Prescreening repertoire vs. Live audition

<p>I'm planning on auditioning for Northwestern this January, but first I have to submit my prescreening recording. I'm wondering, is it better for me to chose a different repertoire for each audition, or is it acceptable for me to sing the same four songs on both my recording and live audition? The website only says it's okay to sing different songs for each, but is it looked down upon to sing the same?</p>

<p>For instrumental auditions, most people do the same or almost the same repertoire for the prescreen and live audition when permitted. Because vocal prescreen and live rep is so short and relatively quick to learn, I suspect there may be more vocalists that change some rep (vocal experts please chime in).</p>

<p>In any case, most or all of the panelists in the live audition will probably not have been involved in listening to your prescreen, and if they were, they are unlikely to recall what rep you did on your prescreen. They listen to a lot of prescreens and probably rarely spend more than a few minutes with each prescreen unless you are borderline in terms of deserving a prescreen. </p>

<p>If you have good rep that you sing well on your prescreen, then there should be no reason to sing different rep at the live audition. If you learn some new rep that better showcases you abilities, then by all means use it in your live audition, but I wouldn’t feel compelled to change the repertoire. Usually people perform better with rep which has sat in them for a long time.</p>

<p>There is no problem using the same rep for prescreen and live. The problem my son had was keeping the songs current. You are polishing songs in October, and may not do live auditions until February, or 4 months later. In the meantime, my son had gone on to learn more rep, and develop his technique further. Being able to devote 100% of his time to the new rep was more productive to him than 80% new rep, and 20% of his time keeping the prescreen rep polished. That’s not to say that time won’t improve the prescreen rep - adding movement, expressions, deeper understanding, etc.</p>

<p>Thank you to both of you! My voice teacher and I will be deciding everything tomorrow, but because my time’s split between practicing All-State pieces and college music, I’m pretty sure I’ll be sticking with the same rep.</p>