<p>Okay, I'm a Junior, so I still have some time until I audition for colleges. However, I'm still pretty inexperienced about auditioning for colleges and universities. I was planning on auditioning in piano.</p>
<p>Concerning repertoire, I was planning on playing:</p>
<p>Baroque - a Bach fugue and prelude
Classical - Mozart Sonata k 310
Romantic - ?
Contemporary - Ravel Sonatine or Ginastera Argentinian Dances
Etude - Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 4</p>
<p>1) What is considered a "substantial" romantic work? Would a Schumann sonata or a romantic piano concerto work?
2) Is the program challenging enough?
3) How much do academics and other achievements weigh in towards being accepted as a music major?</p>
<p>Thanks to anyone who replies!</p>
<p>You should check specific requirements for piano for the schools in which you are interested. Some schools require only two or three contrasting pieces, while others (like Juilliard) in addition to the usual Bach, sonata, etc. require two etudes. For many schools about 15 minutes of repertoire is sufficient, but some places like Juilliard want a minimum of 45 minutes of repertoire (in which case, your program might be a bit short for Juilliard depending on what you choose for the Romantic work).</p>
<p>Your program looks challenging enough for most schools (and possibly for all schools depending on which Bach prelude and fugue you choose and which Romantic work you choose). </p>
<p>Normally piano auditions do not involve a concerto (requires an accompanist and there is plenty of piano repertoire from which to choose without resorting to concerti), so I would not choose a piano concerto for your Romantic work. </p>
<p>As well, some schools will only want to hear one sonata, so given that you have a Mozart Sonata already, you may want to choose a Romantic work that is not a sonata (e.g. one of the Brahms Rhapsodies, Chopin Ballade, many Liszt Mendelssohn pieces).</p>
<p>Ultimately, audition committees are always much more interested in the quality of one’s playing than in the difficulty of the repertoire (as long as one doesn’t choose excessively easy rep which you have not).</p>
<p>As violadad mentions, you must talk to your private teacher about what repertoire that is appropriate for you. If your teacher has suggested a romantic concerto, then you might need to get a new teacher–suggesting a concerto for undergrad auditions could be a sign that the teacher does not have much experience with preparing students for piano auditions at reputable schools.</p>
<p>Pilloweater-</p>
<p>Not being in the piano world, I can’t comment on your repertoire in terms of difficulty and so forth. One suggestion I thought I would pass along in terms of choosing repertoire that I received from a nice admissions person. They suggested that after deciding what schools you will apply to, that you look at the audition requirements and put together a matrix of requirements and try to put together a repertoire that will cover as many requirements as possible using the least amount of pieces you can. </p>
<p>Some things are natural (for example, solo bach sonatas and partitas on the violin are almost universal), but for a hypothetical example, with a school that doesn’t require a 20th century piece (if such a beast exists) you might be able to use (on the violin) a prokofiev sonata to fulfill the sonata requirement and that same piece might fulfill the 20th century requirement at another school (this is purely a hypothetical example, my attempt at explaining it). Kind of like using the same piece of bread to feed two birds:)</p>
<p>The other piece of advice I have heard from teachers and from the admissions people is that you should have your audition repertoire selected and in decent shape by spring of Junior year and have the polishing and such mostly done by June or July. My understanding for this is that based on their experience when auditioning is that you tend to play at a level that represents a level reached several months before, so if you are at a high level in let’s say July, audition in January you won’t play at the level you are at in January, but rather where you were in July or so…can’t claim that as science, thought I would pass that on. The reason I am writing this is also with your comment that you are a junior, if you mean you presently are a junior (and not a junior rising i.e a sophomore right now), it isn’t way early to worry about audition requirements:) The thing to remember is that for music program admissions, the audition is the make or break on getting in (and I am talking music performance here). </p>
<p>As far as academics, EC’s, AP’s, etc, in terms of getting into the music performance program it will weigh little or not at all, again the audition/playing ability is the key.
However, not having good academics and such can hurt you in programs where it is dual admit (bard) or places like Indiana and Rice where you have to get admitted to both the university and music school. At a straight conservatory from everything I have seen and heard, it won’t do anything for you.</p>
<p>Some people have posted on here that in some schools (I am assuming the ones where you get admitted to both the music school and university) that having high academics and such might get you more merit aid, but I have no way to confirm that, maybe others can. But in terms of actually getting into the music performance program? No.</p>