<p>Smilemask-
I am not a pianist, but I know a little bit about the nature of high level music programs, especially in the competitive instruments like piano, violin and so forth. As others have said, without hearing you no one can give a valid assement of your skills or how they fit in even if unlike myself they know the piano. </p>
<p>In terms of the auditioners “looking for sound only” and not technique, unless I have been living on another planet that is a big part of what they are looking for,technique. At the top level programs (which Indiana and Peabody are most definitely in, they are not ‘safeties’ by any means),the competition for entry, especially on the piano, is basically at a level where they expect someone to be technically and musically at the highest levels, where they already know a lot of the repertoire, and expect to work on the ‘nuances’ required of being a performer (in a sense, they are looking for students to be at the level a generation or two ago would be considered almost college graduate). Yes, there are variations to this, I am sure there are times when they will admit someone who they think has a lot of potential and may not be quite as polished, but that is a relative term. It is extremely competitive, and what makes a differetce between getting in and not is going to be found in details a lot of people might not even recognize (especially myself). </p>
<p>The other question I have is how much experience does your teacher have with getting kids into high level programs? I am asking this, because there are a lot of teachers out there who frankly are not equipped to judge that, who did not train on that level themselves and/or never were acquainted with that world (put it this way, there are a lot of instrumental music teachers out there, and a lot of them don’t have a clue IMO what goes on in the high level programs). This isn’t a knock on your teacher, since I don’t know the person, but it is critical that they know the performance level needed for that level of audition. Not the repertoire (which I assume most teachers know of from their own training) but rather what is expected at that level in terms of technique and sound. If you don’t think your teacher has that kind of experience, you may want to try and find a high level teacher, maybe at a university near where you live or a teacher reputed to turn out high level students, and ask for an evaluation. I can speak with experience about this, my son had teachers who went to high level programs themselves, but when he switched to his current teacher several years ago we were suprised at how much he hadn’t learned, how many things were wrong technically, that his older teachers didn’t pick up. More importantly, they both thought he was all ready to get into a high level prep program, when he was still a long, long away when he was with them…it is really critical to have someone who knows evaluate your level, because not everyone knows, not by a long shot.</p>
<p>To me it sounds like you want to become a private piano teacher and maybe do some performing and composing on the side, which is fine. You don’t need a music ed degree for that, so performance would be fine, but I think you need to figure out how good you are before deciding where to apply. Obviously, going through a high level program in performance is going to provide you will good training, but you need to be realistic about how to achieve your goals, though it doesn’t hurt to try out for a high level program, you also need to be realistic and set your goals based on what is achievable. You might be batting your head against a brick wall with the first (or maybe even second tier programs, since competition levels at those schools is pretty heavy duty these days), if you aren’t near what is required. I also add don’t judge how good you are by competitions you have entered, there are a ton of music competitions out there, and even the higher level ones of the local competitions may not be a good indicator of anything other then you had what it took to do well in it…competitions, despite what some claim, often don’t indicate much about how well someone will do on auditions, there are a lot of kids who have won a slew of local competitions and then find out they don’t have what it takes to get into a top level program.</p>