<p>My S is currently overwhelmed by a lot of new repertoire his teacher has assigned him, right before three auditions coming up Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday for grad school violin performance. I offered to pose this question for him: Does CIM really ever request the memorized thirds? Scales and arpeggios, fine; but he has not been working on thirds. I know this is pretty specific -- any violinists or parents whose kids auditioned at Cleveland and can answer this question? Should he take the chance that they won't ask for those? He's very well-prepared in every other way.</p>
<p>I honestly can’t say “yes” or “no” for certain, and I doubt that anyone else here will either- it depends upon so many things: how much time is available for the audition, if they think they need/want to hear more, who is sitting on the panel, etc. This is for graduate school so the standards are higher and more is expected of the applicant. The audition specifications are listed:
“Scales, arpeggios, and thirds may be requested”</p>
<p>Yes, it says “may”, but does your son want to be the one who doesn’t have them prepared? The audition date had been set, so he knew that they were supposed to be ready to go. CIM is reknown for their string faculty and has far more applicants than open spaces so they do have very high standards and even more so for grad school hopefuls. Think of it this way: he’s come all of this way and worked so hard, does he really want to risk it by not being fully prepared? I remember that your son’s current teacher suggested that he apply to CIM, so my suggstion would be that he talk to her and remind her that he has several important auditions coming up and ask for help in going over the thirds and the rest of his audition rep. Hopefully, they can put the new rep aside for this week and just concentrate on the task at hand.
Wishing him the best of luck!</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the panel would take time from the audition to ask for thirds (or scales, for that matter.) If it’s unclear to them that the candidate is able play thirds with facility and in tune, then they’re not going to admit him/her anyway. And they’ll know that from the rep. I suspect they would be more likely to ask for Paganini if the concerto choice doesn’t clearly demonstrate the technical facility they are looking for. I think it’s a way of stating their standards. </p>
<p>Just to clarify my position: with a limited amount of time left to prepare, I believe time is best spent on the rep. The time to work on scales and thirds is the past and future, in my opinion. </p>
<p>Thanks, MezzoMama and Glassharmonica. It’s a little funny, because when he asked his teacher about it last week, she told him not to worry about them, that they wouldn’t be asked. Of course, S worried that my posting this inquiry might tip a CIM judge off, leading to dire consequences for all! He does have Pagannini prepared – that’s also required, and scales and arpeggios. He just hasn’t worked on thirds for a long time. I’ll pass both of your responses on to him, and he’ll have to decide himself what to do! Thanks again.</p>
<p>Of course, as one violin prof said when D3 was auditioning for undergrad, “We never ask to hear your scales. We can tell from your rep whether or not you’ve been practicing them.” Gulp.</p>
<p>Exactly, stradmom!</p>
<p>I auditioned at CIM last year for undergrad, and they asked me to play a scale, and everyone I talked to also had to play a scale. I’ve heard they are a bit infamous for asking for stuff like that, but I don’t know about the difference between undergrad/grad.</p>