<p>Hi! </p>
<p>I'm a pianist. Just finished submitting my prescreening for USC, Rice, & NEC. Now to work on prescreening for Bard & Vanderbilt... I am literally so nervous about my prescreening. My tapes are definitely far from perfect but I feel they are mostly very musical. I just am worried.... </p>
<p>How cutthroat are the pre-screenings at USC, Rice, NEC, Bard, and Vanderbilt? My dream is to do the Harvard/NEC partnership but I'm just so so nervous about it. My tapes aren't flawless, and I know I'm not one of the top young pianists. </p>
<p>I do have good back-up schools with good $$$ but...gosh I just really really want to make these pre-screenings. </p>
<p>Any advice? Words? Experiences? Are minor mistakes ok (I slipped on an octave or once a left hand note didn't sound in my Mozart)? How much of prescreening do they look at???</p>
<p>Prestofaust, all I can do is share my D’s experience last year. She passed all of her prescreens and they were not perfect. I did hear from someone later on, who had heard from a piano professor, that the faculty only listens to at most six minutes’ worth of each prescreening and then they know whether to invite that person to audition. I think the prescreenings edit out those who they don’t think have a chance, and then the hard decisions begin at auditions.</p>
<p>If you don’t pass a prescreen, though, don’t worry too much. We know a very accomplished pianist who sailed through auditions and was accepted everywhere – except at one school, who inexplicably told her she failed the prescreen. The same prescreen she sent to other, equal programs. Go figure – it was just one of those flukey audition season things. She is very happily attending a top program now.</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much now as it is out of your hands until the audition. Good luck and let us know how it goes!</p>
<p>Prestofaust,
You have worked hard. You have submitted tapes you feel good about. You have done all that you can do. Wasting energy getting nervous and worrying will not help you at this point. You need to practice so that when auditions do come around you are in good shape. In the next few weeks you need to work on your audition repertoire and get ahead of your school work so you are not stressed when you have to travel to auditions and miss school.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that there are many reasons for not passing a prescreening. Whether to hear somebody for an audition is up to the teachers of your instrument. So much depends on who else is auditioning your year and who the faculty is currently teaching at the school. A conservatory might accept one piano player or they might accept three piano players. Or they might accept none. I know of a talented piano player who did not pass his prescreen for NEC. Rejection happens and all you can do is continue to work hard to perfect your art and move forward. And hopefully if the passion is there and the drive you will continue to grow and improve as a musician. Because in the end that is all that matters. Plenty of talented musicians go off to top conservatories and don’t make it as musicians because they stop working. And plenty of musicians who maybe did not quite make the cut, emerge from lesser institutions to become quite successful.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posts. It’s now the time to focus on the live audition program. Having been in major competitions/auditions many many times, we have learned that the only thing we can control at competitions/auditions is one’s own performance.</p>