Need advice on resume and repertoire

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>My son is applying as a percussion performance major (with possible interest in education and composition) to USC Thornton, North Texas, Texas Tech, and UT Austin Butler School. </p>

<ol>
<li>Some of these schools require a resume. What should go on it for a music major? I'm thinking:
Education
Notable music educators he has studied with
Solo awards
List of all ensembles, awards, and unique performances by those ensembles (marching, drumline, concert,etc)</li>
</ol>

<p>Anything else? He studies music at the Fine Arts Academy here in Austin and so his life is overwhelmed by music extracurriculars, so he doesn't have any other activities outside of school other than music lessons and a garage band.</p>

<p>Should it be restricted to high school years? I would think yes, except that when he was in middle school we lived in New Orleans and so he had some unique cultural experiences playing with the Tipitina's Sunday Music Workshop and playing drums during Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indian practices. Thoughts? Do schools not care?</p>

<p>My concern with the resume is that his school hauls home truckloads of trophies, so I can't imagine fitting it in one page. Are multiple pages OK, or should I learn the art of creative compression?</p>

<ol>
<li>USC Thornton requires a complete repertoire. When we toured there I told the rep that with the number of ensembles he's been in, that could be hundreds of pieces and do they really want every one and she said "yep, hundreds is not uncommon."</li>
</ol>

<p>So what goes an entry in the repertoire? I was thinking: </p>

<pre><code>Title, Composed By, Arranged By, and the instruments he played on it,
</code></pre>

<p>and then group the list by ensemble (subgrouped by year), or group by year (subgrouped by ensemble). I Googled around and didn't find any examples on the web.</p>

<p>Thanks! October is definitely crazy time for music kids, doing applications and essays and practicing audition pieces right in the middle of marching & competition season.</p>

2

<p>If you do a Music Major Forum search (choose ‘search this forum’) and enter the word ‘resume’ as the keyword, then choose ‘in titles only’ you’ll get a list of threads about this subject. For instance, here’s one: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/998791-music-resume-just-list-indiv-awards-group-ones-too.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/998791-music-resume-just-list-indiv-awards-group-ones-too.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I think previous threads have indicated that you don’t have to include group awards unless extraordinary. Maybe that is true of repertoire as well-? I would just call admissions, honestly, though others on this forum know more about this.</p>

<p>Does he have any compositions on CD’s to send, or perfomances of compositions to include on his resume? Not necessary, just wondering.</p>

<p>Overall, I would say save the stress for auditions :slight_smile: They are the most important thing!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>I am percussion parent of a current college freshman. All the resume and repertoire requirements are nice but, I can tell you first hand the single most important thing you can do is schedule lessons with each professor he will audition for. If you can, do multiple lessons with the school he’s most interested in. His ability to play for and impress the percussion professor as being the type of student who will fit the studio, is the single most important thing he can do. If he’s attended any summer programs that should also be on the resume. I do know my son did write the resume but I can’t tell you what is was on it.</p>

<p>I can say that the lessons and the camps he attended where the main thing that got him a spot in the studio he really wanted to be a member of. </p>

<p>The personal connection is more important than the paper connection!!! </p>

<p>That’s a good list of schools he’s looking at!!!
If I can help at all let me know. People here helped me last year and I really appreciated the support!!</p>

<p>Good Luck!!!</p>

<p>BigDJP</p>

5

<p>Thanks, bigdjp! I can’t remember the last time my heart rate jumped that high then recovered so quickly between 4 posts! I have a prospective jazz percussion guy who is HS class of 2015 so am just starting out on this journey. I think I will be asking you lots of questions. :D</p>

6

<p>Saintfan,</p>

<p>I will help anyway that I can. It really wasn’t as stressful as I thought once we got out there and met the professors and interacted. My son did go to camp with 2 of the people he auditioned for. He only auditioned for 3 schools and is enrolled at his dream school. He is the happiest we have ever seen him. </p>

<p>Good luck. </p>

<p>Big</p>

7

<p>Raynola, </p>

<p>My S will be auditioning at some of those schools as well! He is a woodwind also from the state of Texas. I am new to this process. We did two campus visits in the past few weeks, (only Fridays off from marching band) and I can tell you at one of them I was told by an administrator at the Music School not to leave non-music stuff off the resume. She said something about “that is the biggest mistake students make . .” So for that particular program, S will be including academic stuff and leadership stuff like Drum Major and NHS. </p>

<p>I know percussionist have little time for anything else, so won’t be the case for you! You will have a hard time keeping it to a few pages!</p>

<p>I feel your pain on the senior year - marching season - application - audition prep craziness! We have UIL Region Comp tomorrow - gotta go make Bandwiches! </p>

<p>Welcome!</p>

8

<p>Cograts Big and to your son! </p>

<p>Nice to hear about kids that audition at fewer than 5 schools. And got their dream school! My S is still trying to figure out which one he considers his dream school. I keep seeing threads about auditioning at 10 - 12 schools. We don’t have that many weekends. </p>

<p>Was there any strategy to timing of the Dream School audition? Did he save it for last - for the audition experience at the others? </p>

<p>How many lessons did he do at his Dream School?</p>

9

<p>Lots2do,</p>

<p>My D is a pianist and so her audition experience may be different from others’, but now that we’re on the other side of auditions I have definite ideas about how many are reasonable. Honestly 10 schools was about four too many. She did eight live auditions from January through the beginning of March. And we live far, far away from most music schools. Ideally I would say she should have traveled to 4-5 schools during audition season and sent a tape or audition locally for one or two more. The fear we had and the reason she applied to so many schools was knowing that her instrument was competitive and not knowing which programs would accept her.</p>

<p>Having said that, auditioning so much makes you really good at it! If your son is well-prepared, the auditions can be a confidence-booster and a great experience. My D felt that she got better every time…so in her case the ideal Dream School audition position would be about 2/3 of the way through the season (before you are entirely burned out on those audition pieces). </p>

<p>Best of luck and I look forward to reading about your and your son’s experiences!</p>

10

<p>Lots2do, </p>

<p>He only did 3 auditions because he was interested in music ed/performance and most conservatories don’t offer it. He is a freshman at Eastman and absolutely loves it!!!</p>

<p>As for audition order. He audition at Eastman first, then Ithaca and then at Curtis. </p>

<p>He had a lesson with the professor at Eastman in his junior year of high school. Then attended a week long camp during the summer there and then had another lesson in the fall. He had a lesson at Ithaca during the fall of his senior year. During the summer of his sophomore year and again his junior year he attended a month long camp with the teacher at Curtis. He had a lesson at Curtis during the fall of his senior year. </p>

<p>He wanted to attend Eastman since he was about 11 years old. We do live only 2 hours and had a chance to see the percussion ensemble several times during his high school years. He also had a chance to see the Ithaca ensemble a couple of times. During those years we also traveled to see both the Eastman and Ithaca professors give solo recitals. </p>

<p>It was a busy 6 years or so we had and it all paid off in the end. </p>

<p>Good luck,
Big</p>