the partnership between them and the two universities.
Screw them! Had they never thought of the two musicians themselves? How that would feel if they’d become good friends during the first week, always being haunted by the thought that they had to win against the other? And then, after the selection, what were they supposed to do with the fact that one was beaten and one just destroyed the other's opportunity to shine? Great idea, really. If Brett would ever meet the inventor of this relationship-strengthening bullshit, he'd give them a piece of his relationship-strengthened mind.
Brett was perfectly aware that the rant in his head was a tad over dramatic. A tiny rest of his brain however, which wasn't busy lamenting over his oh so gruesome situation, asked Brett's conscience in a very annoying way, like a little devil sitting on his shoulder, if this wasn't just to distract him from the fact that he was nervous as hell.
Nervous to meet the other guy, girl, person…

"Did you have to remind me? And please don't use the r-word!", Brett bit back. 
"What, rival? Besides, it's literally gonna happen in the next minute or so! Chillax!"
Brett didn't feel chillax. His social side had probably chillaxed so hard it was taking a vacation in Hawaii or something, because right now, here at the Sydney con in the orchestra hall, it was nowhere to be found.
"Don't you know who the other is?", Cole wanted to know. 
"Nah! No one told."
"Guess we gonna find out", Cole meant while his deskie arrived and greeted him with a broad smile. 

The hall got stuffier and despite the edginess, Brett slowly started to wonder where the mystery person was as more and more seats got occupied. Did they decide to make a dramatic entrance of some sort? Maybe they were a massive show-off, having convinced the jury with a show-off performance rather than real musicality and technical finesse? 
The chatter slowly died down when all the seats were taken, except the one next to Brett. Cole turned his head towards him with question marks in his eyes, to which Brett shrugged, just as clueless as his mate.

"Attention everyone!", this time, the conductor from the Sydney con shouted, doing his version of clacking a thin stick against the stand. He let his gaze wander through the crowd with a kind, grandfatherly smile. A pleasant one, Brett found.
"Welcome to the 24th Queensland and Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra Camp! My name is Mr. Jones and I'm the conductor of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. I also teach conducting and cello performance at the Sydney con. Of course, I want to warmly welcome the Conservatorium Orchestra of the Queensland conservatory, along with Mr. Thames!"
Polite applause from the students arose, some more enthusiastic than others. Brett looked around, still not spotting anyone hurrying in. Did they forget to let anyone audition for the spot from Sydney? If so, they would have told Brett, no?
"You've all received the program for our joint concert in three weeks beforehand and you should all have gotten the score. We will be playing Mozart Symphony no. 25, Mahler fifth, a classic, and of course, one of the highlights of the concert, the Korngold violin concerto!"

The one Brett knew by heart by now. He squirmed a bit when he thought back to all those hours memorizing and practicing the piece at home. He remembered well, how he'd recorded himself playing the first movement and how he'd emailed it to Mr. Thames with a literal shrug before hitting the send-button, never thinking he'd get an actual chance at this.

It wasn't a particularly virtuosic concerto. There were a few tricky passages here and there, but the piece was not super long and challenging like Tchaik or as difficult as Brahms. That's why it had been possible for Brett to know it by heart in a bit more than two months in the first place! It also wasn't his most favourite concerto. He liked the romanticism and grandeur of the Tchaik better, which he knew how to play without having to glance at the score already.

"Both me and Mr. Thames are looking forward to working with all of you brilliant, aspiring, young musicians. As you all know, this year, we'll have two violinists, who'll compete for performing the Korngold violin concerto."
Cole leaned over and whispered, "Aren't they always violinists?"
Brett shook his head minutely. "Nah. They have different concerto pieces every time for different instruments, so every instrument gets a chance, I guess."
"Oh, makes sense."
Yeah. This year happened to be the violin's time to shine. A fact, which had urged Brett even more to apply.

"Mr. Brett Yang -", Mr. Jones yelled. Brett's head shot up like a deer caught in the headlights. Instead of glaring at him sternly however, Mr. Jones smiled at him, making Brett realize the conductor was in the middle of introducing the (un-)lucky ones.
"- from the Queensland con and…" Brett's ears turned up their internal amplification as they tried to catch the information he had been waiting for. 
"...Mr. Eddy Chen from the Sydney conservatory. Congratulations to both of you for your remarkable audition tapes!"

More polite applause, the number of the enthusiastic ones clearly shrunken to a handful, maybe, but Brett didn't pay attention to that. There was something else occupying his mind now, and that was the name Mr. Jones had finally revealed.

Eddy Chen.