My daughter is a prospective music composition major who will be doing a vocal audition at some of her schools. We have two auditions coming up. Is it considered the usual approach to send the music for the accompanist ahead so the accompanist can practice?
Eastman was the only school D18 auditioned for that requested this. Most have the accompanist receive the music on the day, which argues for marking your music very clearly in terms of cuts, tempo changes etc. and also not picking super obscure pieces with very difficult accompaniments.
The above answer the question. Some schools ask and some don’t.
It is however a good time to point out that each year there will be a few “unlucky” souls that will get a less than stellar accompanist. It happens. It’s normal. And it’s not a disaster…if you have a good attitude about it. So be sure to:
1.) Mark everything clearly.
2.) Have the confidence to walk into the room and spend a moment with the accompanist, when appropriate, before singing. Maybe talk with your private teacher about this. Even practice it. Any material handed to an accompanist should be very clear…and having a quick word with the accompanist is OK in general.
3.) If the accompanist is screwing up, keep singing and don’t acknowledge it. Don’t roll your eyes or get frustrated. Just do your best. You are “on stage”. You don’t get to stop a performance mid-stream. You will get points for being cool under pressure.
4.) Have faith that the teachers are VERY experienced and know if the accompanist is messing up and will not penalize you for his/her errors.
Hopefully you will not experience this. My D had one song that an accompanist took at a very slow tempo and it impacted her breath…but she was accepted anyway. A young singer isn’t expected to be perfect…just to show their talent and potential…and good grace under pressure.
Since graduating, my son has done some accompanying work both for classes and for auditions, so I asked him how this looks from the perspective of the accompanist. With the caveat that this is jazz, so may have no relevance for classical, his thoughts:
- The school does not provide him with music in advance and he says that’s not a problem.
- If the repertoire consists of non-obscure pieces in standard keys, he doesn’t need music.
- If the repertoire includes obscure pieces or the auditioner wants to sing/play a piece in a non-standard key, the auditioner should definitely bring music. And if it’s in a non-standard key, bring music in the key the auditioner wants to sing/play it in. My son says that sometimes auditioners will bring music in the standard key but then want to sing/play in a different key, and while he is capable of sight transposing, it’s a little riskier than if he has the music in the key that the auditioner wants. Particularly if the bridge goes in a non-standard direction.
- The auditioner should be prepared to count off the tempo. My son recommends that the auditioner practice this a number of times in advance, using a metronome, as nervousness in the audition room can cause an auditioner to count off too fast (usually) or too slow in the heat of the moment.
- It’s great to have the auditioner greet the accompanists and make clear if there are any special requests.
- The more the auditioner can come across as confident and in command the better, but everyone recognizes that auditioners are going to be nervous.
- Both from my son’s experience auditioning and as an accompanist, he says that at good schools the accompanists will likely be better than the musicians that the auditioner is used to singing/playing with, so the auditioner should just try to enjoy singing/playing with really good musicians and, to the extent possible, forget that it’s an audition.
Not from my son, but I also totally agree with @bridgenail that if something does go awry, the auditioner should make the best of it and push through with as much poise as possible.
Hope that’s at least a little helpful. Good luck everyone!
Have your daughter look at the regulations when her auditions are confirmed. It’s not common to have to send your music in advance, but it does happen. Top schools use either staff accompanists or students in their graduate Collaborative Piano department and they’re usually excellent. Never put pages in plastic sleeves and make sure that the binder is in good condition. Unlike MT, those auditioning in VP do not give verbal tempo instructions to the accompanist. At some schools, those singing may have a 10-15 minute “warm-up” session with the person playing with them- not usual, but pleasant when it does happen!
My experience is from violin auditions last year for my child : We did not send the piano parts ahead to the accompanist. The pianist (offered by the school - USC, UCLA, NEC) had listed the piece as part of her rep. We did meet her the earlier day for about 30-45 minutes to rehearse, and again for approximately 30 minutes the next day before the audition.