Music Auditions!!!

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>To all those hardworking musicians who spent hundreds of hours practicing, how'd they go? I'm majoring in Piano Performance, so here's my rundown:</p>

<p>University of California, Irvine: I got in. They're suckers for dulce. haha</p>

<p>UCLA: Highly, highly doubtful. The lady said, "We are putting you under the highest consideration," which is good, but they care more about grades than how you play. Rejected.</p>

<p>Pepperdine: Pretty sure I get in. They didn't believe that I had never previously played the sightreading piece. It was good enough, as long as they don't look into grades, TOO much. (For your information, my grades arent too hot. 3.7 GPAUW and 1800 SAT)</p>

<p>USC: What a wildcard. It's 50/50. My grandfather went there, and my audition was great, but I doubt that it'll make up for grades.</p>

<p>Eastman: Rejected. I played horribly.</p>

<p>Peabody: Rejected. Worst performance of the Mendellsohn Variation Serieuse known to man. Same for the Bach. </p>

<p>Manhattan School of Music: My audition's on March 5th in NYC. I personally known Phillip Kawin. Accepted.</p>

<p>New England Conservatory: Audition's on March 6th in Boston. I personally known Alex Korsantia. Accepted.</p>

<p>Well, hope that everyone does good, and gets into their top schools! Please reply with your audition rundown, and what repertoire you played! God Bless!!!</p>

2

<p>Don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but don't assume that just because you personally know the teachers for whom you are auditioning that you will be accepted. It doesn't work that way. I've known of students who were strongly encouraged to audition by teachers at the specific school who ended up be rejected. So don't count your chickens. And make sure you play your best at those auditions.</p>

3

<p>Congrats on Irvine! More will follow. With the places you say you're rejected, though, have you heard already or are you speculating based on your opinion of how you played? My D overlaps at a couple of schools, and she hasn't heard a thing.</p>

4

<p>This post would be great in the "music major" forum....you'd get more attention there, I bet.</p>

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<p>Let me burst another bubble: a 3.7 is darn good for a music major at USC. If you're a good enough pianist, and your audition is good, you're set.
Also, bad auditions don't always lead to rejections-- if your potential and prior work are evident anyway, they might forgive a bad audition if it seems like a one-time problem.</p>

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<p>wheres juliard?</p>

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<p>JUILLIARD (sorry, no one spells it correctly) is in New York City, at Lincoln Center.</p>

8

<p>Pumpkin - I second what fiddlefrog said about bad auditions! It really depends on what you did wrong. A "nervous" performance that results in some bad notes is not at all unusual. A flawless performance that sounds mechanical might be worse. </p>

<p>My S had a bad audition at Curtis, and got a strangely worded rejection. He auditioned in front of the same teacher at Juilliard, did great, and got in. You would think it was the audition, right? Well, S later told the teacher he was embarrassed by his Curtis audition, and the teacher said, no, he did just fine. The teacher just decided that S would be happier at Juilliard, based on a number of other interests (like composition.) Teacher was prepared to accept him at either place, but with the limited slots available, didn't want to offer him a spot at both, so tried to pick where he thought S would fit best.</p>

<p>S had never met this teacher before -- we had been unable to schedule a practice lesson -- so all the teacher had to go on was S's recommendations and resume. But the teacher apparently heard enough to know that S had potential and basic talent. </p>

<p>I'm reading your OP and thinking most of your accept/rejects are predictions, not fact, and will be interested to see how they play out. (No pun intended.)</p>

9

<p>Man, now that I'm here in NYC, actually preparing for my audition, its completely surreal. We even saw Juilliard, which completely blew me away, with the student ensembles practicing outside. It's trully a worthwhile experience, and I hope that my audition for the Manhattan School of Music on Sunday shows that.</p>

10

<p>What repertoire did you play? </p>

<p>U of Maryland: accepted + prospective scholarship</p>

<p>Peabody: dunno. Have terrible experience finding places in the building though - which made the audition itself not as good as I think it would be</p>

<p>NEC: again, dunno. The pedals did not seem to work very well for me, probably too much on the dry side...</p>

11

<p>We did the Peabody Road Rally last year, running from room to room for orientation, warm up, theory test, sight singing test and audition. That building is a bit confusing and the map they give you could be a lot more detailed. Good luck there and at NEC, and congratulations on Maryland. Their music complex is gorgeous.</p>

12

<p>PH79-
Hope your audition at MSM went great. Our son will be there tomorrow.....</p>

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<p>Audition Repertoire:
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in C# Major, WTK I
Beethoven - Piano Sonata in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2, Tempest
Mendelssohn - Variation Serieuses in D minor, Op. 54
Dello Joio - Capriccio (On an Interval of a Second)
Chopin - Etude in C Minor, Op. 25 No. 12</p>

<p>But for the most part, I've been too busy preparing for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with the local orchestra. Gah, I need more time!!!!</p>

14

<p>Are you saying you were accepted into Manhattan and NEC or you feel your friendship means you will be accepted? I find it doubtful that your knowing a member of the jury will have any affect unless you were borderline and he is willing to fight for you. Not going to take you ahead of a more qualified candidate.</p>

<p>Also agree with frog, 3.7 is probably well above average at USC for music majors.</p>

15

<p>OMG I got into UCLA!!! I was so doubtul about getting in there, and now I might be studying with Walter Ponce at this time next year! Man, this whole admissions business is too much for me.</p>

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<p>How super! Hopefully you will have several very good options, and you can make a decision which really feels right to you. You must be a very gifted pianist. Congratulations, Pumpkinheads.</p>

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<p>Congratulations Pumpkinheads79!
It looks as though you've set yourself up to have some very exciting options for next year. Enjoy the results of your hard work.</p>

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<p>Congratulations, Pumpkinheads! Hard has indeed brought rewards--what a wonderful feeling. Hope the news is as good for my S in three weeks!</p>

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<p>Hard work that is, I'm sure you know what I meant!</p>

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<p>lol Of course I knew what you meant, and that's exactly how I feel. It just took 10 years for this to finally pay off!</p>