<p>orchestramom - that's a heck of a drive! We are lucky to have Peabody in town and DC only an hour away so there tends to be lots of good teachers fairly close by. </p>
<p>I don't see how you people out there with more than one do it.</p>
<p>Rudy'smom: As far as what to play for his auditions, if should prepare the following: The first movement of a major concerto - Haydn C maj or D maj, Saint Saens, Elgar, Schumann, Dvorak are examples. There are others. He will need 2 contrasting movements of a Bach suite. Most students will pick the prelude and then one of the dance movements. At the undergrad level he can use any of the suites. The concerto and the Bach are the "bread and butter" of almost every cello audition. In addition, some schools will require a movement from a sonata and/or and etude, usually either Popper or DuPort. </p>
<p>He can start working on this at any time. It is not unusual for students to learn a piece, shelf it and then bring it back out to relearn and polish for auditions. Also, he should plan on having all of his repertoire, except for a sonata, memorized.</p>
<p>As far as looking for a new teacher, several of the CSO members teach privately. There are a number of teachers at both Roosevelt University and DePaul that have CSO connections, are college instructors and teach privately. You can also have your son talk to his friends at CYSO to get names of teachers. Call now. Teachers will begin filling up places in their studios this spring for fall. If you wait til fall, you will likely lose out on the better teachers. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>A few schools require a second movement of concerto, and some require two memorized etudes. One of the best cello teachers in the world is at Northwestern, and his students are wonderfully successful, but he is a very stern taskmaster, not for everyone. S spent a summer working with him, both adored him and felt terrorized by him.....learned a lot!</p>
<p>As far as audition dates go....DS is on Oberlins mailing list and they already have audition dates set for next year. I imagine that some other conservatories would as well.</p>
<p>Quick question - - what does DS mean? I see it a lot on this board. I guess S=son, D=daughter. But DS?
Thanks!</p>
<p>dear son, I think</p>
<p>Wow, I would never have been able to come up with that one on my own.
Thanks! ;)</p>
<p>Dear Cartera45,</p>
<p>Most schools have posted audition dates and application deadlines for current juniors going into their senior year (those who are applying for entrance to fall of 2008). Applications will become available over the summer or early fall, and auditions will be held anytime from December - March.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up on the audition dates. I am finding that the websites have been updated now - from just a week or two ago. The thought of scheduling everything at this point is daunting.</p>
<p>I don't think you can schedule audition dates yet, can you? I thought you had to wait until applications were in, and then they tell you the date from your choices...no? How far in advance did people make plane/train/hotel reservations? </p>
<p>What's the deal with the unified app? Anyone open an account on that one yet?</p>
<p>I seem to remember that we could not actually schedule an audition until the applications were in. In some cases, we could not schedule the later ones until mid-January. We made hotel reservations as soon as we knew the date. We drove everywhere, so did not need plane or train reservations.</p>
<p>It is handy to see the possibilities as early as possible so that you can plan on which days pretty much have to be done at certain schools, and which days are flexible.</p>
<p>We used the unified app a couple of years back. It seemed that some schools accepted applications through that site fairly early and others not until October or so.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, at some schools you can request certain days out of the ones they provide you. Not all instruments audition on the same days. Juilliard seems to schedule a week for all of its auditions. They try to coordinate with Mannes. However, you don't get any choices. Many schools will give preferred dates to the people who get their applications in earlier. If you have to pre-screen, you have to wait to get accepted at that stage before you can schedule and audition.</p>
<p>So you can't really don anything at this point. I remember sitting at the dining room table with a calendar in December trying to plot out everthing - auditions, concerts, competitions, midterms, etc. It is a bit daunting.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the school year we did a spreadsheet covering all possible dates of her choices, combined with concerts, competitions, tests. Then settled on 2 alternate audition schedules to account for variables such as pre-screening CDs, schools that did not give schedule specifics, and order of preference. Even then we had to adjust on the fly as UCLA only had one of their dates for voice and Rice eliminated some dates late in the process. I begged UCLA for information and found out which date ahead of time and gambled on a good CD to make the cross country flight reservations. We did 2 of the auditions in the early season Nov-Dec to free up options. </p>
<p>It was all possible because she had her audition repertoire performance ready by Nov. 1st for the NFAA CD. It gave us flexibility to schedule early ones and make changes since she was confident of her music. The requirements for the NFAA covered everything she needed for any of the auditions. What you can do now is encourage the repertoire to be ready in early fall.</p>
<p>Scheduling auditions varies from school to school. Some schools will not allow you to schedule an audition until you have your application on file. Others will not allow you to schedule your audition until you have been admitted to the university (when DS was applying, this was the case with UMich). Still others will allow you to schedule your audition and submit your application simultaneously (not in any particular order, but you must have your application on file by the time you audition). DS was actually able to schedule all of his auditions by the beginning of November...his first was the Friday prior to Thanksgiving, the last at the end of February (take note...sorry for the pun...but that one was actually rescheduled three days before the audition...no kidding, but we were somewhat local and that is why that happened). DS began rehearsing audition repertoire in his junior year. Most schools had significant overlap in the types of works you could play. AND luckily the All State audition piece was on the list for most schools as well (otherwise All State would have not happened....not that important relative to a good audition).</p>
<p>(having not read the other posts)</p>
<p>I applied to 4 total but one of my schools, I didnt even get past the pre-screening round. After I found out that I didnt make pre-screening I applied to one more which I thought of as a "safe" school. I passed pre-screening on one of the others, and after an interview/audition at the 3rd school I ruled it out (didnt care for the people). So it came down to two schools... one a very intense and well known conservatory and the other was what I thought of as my "safe" school which turned out to have the better program for me (thats where i'll be this fall because as wonderful as the other conserv. is, this small school has more oppertunity for an undergrad voice major)</p>
<p>so I had 2 out of 4..... I have a friend who applied to 16 schools total and has gotten into 80% of them but has had his heart set on only one since the begining (which he DID get into)...I dont see the point in paying all those fees (application fees, travel fees- it all adds up)</p>
<p>Not a school audition, but his first professional audition for a regional orchestra. My son (viola performance, Hartt '07) made it through the preliminary round, and advanced to the finals. He didn't get either of the 2 open spots, but was next in line and now has a permanent home on the sub list. It's a start.</p>
<p>Congratulations to you and your S! A permanent spot on the sub list is definitely a good start. And he hasn't even graduated yet :)</p>