These things ALWAYS leave the readers with more questions. On Harvard website, it directs you to Slideroom for detailed instruction. Here’s the Slideroom instruction on how to submit musical performance materials:
“You may submit recent audio recordings or composition scores, with audio performance if possible. Include titles and date created or performed. Please submit solo recordings only, or pieces with unobtrusive accompaniment. Please do not submit videos of recitals or ensemble performances.”
Okay, so I get that they prefer “audio” submission. What confuses me is the “unobstrusive accompaniment” part. I’ve never heard this phrase used before. What does or does not constitute “unobstrusive”? For my violinist son, 99% of all auditions have been accompanied by piano. Is THAT obstrusive? I’m very careful here by necessity because my son was once disqualified from a pre-screening audition stage, all the more painful because he learned from the director that he was the top performer, because his audition video had piano accompaniment. He had to wait a whole year to re-audition for this simple misunderstanding. It seems like they prefer no accompaniment of any kind, but my son has already done the recording with a piano accompaniment and it’d make his life much easier to submit that than re-record it without any accompaniment. Anyone with experience on this issue?
My son’s recording with piano accompaniment, by the way, is Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, for anyone who could form an opinion as to whether piano accompaniment for this concerto is “obstrusive” or “unobstrusive.” In case it is obstrusive, my son can submit The Red Violin Caprices, instead, which is unaccompanied.
I would contact Harvard’s music department and ask them directly; it will also let them know that the directions on Slideroom need clarification: https://music.fas.harvard.edu/about.shtml#
Oh, and another question: is it advisable to submit just one recording or it’s okay to submit, say, two? According to the instruction, it states “audio recordings” which leads me to believe that you can submit more than one?
I did call the Music Dept. at Harvard, and they told me that they do not deal with any part of the admissions issues or questions even if it’s music related, so for anyone with the Slideroom issues, these must be directed to the Harvard Admissions office. The phone number of the Harvard Admissions Office is: 617-495-1551.
I had two questions for them to address, and here are the questions and their response:
Q1: What constitutes “unobstrusive accompaniment”?
A: Any accompaniment is okay as long as they know that the student performer is the primary performer and that the accompaniment is there only to support the primary performer.