<p>College auditions (vocal performance) are coming up soon, and I'm having a hard time trying to find appropriate music to sing. I'm a soprano 1, and I'd like something that will show off my range. I'm not exactly sure what my vocal style is, although to me it sort of sounds more "traditional" or operatic, but I can also sing jazz.</p>
<p>Two of the schools I'm applying to require auditions: Oberlin and University of Maryland College Park. </p>
<p>This is what Oberlin requires: "Two contrasting selections in French, German, Italian, or English." (taken from their website)</p>
<p>UMDCP: "Two contrasting songs chosen from solo vocal literature (songs or arias of composers such as Gluck, Handel, Purcell, Mozart, Schubert, Faur</p>
<p>Hi!
First thing, do you have a private voice teacher? He/she should be the one to select pieces that show your voice to its best advantage. If you don’t have one, I must tell you right now that you are going to be at a huge disadvantage in your applications to schools, especially ones like Oberlin, which is considered a top-tier school (Maryland is not a walk in the park either). Schools will be knee-deep in sopranos at audition time, and you need to be one of the best if you are competing for a place- one of the things you must remember is to follow the rules that the schools set out in their audition guidelines, and in this case, that means you absolutely can not walk in with a jazz piece and expect to take up the panel’s time.
You need to be singing two art songs (not arias), one in Italian and one in English. The “Quella fiamma…” sits low for you, if you are really a higher soprano. Do you have a copy of the “26 Italian Songs” or other similar art song anthologies? Get the Middle- High Voice versions please. You probably shouldn’t be singing Handel right now, but there are plenty of nice English songs ( Ned Rorem would be fine for example). It’s always better to do something easier and do it really well than to choose a work that is too difficult (or inappropriate) and thus expose faults or problems. Schools don’t expect you to be perfect at this age, but they do need to know that you’re capable of following directions and are singing appropriate repertoire for your age and ability.
If you are not working with a good private teacher, it is really worth it to find the best available and take a gap year to really work hard and prepare yourself so that you’re go into audition season being competitive and feeling prepared. There’s nothing at all wrong with that- because voices mature later, it’s not unusual at all.
What other schools are you considering?</p>
<p>For these schools you most DEFINITELY need to sing classical pieces, unless of course applying to the jazz program. If you would rather go into jazz or popular music I would highly discourage applying to these places, as almost all of the people enrolled want to study CLASSICAL music. </p>
<p>I would try to find someone other than your choir teacher to choose pieces for you as many choir teachers do not understand the solo vocalists (in my experience anyways). If you have not had private lessons you SHOULD and It is very hard to get into schools like Oberlin without them, but if you are really talented then I’m sure you will do fine.</p>
<p>Quite a few schools specify no jazz or theater repertoire for auditions in vocal perf. Even if Oberlin doesn’t state this clearly, my impression is that, seconding everything said by others before me, classical repertoire is expected.</p>
<p>It might help to pick a few more pieces than you need, work on them all and record them. You might find that what you originally thought you’d like to do does not suit you as well as another. Once recorded, some pieces just sound better than others, and it can surprise you! We found this the most difficult part of applying! Of course, everything you choose must be with your teacher’s blessing. Yet, if you don’t like a song, it will show. The singer must connect to the song for it to be the best kind of audition piece. Good luck to you.</p>