Prescreen repertoire dilemma...

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>I'm applying to a couple of schools for piano performance, and I've run into a bit of a dilemma regarding the required prescreening repertoire. </p>

<p>Every school I originally planned to apply for (NEC, Curtis, Eastman, Rice, Northwestern, Oberlin, CIM) requires just one movement of a classical sonata, which I have. It's polished and I've performed it in several competitions already. </p>

<p>But Juilliard requires a complete sonata.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I only discovered this recently. Juilliard wasn't originally on my list, so I didn't even bother to check their pre-screen requirements when I was preparing my repertoire. But it turns out my private teacher always assumed I would be applying to Juilliard and she apparently has connections there with one of the piano faculty, which I didn't know previously. And then I talked to a friend who goes there. So basically now I REALLY, REALLY want to take a shot at applying.</p>

<p>The thing is, my teacher didn't know they wanted all three movements-- I have a serious problem right now as I only have the first movement of the sonata prepared. Is it possible to apply to Juilliard with just one movement of the sonata? I can try to record the other two movements but since I haven't really worked on them they won't be good at all. Is it better to submit with just one movement or with the two additional bad movements? Is there any chance that they might let an applicant through with incomplete repertoire?</p>

<p>The rest of my program is strong but now I'm completely stressed out because of this sonata. Maybe I shouldn't bother applying to Juilliard at all. :( </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any advice.</p>

2

<p>You might want to call admissions and ask, or you might want to just chance it. If you don’t apply you won’t make the prescreen. If you apply but send in an incomplete prescreen, at least there is a chance that they will like what they hear enough to grant you an audition. Meanwhile, you can get the other two movements up to speed.</p>

<p>Another thought: if your teacher knows someone on the piano faculty well enough to call you your behalf, perhaps she could ask for you.</p>

3

<p>Long story short: you’re not prepared to meet the audition requirements for Julliard. No, they will not consider someone with incomplete repertoire, and why should they? And sending in a recording with a bad performance, even a partial one, will be devastating to your chances. They have plenty of applicants and how would it be considered fair to take someone who wasn’t able to meet the required specifications when others do? It’s the student’s responsibility to go through each school’s requirements and this was a definite lack of communication between you and your teacher.
You are applying to top conservatories, so you must have at least one complete sonata ready to play. If you really want to apply to Julliard, use another sonata that you do have fully prepared for that recording and use the movement you’re more comfortable with for the others. Otherwise, you can move the school to your list of possible graduate schools and concentrate on doing your very best at this moment in time. I’m sure you’ll do fine and the best of luck to you!</p>

4

<p>Mmm…connections do make a difference. A number of well-connected students do not have to submit prescreens, or they get a lesson in advance which serves as their prescreen.</p>

<p>Call admissions and ask about the one movement, or do as mezzomama suggests and submit a different but complete sonata. Surely you have other works you have done. And/or go get a lesson and see if that can be your prescreen.</p>

5

<p>After reading both woodwinds and MM’s responses, both of which make good points, I will also share what I’ve heard about Jyard prescreens through the grapevine. (I do know a lot of current Jyard students and their parents.)</p>

<p>I have been told that the prescreens are reviewed by panels comprised of the faculty but not necessarily the faculty whose studio you plan to apply to. In fact, unlike other conservatories, Jyard does not inform the faculty of your studio choice at your audition. So theoretically, having a connection will not help you at the prescreen level. It would appear that MM’s argument is stronger: not having a complete sonata will mean you will be eliminated at the beginning. </p>

<p>But. Funny thing how the world works. Sometimes (as I have observed over many years) an institution will state strict rules, and yet something different will appear to happen. Chances are, this will not be the case for you, and you will be eliminated. So, base your decision on how much you have to lose. If you apply and send an incomplete sonata, or a not-your-best performance, you will likely not receive an audition. If you do not apply you will <em>definitely</em> not receive an audition. Is the trouble and expense of the application worth the slim possibility of receiving the audition? Only you can answer that. </p>

<p>Sending in an incomplete or not-great tape will not ruin your reputation at Juilliard. No one will remember or notice.</p>

6

<p>Like GH I know more then a bit about Juilliard and its admissions, and even a bit about the Piano department. Submitting only a movement will get you rejected, I am pretty certain of that. If you have a complete sonata that you think you can polish up quickly, use that would be my advice. A pre screen is designed to make sure the people they audition meet the requirements of the school and if you come in with only a single movement, you aren’t meeting that (the reason being that different movements of a sonata display different things, a fast movement, a slow movement have different characteristics), and if you play sloppy, well…probably better to submit a sonata not quite perfect that is complete then 1 movement that is totally polished…and you don’t know, the screeners could be okay with your full sonata, you don’t know.</p>

<p>As far as connections go and such, I would not count on them to do much, even if your teacher knows someone in the department, that doesn’t mean you will get an audition, I hear all the time how kids get in their unfairly, they know someone, daddy is a rich Korean businessman, all kinds of things. The reality is that no one is going to get a kid through pre screen who they don’t think is good enough, among other things, they don’t have that kind of power (put it this way, studios tend to be more like nations at the UN then colleagues) and if they did they wouldn’t put up someone who was not good enough, it would embarrass them and wouldn’t do the kid any good. If kids have gotten the fast track (and I am not denying there might not be cases of that), it is going to be some superstar kid like a Lang Lang, not going to be some kid who is okay at best because a teacher went to school with a faculty member…when you can literally choose from among the world’s best, it makes no sense to admit someone with connections who isn’t up there or even allow them to audition. The only connection I know of for real is that kids in Juilliard’s pre college program don’t need to prescreen, for the reason that being in that program means the assumption is they meet those standards or they wouldn’t be there in the first place. </p>

<p>Where connections matter is going to be in getting into a studio, if the kid’s teacher knows faculty,they can call them up and say “hey, I have this kid Joe Smith, I think he is really great and would work well with you I think”, that teacher might be inclined to indicate he would teach the student, which is important, because no matter how good the audition is, if no teacher has room or indicates an interest, he doesn’t get in.</p>

<p>My take would be to submit a completed sonata you have, or if you think you can get the rest of the one with the first movement polished up to some sort of standard, and shoot dice on it and see. The only cost to you is the application fee and the time to make the prescreen recording, and if it doesn’t work out as others have pointed out it doesn’t put you on a blacklist,if you don’t get past the prescreen if you wanted to go there for a masters it will have zero effect on you. Not to mention that all the other programs have pretty strong piano departments, so not going to Juilliard isn’t the end of the world, after all, Lang Lang went to Curtis <em>smile</em>.</p>

7

<p>Wow, this was very helpful. </p>

<p>After some thought, I’ve decided not to apply to Juilliard.<br>
There’s only about a week left and since I haven’t touched last year’s sonata in quite some time, it’s going to need some work and I’d rather not spend the time refurbishing and recording it when I could be concentrating on polishing up the rest of my current repertoire (and getting those last two movements up to par for future auditions ;)). </p>

<p>I am aware that I’m applying to a lot of other great schools, so I don’t think that missing out on being in the Juilliard undergrad applicant pool will be that big of a loss at this moment. But I’m definitely going to try to apply there for grad school (although, granted, things may change).</p>

<p>Plus, my teacher informed me that the Juilliard faculty member she knows also teaches at another school on my list, so there’s still a chance I might be able to get into his studio without applying to Juilliard.</p>

<p>But anyways thank you all for the helpful advice-- I really appreciate the time you took to respond!</p>