Auditioning 101 - Timing?

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>WOW! The time for research & fact finding is almost over - the time for action is upon us! </p>

<p>So let’s talk auditions. In this post, TIMING. </p>

<p>Does it matter WHEN you audition (i.e. November vs January vs February)? </p>

<p>Are schools perhaps more selective in the November auditions, saving spaces in case better kids come along later?</p>

<p>Are schools more limited in February - because they have fewer slots available?</p>

<p>Are schools more generous early on, hoping to lock down impressive kids before they even audition at other schools? </p>

<p>Are scholarship offers decided on/prioritized all at once or with each round of auditions?</p>

<p>I know that, ultimately, the quality of the audition is most important. But these logistic realities must play some factor, whether conscious or not. Do you agree?</p>

<p>As always, thanks!</p>

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<p>I’ll leave the analysis to the more seasoned members of this forum, but will remind you to double-check scholarship deadlines. Sometimes an early audition is required simply to be considered for scholarships.</p>

3

<p>It depends on the school. DD applied and auditioned early to schools with rolling admissions, except one that she did in late February. It didn’t make any difference in acceptance or scholarships because the one in Feb stated on their web site that it made no difference. They judged each independently and they did not limit acceptances or scholarships. She got accepted with high scholarships from both ends of the time periods. One did an early acceptance but the scholarship info came later. It was nice to have the early ones under her belt with an early acceptance. Took the pressure off. </p>

<p>Most of the conservatory level schools, however, did not have a large range of dates. They were clustered in the Jan-Feb time period and they all stated that no decisions would be made until the process was complete. So go to your list and check with the schools. They will tell you when and how decisions are made.</p>

4

<p>Just an anecdotal observation, but it does seem at IU it’s better to audition on one of the earlier dates.</p>

5

<p>We were fortunate to be coached through this process by our son’s Saturday Prep School teachers who have helped many kids over the past couple of years apply to conservatories. One bit of advice they gave me, which at the time I found hard to accept, was that it was best to wait as late as possible to record the pre-screening tape. Why? Because musicians who are 17/18 are often still making rapid improvement in their playing and will sound considerably better at the end of November or beginning of December than they do in September. And this turned out to be very good advice.</p>

<p>My son applied to traditional top conservatories (Eastman, NEC, NYU, MSM, Oberlin) for Jazz. When it came time for auditions we did not have a lot of choice. The colleges basically assign you a date and although there is some flexibility if a conflict arises most have carefully scheduled their prescreening dates. Schools like NEC will audition all Jazz Bass players on one day. NYU and Eastman have group auditions so they carefully schedule who auditions on what day. We did a regional audition for Oberlin and they were just in our area on one day. </p>

<p>Good Luck. I remember how stressful the whole process felt to me. It is hard to believe we are on the other side of it now. Now my son is getting nervous about his placement audition.</p>

6

<p>Just based upon my son’s experiences, it may be that the earlier the audition the larger the scholarship. He applied and auditioned at 4 colleges, his first audition yielded the largest scholarship, his next audition resulted in the next highest scholarship, his 3rd was the third, and his last audition was his lowest scholarship amount.</p>

<p>On the other hand, he also felt like he did better with each audition, less nervousness, and a few more weeks of practice helped between auditions.</p>

7

<p>If you are interested in applying to Oberlin Conservatory early review (which is non-binding), you must audition in the first week of December. Your application is due November 1. If applying early review, you will have a decision by the end of December and will allow you to still apply for ED II to the college if that is your bent. Very few students are admitted under the early review process, but being deferred is not as harsh as deferral from a regular college ED admissions program.</p>

8

<p>StacJip, while it is true that young musicians are still growing and advancing and that the best take they record might very well happen closer to deadline, it can be very helpful to begin making recordings earlier rather than later. Depending on how much experience you and your child have in making recordings, this gives you more time to get accustomed to the equipment, recording space, etc plus the musician learns what is involved in getting a high quality performance recorded. We had to drive over an hour to get to the accompanist and recording venue and invariably things were forgotten (rosin, bow) or things were happening that made it impossible to record (huge reception right outside the hall; fire across the street with engines for the whole time we’d booked the space).</p>

<p>Plus, things can happen later in the day–this happened to a violinist we know: the accompanist went into premature labor halfway through the recording process with insufficient time to get rehearsed and recorded with a new accompanist. A vocalist we know made some draft recordings to get used to the space and her accompanist with plans to do the final recordings in the fall, but she came down with bronchitis and had to spare her voice for auditions, so ended up using the draft recordings. It never hurts to have extra food for a party or extra recordings for a musician ;-)</p>

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<p><a href=“huge%20reception%20right%20outside%20the%20hall;%20fire%20across%20the%20street%20with%20engines%20for%20the%20whole%20time%20we’d%20booked%20the%20space”>quote</a>.

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<p>Stringkeymom’s son and my daughter recorded in the same hall, and I can attest that all these things happen and more! For one recording, we had a fire alarm go off right at the end of a great take! So, yes, get a good-enough recording early!</p>

10

<p>Yep, fire trucks, helpful janitorial staff checking to see why the light is still on in the auditorium at that hour, accompanist’s cell phone going off (!), etc. D3 did two recording sessions and pulled the best takes (be sure to wear the same outfit and hairstyle), but some of her friends who waited had to be content with a single take because the accompanist and audio tech both had full schedules later in the term.</p>

11

<p>In addition to Oberlin, Hartt and Ithaca both have early December auditions (often on consecutive weekends) and both will give results 2-3 weeks afterwards (although Hartt may hold scholarship info until later). I seem to recall Duquesne has a very early audition, maybe even before Thanksgiving. Gettysburg also has an early audition but you don’t get (official) results until springtime. I completely agree with those who say it’s helpful to get at least one acceptance in hand when you’re facing the madness of audition season.</p>

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<p>aaah well I suppose in that sense we were fortunate. The teachers at our son’s prep school were the people we paid to accompany our son, so they knew him and knew his playing. One of them was his ensemble coach the previous year and last fall so he had spent a lot of time playing with our son. With Jazz it is less important to have a formal rehearsal before hand. And we recorded at a private prep high school that has a conservatory on a Sunday evening so things were ridiculously quiet.</p>

<p>The one mistake we did make was that my son was not completely thorough enough in reading the various requirements for the prescreen tape. And he had to do a few extra things in a less formal recording setting at his high school. But it all worked out in the end. </p>

<p>One other tip, which I did not realize when we started this. Make sure to fill out the FAFSA even if you are not applying for financial aide. Many schools will only offer merit money after they have received the FAFSA.</p>

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<p>Oh one other thing…scholarship offers can change even after your child has been accepted. This is because conservatories are careful to not over-enroll and they have a certain number of spots that they need to fill as well. Our son was initially wait listed at the school that ended up giving him the largest scholarship by a long-shot. I suspect from talking with the guy who our son would of studied with had he gone to this school, that he had a list of students who he wanted to fill a particular spot. After the first person declined (and I have a feeling I know who that player was) they wanted our son and we wavered a bit because we were waiting to hear about money for another school. During that time the school that initially wait-listed our son increased his scholarship two times. I was initially VERY perplexed by all of this but then talked to somebody who is familiar with the conservatory music world who told me that this is quite common.</p>

14

<p>One good thing to do when determining an audition order is to put the schools that require the most audition material after the schools that require the least. My first audition involved only two pieces and was almost two months before my next one, allowing me time to fully learn the repetoire I didn’t completely have down yet while auditioning on only the pieces I knew the best. Another thing to consider is which schools have one decision deadline versus the schools that admit after every audition date. Cincinnati is a huge conservatory and they have a rolling admissions process, whereas Lawrence admits everyone at once. Why is this important? At Cincinnati if you wait till February someone else (or multiple someone elses) may have already taken the scholarship you were going to get, whereas at Lawrence it really doesn’t matter as much because while they’ll have an idea mentally of what they’re going to give to everyone, they won’t have told anyone how much money they’ve gotten yet so auditioning on the last date really doesn’t hurt you so much.</p>

15

<p>S scheduled his first audition at the school he cared least about going to. It was a good warm up audition.</p>

<p>CCM told us that after an audition some kids will be accepted, some declined, but most told in March In some departments, all are told in March.</p>

<p>Also, ditto on checking the scholarship deadlines. Most seemed to end after February audition dates.</p>

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<p>StacJip has a good point when he/she says that at the age of 17-18 there may be great improvement in their playing during the audition year. This was so true for our S. He did 2 early auditions and 5 in February. The difference in his playing over those 3-4 months was remarkable. </p>

<p>He ended up dropping 2 auditions once he knew he had a reasonable early acceptance at a school that he would be happy attending. </p>

<p>This could help plan your strategy if possible. Early, not as competitive auditions first, hopefully to secure one admission under your belt before going in to the intense February audition season. Of course each school has their own system for auditions, admissions and granting scholarships so this must be taken in to consideration when scheduling. We were told (4 years ago) that to get merit money, a live audition was required, but of course this rule is often broken. </p>

<p>We kept a calendar written initially in pencil with all of the possible school’s audition dates and organized it from there, a good visual to figure out what our best schedule would be. We were able to coordinate auditions for two Boston schools in one long weekend, and one other trip over a Friday - Monday long weekend. We were travelling long distance so this made things much easier. </p>

<p>Also, don’t be shy about being in touch with the admissions offices regarding your audition dates if you are travelling long distance. They were very friendly and accommodating, one even scheduling an early audition time so that we could get a flight out the same night.</p>

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<p>My son did one November audition, as he knew he’d have a decision by mid-December. This was not one of his top choices for school, but it was an excellent experience. He didn’t feel a lot of pressure, had a “practice audition” under his belt, and ended up with one acceptance before the rest of the auditions started in January. In addition, this school doled out music merit money on a rolling basis. The earlier the audition, the better chance at a scholarship. Based on this acceptance he was able to cancel one other audition.</p>

<p>We also penciled in the various audition dates and made a tentative schedule, as mentioned by a previous poster. One school just did not fit in. My son contacted that school, and they made arrangements for him to audition on a day that auditions were not supposed to be scheduled. It was very nice. </p>

<p>One school only offered one audition date for my son’s instrument, and this date was on a Wednesday. We knew he’d have to fly in and out of that city, and we knew he’d still have to do a weekend audition that week, so we made sure that the Saturday audition following the Tuesday/Wednesday trip was not one of his top choice schools. He was worried about being tired and stressed due to February travel on the east coast and in the midwest. We also had to factor in any flight delays/cancellations as he was booked on the last flight of the day. Knowing that the flight could have been postponed to Thursday, it could have been a challenging week. It all worked out fine though.</p>

<p>One school told us, during a previous visit, that they fill spots “as they go.” My son scheduled this school in mid-January. Another school waited to hear every student before accepting anyone. This was my son’s first choice school, so he did this one last (late February). He really felt that he improved significantly between November and late February, so he was glad he scheduled his favorite school for his last audition.</p>

<p>That being said, I sat in the parent waiting area next to a Music Admissions rep at one midwestern school. It was their last audition date for the year, and the rep received call after call from people whose flights had been cancelled. He told them that they’d have to submit a recorded audition. I felt so badly for those kids, as I’m sure some of them did not get admitted based on a last minute, recorded audition. In my opinion, don’t let your child schedule his or her first choice school on that school’s last audition day if there is any chance there will be travel issues/delays. We always arrived the day before the audition, but I realize that this is not always possible. </p>

<p>Here’s my only other piece of advice. Book hotels early. Most allow cancellations 24 hours before check-in, so you will not be out any money if you cancel. I wanted to make sure that we were as close as possible to the schools where my child auditioned. As he didn’t get his audition time until very close to the audition day, I didn’t want to have to drive 30 minutes and park or have to deal with a taxi at 7 am on audition day. We were able to walk to several auditions (Eastman, Peabody, Indiana) and had a 5-10 minute drive to the others. It was less stressful for my son (and for me). </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>My son made his prescreening audition tapes in the spring of 11th grade. He had all the pieces ready at that point and we took a chance of making a recording thinking he would record again in the fall. Of course he improved by fall but his teacher felt it was totally waste to record again. She felt the one we had was good enough to get him into the auditions and she was right! It was such a relief not to spent the precious time in fall before audition time to get music ready to record. I know of someone who made a recording at the last minute with disastrous results. Make sure you leave ample time to redo your recording. Students perform the best when they know they have more chances.</p>

<p>In my son’s case, the order of audition didn’t affect the acceptance nor scholarship offers. He really didn’t have much choice with auditioning dates but he tried to fit as many early dates as possible. It was hard to fit 8 auditions all over the country without conflicts. He always arrived for the auditions one day early to get himself acclimated to the time changes and surroundings. One of the parents always accompanied to relieve him from any stress of driving or traveling.</p>

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<p>My D chose to schedule her “less likely to want to attend” schools towards the end. She was accepted to her first choice schools before those scheduled auditions, so we were able to cancel them and save some travel money.</p>