<p>When auditioning in voice, do they provide an accompanyist? If you bring in sheet music, will someone play for you, or should you bring a tape with piano music on it?</p>
<p>WBR</p>
<p>Depends of the school...every school has different requirements</p>
<p>To expand a little on WindCloudUltra's response, some schools insist that you use their accompanists, some require that you provide your own, and some give you the choice of providing your own or using one of theirs. If they allow you to bring your own, some insist that it not be a parent or close relative, even if they are an accomplished accompanist. Not many will let you sing along with a tape, although some require that you submit a preliminary tape before inviting you to a live audition. In that case, you must find your own live accompanist.</p>
<p>If using an accompanist provided by the school, they may require that you mail in an original copy of the music weeks to months in advance, or they may tell you to bring it with you. If they request originals, do not send photocopies. Put your name and addresss on the music and you will almost always get it back. The amount of rehearsal time you get with a school-provided accompanist also varies considerably from school to school, and it may be none at all at a few.</p>
<p>The procedures are usually spelled out in detail on the school web site under auditions. If you have any questions at all, call the admissions department well in advance. Do not take anything for granted.</p>
<p>For Juilliard string audition, we sent photocopies of music ahead of time for the accompanist, promising to bring the original to the audition, which we did. Photocopies were taped together accordian style, so page turns were easy. There was apparently no problem with this. It seems most likely the requirement would be that they play the audition from real copies. I cannot imagine a school expecting your originals ahead of time, but it sounds like you have personal experience with this.</p>
<p>Over nearly three decades worth of auditioning, I have run into two individuals that I can remember who have insisted on having originals sent to them in advance. Neither were not for school admissions, rather they were for roles with small local companies out in the 'burbs. </p>
<p>My daughter did not have an accompanist at any of her school auditions, so perhaps this is not a big issue for colleges. It would indeed be a problem if you needed to send originals to half a dozen places all at the same time. I expect that nearly all schools would accept photocopies in advance with the understanding that you bring the original for the audition. Still, every now and then, you run into someone who insists on having things done their way. If you are precise about following their instructions, it can work in your favor.</p>
<p>If you do use photocopies, preparing them the way lorelei mentions is a good idea. If the music has repeats back to interior pages or a jump to a coda, it can also be useful to make tabs out of tape to facilitate rapid turns of multiple pages. The idea is to do what you can to make life easy on the accompanist.</p>
<p>If the school requires that only the originals are to be used , please make sure your books are "broken in" and will stay open on the right page. Your audition will go much smoother if the accompanist doesn't have to play and hold the pages at the same time. :-) Personally I like non-taped one-sided copies more( I have my own creative taping ways) , but tabs marking back-turns and so on are always much appreciated.</p>
<p>My son, who has accompanied numerous auditions, never uses the original, since this usually goes to the adjudicator. He uses xeroxed copies, back to back taped and three hole punched, which he puts in a regular ringed binder. It makes page turns much easier, and yes, tabs are important for back-turns, definitely.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman voice major at Northwestern and from my experience auditioning here and also working at this year's auditions, I know that Northwestern..and I would assume most schools...isn't too picky about your music and the accompanists they provide for auditions are amazing sight-readers who in most cases will even be able to cover you in your mistakes. The only suggestion I would make about your music is to not use plastic sleeves...most accomp. don't like them..</p>
<p>Hey BassDad did your daughter play unaccompanied pieces? Or just play without accompaniment? I thought some schools want to hear how one performs with another instrument. I have seen taped auditions where they specify must have accompaniment and some say must play unaccompanied. So we figured it depended on the school.</p>
<p>kmac14 - that's interesting because all the accompanists that we've come across love music in non-glare plastic sleeves in 3 ring binders! Did you find that true for all your college vocal auditions?</p>
<p>I only auditioned 2 places...my teacher recommended that I use the plastic sleeves....one school was fine with it, but every accompanist I know at Northwestern asks for students not to use them.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your experience - I guess it just goes to show there is always exceptions to the rule! Unless people chime in about alot of other colleges not desiring plastic sleeves, we will continue to do it.</p>
<p>Daughter played pieces that had accompaniment parts (Eccles Sonata, Koussevitzky Concerto) as well as some that did not (Bach cello suite movement, Simandl etude). All of the schools where she auditioned specified that there would be no accompanist for anything. I think it must be a bass thing.</p>
<p>Personally I dislike the sleeves, but of course it's only one accompanist's opinion. :-)</p>
<p>the sleeves is a no- you should never use them unless you're asked to, but i can't imagine why they would want them- they produce glare.</p>