<p>am new to this, so I could be posting on the wrong 'thread'...my D will be a junior this year, and after reading a few 'audition' threads I wanted some advise on repetoire...</p>
<p>Having a soprano D with great potential, appropriate music choices seem to change with everyone you speak to....but I seem to agree with a poster who discussed the abilities of a young physical body vs perceived ability. therefore, I would appreciate some suggestions for my D to work on this year in prep for the coming summer music visits...(noticed the sample lesson posts!).</p>
<p>Her most recent songs include: Care Selve, V'Adoro Puppille, Batti Batti, Quindici Anni</p>
<p>I expect some help from her new vocal teacher, a well respected former opera diva with many years of teaching exp. at Indiana.....but would love some input from those still involved in the school process.</p>
<p>Well what does she want to do with her voice? does she want to sing opera? and if so what kind of roles is she suited for? and also if you’re already looking at schools than learning songs that pertain to audition requirements would be beneficial, most of the time it involves 16/17th century art songs, schools usually don’t want arias</p>
<p>she is a soprano ‘with agility’ says her teacher…we haven’t begun the school search - I thought I would get some info from this site (seems very informative). </p>
<p>I was looking for some specific examples of appropriate audition pieces to add to her lessons this upcoming year</p>
<p>Only her teacher and your daughter’s voice can inform her repertory choices…we cannot. The pieces you list are Italian arias, two Handel, two Mozart. She needs songs and other languages. Good luck to her.</p>
<p>lorelei has good advice. We cannot hear her and cannot provide feedback on her selections. it must be done with her voice teacher. Another thought though. It is too early to be worrying about audition repertoire. She should have songs that are stretching her and allowing her to try new things, work on the new languages, etc. this year. As she develops her teacher will be able to guide the best selections to show her off, probably some time late spring or next summer.</p>
<p>Yup, she needs to be well rounded with many contrasting styles and tempos, and be comfortable with pieces from german, french and italian repertoire</p>
<p>Ok…the advise seems to be:
-“16/17C art songs”
-“songs and other languages” (than Italian)
-“contrasting styles & tempos”</p>
<p>She has already worked through the Italian Art Song book, so that is good, and by looking at some schools audition pages it seems french and english art songs are popular…we aren’t worrying abut auditions yet, just wanting to be knowledgeable about what will be needed, so she has lots of time to work acceptable pieces into her lessons.</p>
<p>am happy to have found this web site, as this will be a busy and exciting year for her…and will certainly need input on school options…mostly conservatory vs college w/ great music dept…have had lots of conflicting advise</p>
<p>And her voice type, I should have said, is lyric ‘with agility’ -first teacher said coloratura, but we are going with her present teacher’s assessment…</p>
<p>One thought I will pass along: During junior year, soprano D visited all her schools and had sample lessons with teachers she was interested in. She sang the same two pieces (one Italian art song and one English) for each teacher so she could “compare apples to apples.” Although each teacher had their own style, D easily determined which teachers she “clicked with” and felt she could learn best from. If you are making these types of trips, make notes as soon as you leave the lesson. Singing the same songs at each lesson is really valuable for making comparisons. And, in fact, each teacher suggested that she use the two songs she sang in her school audition the next year. That was also a helpful piece of info.</p>
<p>I disagree with the idea of maintaining repertory from earlier vocal times for auditions. Voices mature, but motor memory leaves one stuck where they were previously. Move on. There is too much repertory out there to be treading water.</p>
<p>“With agility” refers to the ability of any voice type to sing fast melismatic passages. There is fast passage work in music for all voice types, not just sopranos. </p>
<p>Strauss is generally more technically demanding than most of the other German Lied composers…not undertaken until later in undergraduate and/or graduate studies.</p>
<p>poto mom, thanks for the input - as she is beginning her junior year it is good to hear the college prep steps - the sample lessons sound like a smart move…</p>
<p>Her teacher considers the ‘agility’ to be her ability to easily sing strong high notes, but not be classified as a coloratura… My daughter works her vocalizes past high D … her teacher really wants to work on her middle range this year, as she says the high notes come with ‘great facility’ and don’t need the effort, but the middle needs to become more developed…</p>
<p>the technicalities are all greek to me, but teacher and student certainly understand each other…</p>
<p>but, back to repertoire, I am looking to see what schools ask for, and it looks like she will have to add a french piece and an english art song…so back to researching songs she might like…</p>
<p>well, as her teacher is Romanian, she sometimes confuses her English phrasing, maybe I misunderstood what she meant by ‘with agility’…</p>
<p>but, regardless of how she categorizes my daughter - I do believe (and hope) that she is doing an exceptional job training her young voice. This teacher has a phenomenal world-wide reputation, and students (mostly professionals - and many with excellent careers of their own) come from all over the world to study with her. I have felt extremely lucky she has moved to our area and to have found her…but as she is older I look to help from this board for upcoming college info</p>
<p>I am betting she is! we have been through 2 others over the past several years, and D has gotten good things from both, but this seems to be a whole new level of technique and direction! And the big plus is her teacher thinks she has an amazing gift with a great future - if she works hard!</p>
<p>thanks for the input…it always helps to hear from others that know more about this field than me…although I am learning a lot!</p>
<p>There is a LOT to learn, getting into college with the right teacher and how to approach the career aspect of it all. Please feel free to PM me if you have some more specific questions that would be inappropriate for this forum.</p>