The music layer

The other schedule

Mr. Perkins has been teaching teenagers for twenty-six years and knows exactly what "I'll think about it" means.

Nobody at Fenton High School is neutral about Nick Mansour anymore except one adult, and it is not because that adult is unimpressed. It is because Ray Perkins has been sitting in a room with this kid four days a week since he was a freshman, and he is the only person in the building whose picture of him did not get replaced last September.

Here is what Perkins sent on the second day of school.

From: Perkins, Raymond <rperkins@fentonschools.org>
To: Mansour, Nicholas <n.mansour27@fentonschools.org>
Cc: Janssen, Furhut
Subject: Fall — audition timeline (please actually read this one)
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at 4:41 PM

Nick,

I've attached a schedule. Before you look at it and get overwhelmed, read this part.

Prescreen recordings for most schools worth applying to are due between November 1 and December 1. That is not a deadline I invented, it is not negotiable, and it does not move because of a playoff run. If we are going to do this, the recording has to be made in October, which means the program has to be under your hands by the end of September, which means we start now.

You will notice that I have kept it to three pieces and that one of them is something you already play. I am not trying to bury you. I am trying to make this small enough that you cannot use size as the reason you didn't do it.

I want to say something else and then I will leave it alone. I have had roughly nine hundred students. Four of them could have done this professionally. You are one of the four. I am not telling you that to flatter you, I am telling you because I do not think anyone else in your life is in a position to know it, and I would be failing at my job if I let you find out at twenty-five.

None of that is an argument against football. I watched the Linden game. I understand what I saw.

It is an argument against pretending you have unlimited Tuesdays.

Let me know by Friday. A no is an acceptable answer. A no is a much better answer than a "probably."

— RP

1 attachment: FALL26_AUDITION_TIMELINE.pdf

Fall 2026 — Audition Preparation Timeline

R. Perkins · Fenton High School Instrumental Music · N. Mansour, piano

Aug 24 – Sep 6	Program locked. Three pieces. Baroque, one Romantic, one 20th c. or jazz standard with a written head. Bring me your choices, don't ask me to choose.
Sep 7 – Sep 27	Under the hands. Not polished. Under the hands. Minimum 45 min/day, 5 days. I will not ask if you did it, I will hear whether you did it.
Sep 28 – Oct 11	Memory work + one run-through per week with me. Thursdays, 3:00–3:40, before you go to practice. Yes, I already checked, walkthrough is at 3:15 on Thursdays and I already spoke to Coach Shaffer, who was extremely polite about it.
Oct 12 – Oct 25	Record. Auditorium, two sessions, evenings. Ms. Delacroix is running audio.
Nov 1 – Dec 1	Prescreen submissions. Deadlines vary by school; the earliest one I've found is Nov 1.
Dec – Feb	Live auditions, if invited. Travel. We would deal with that then.

Nick — the Thursday thing is the whole plan. If you can't give me 40 minutes on Thursdays this doesn't work and we should both stop pretending. — RP

The thread

Mr. Perkins

iMessage · school-approved contact

Tuesday, Aug 18 · 8:14 PM

got the email. thank you for putting it together, that's a lot of work

It took me twenty minutes. Don't do that.

do what

The thing where you thank someone so thoroughly that you don't have to answer them.

Read 8:16 PM

Eleven minutes.

that's fair

i want to do it

That's not an answer either.

i know

Thursday, Aug 20 · 4:50 PM

You were in the room third hour today. I heard the Ellington. You've got most of the head.

i've been messing with it at night

At night.

yeah

Nicholas, that is my entire point in one word.

You are learning repertoire at one in the morning because it's the only hour nobody has claimed. That is not sustainable and it's not how you'd want to be playing it either.

i know

can i be honest with you

Please.

i don't think i can give you thursdays. not in season. thursday is walkthrough and it's the only day setzke lets us out early and it's the day i actually get the whole game plan straight in my head

and if i miss it i'm worse on friday. not a little worse. actually worse

i'm not saying that as an excuse i'm saying it because it's true and you asked for a real answer

Read 5:02 PM

Twenty-six minutes.

Thank you for saying it straight. I mean that.

Sunday afternoons.

what

I'll come in Sundays. 1:00 to 2:00. The building's open for custodial until 3 and I have a key.

that's your weekend

Yes.

mr perkins

It's one hour, it's twelve weeks, and I'd rather spend it than watch you decide by attrition. Take it or don't.

Three minutes.

yes. i'll take it

sunday at 1. i'll be there

Good. Bring your three pieces by the 6th.

And Nick — this is not me asking you to quit football. I want to be very clear, because I know how I come across and I know what you've probably decided I think.

i didn't think that

You did a little.

i did a little

Ha ha

Go to bed at a reasonable hour. And clean the pedal, there is field dirt on my pedal.

that was one time

It was three times.

Canon note. As of Week 0 he has committed to Sundays, 1:00–2:00, and has not chosen his three pieces. Perkins has told exactly one other adult about the conservatory conversation and it was not a member of the football staff. Furhut Janssen was copied on the email and has not replied to it.

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