<p>Hi! I really hope this was the right place to put this thread.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm a thirteen year old going off to audition for the Manhattan Precollege in a few weeks on piano. My two pieces are the Gigue from Bach's Partita No. 1 and a Tcherepnin Bagatelle (Op. 5, No. 9). Does anyone have insight on the audition process? Also, would these songs give me a good chance, or is everyone going to show up with complete sonatas?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Hopefully others know more about the specific details</p>
<p>looking at the website, they require two contrasting pieces and then two major and minor aprpeggios and scales of your choice. MSM is a lot less specific then other programs I have looked at,they usually are more specific then this and it usually also varies by age. Given the nature of Piano, it is likely that there will be kids going there with heavy hitting rep…</p>
<p>That said, keep in mind that the level plays a role in the audition, but more importantly is the level of playing. Someone going in their playing a Chopin etude but making mistakes is going to be scored lower then someone playing a less technically proficient piece near perfectly; likewise, the kid playing technically difficult piece and not demonstrating knowing the difference between a classical or baroque piece and a romantic piece is going to have a hard time if all they do is play it with technical proficiency (it is why they want a contrasting piece). Yes, if a piece is technically ‘too easy’ it can disqualify an auditioner (I don’t know piano rep well, the Bach as far as I know is pretty high level, not familiar with the other) but a lot of it is going to be how you play it, assuming it meets minimum standards. Like I said, the hotshot kid burning through Chopin with no nuance or artistry is not likely to score that high. </p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is it is unlikely to be asked to play a full piece, the auditions don’t last that long if my knowledge and experience holds; among other things, MSM doesn’t seem to use a pre screen so they could have well over a hundred kids auditioning and they simply don’t have time. They generally will ask the person auditioning to play certain sections of the pieces they have prepared, usually ones they feel indicate the levels and the entire audition is roughly around 10 minutes, maybe 15. </p>
<p>As far as getting in, the criteria boils down to 2 criteria. When you audition you face a panel of teachers in the program, and they write down comments on your playing plus they give you a numerical score, which is summed up for all the teachers and that becomes your score. </p>
<p>They generally IME establish a base score that if auditionees are below that will be summarily rejected. From there, they evaluate people based on their scores from highest down in terms of filling open slots and matching to a teacher. Like with college auditions,you need to have teachers specify they want to teach you on the audition form and they need to have open slots as well (usually people applying are asked to specify teachers they might want to work with, and the office tries to respect that). What they do as far as I know is go through the kid with the highest score, look at his/her teacher requests, try to make a match, then move on to the next kid on the list and so forth until the open slots are full. If there is no match with teacher and student, they don’t get in, or if all the slots are done before getting to the auditionee on the list, they don’t get in. There are variances to this, I am pretty sure if a teacher really likes an auditionee they prob can open up room, there is some leeway, but the above is what most can assume. </p>
<p>I can’t speak specifically for MSM, but one thing to keep in mind is with higher level programs it is not uncommon for students to take several attempts to get in, so don’t let a rejection get you down because it could be you did really well but they just didn’t have a slot that year even though you otherwise ‘made the grade’, and a lot of kids take several attempts, these programs are really competitive, you can have 20 slots and 130 kids auditioning as an example. If you don’t get in, you may want to schedule an evaluation with one of the faculty to see where you lie in their eyes, what your strengths and weaknesses might be, to focus on next year if you want to try again:).</p>
<p>Thank you so much! Yes, I will most likely be applying next year if I don’t get in this time. That’s also very helpful about not having to play the full piece. I hope I put down good teachers after what you said, since I picked random names off the list. xD</p>