<p>When auditioning at these top conservatories, how necessary is it to worry about the difficulty of the accompaniment? I have a piece that I can perform very well, but it is a little obscure and the accompaniment is not easy. Should I eliminate it entirely from my audition package? Maybe sending it in early if allowed would make it easier on the accompanist?</p>
<p>It can be a stumbling block if the piece is obscure or "difficult". Many schools will let you provide your own accompianist, but this works only if it is a "local" audition and you can schedule and arrange your own. For some, this may be impossible or an added financial burden.</p>
<p>Most of the provided accompianists are drawn from the upperclass, grad and doctoral student pools at your auditioning institution. The skill level is normally very high, but any number of issues can arise that may make the experience less than desireable.</p>
<p>You may be able to communicate directly with an assigned accompianist beforehand, you may not know until you arrive for your audition; you may have run through time, you may not. The policies are school specific.</p>
<p>Personally, I would urge the course of action that provides the smallest amount of stress and would achieve the highest level result.
I would eliminate as much angst as possible, and suggest a different, more mainstream piece that would showcase your ability within the audition requirement parameters.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Find out whether or not you are allowed to send your music ahead of time to give to your assigned accompanist. Not all schools allow that. </p>
<p>Though having a difficult accompaniment played by someone who has never seen this obscure piece, could quite possibly negatively affect your audition (accompanist screws up, but you keep going, everyone gets off track...That sort of situation). I think it's better to go with the safer route of bringing in more of a standard piece of repertoire. With classical repertoire it's OK to perform something well known.</p>
<p>But, it's your call! :) I'm assuming you're a vocal performance major?</p>
<p>You'd be surprised though, at the level of accompanists and what they can do these days.</p>
<p>Standbyme23, I don't know if this reply will help ease your worries or make them worse ...</p>
<p>One of my son's three vocal performance audition pieces is also pretty difficult for the accompanist. It's a very good piece for showing off his abilities, though, so he kept it in his repertoire. It's also a hard piece for the singer, but he's been working on it for a long time. (It's not an obscure piece, though.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I was able to overhear two of his three college auditions so far, since the waiting areas were positioned so closely to the doors of the audition halls and one could hear fairly well through the doors. On both of the auditions I heard, at two different schools, the pianist had difficulty with that one piece. On one of them, it was quite atrocious! The accompanist got off fairly close to the beginning of the piece and didn't get back on until almost half way through the (long) piece! So my son just kept singing along, as though she were playing right along with him, and she kept frantically playing along. (It sounded to me as though she were trying to catch up by playing faster and faster instead of starting fresh at a measure where she knew he'd be -- but in all honestly, what do I know? I've never been an accompanist, and I know she's very well qualified, so I would have no idea what was running through her mind or what she should have done differently.) His other two pieces went well at that particular audition, for both her and him.</p>
<p>But I want to emphasize that the first piece he sang, the one that is difficult for the accompanist, sounded really, really bad to me at that one school -- sitting outside the room. It was clear that the accompanist was off. It was pretty clear that my son could really sing. But it sounded so bad to my (untrained) ear because they were singing/playing different notes at different times and it was quite strange and discordant! For almost half of his big show-off piece! I was sorely disappointed. And a little worried. I was a little afraid that my son may have missed his opportunity for that school because he didn't sound nearly as good as he does when the accompaniment matches his singing (duh). When she did catch up to him, he was right on key and they finished together nicely, but I was disappointed that they couldn't hear the beautiful music my son had been able to perform on that piece when he and the accompanist are together.</p>
<p>My son was much more at ease about it ... so I just let him set the tone for the day, of course. It was his thing and he was confident that everybody in the room could tell the accompanist had a problem with the piece, not him. So, who was I to worry? I recognized that this was entirely his "baby," and that it was not my place to be worried about it more than he was. So I made myself not feel disappointed in what may have been a lost opportunity. My son was surprisingly confident. "Mom, they're professionals. They'll know if I sang well or not, no matter what happened with her. Besides, it could also work in my favor because I didn't stop what I was doing and I didn't get off key. I just kept singing what I knew how to sing." Right enough -- can't argue with that!</p>
<p>The other school's audition that I overheard, same piece, also ran into a tiny bit of trouble with the accompanist. It wasn't anything like at the first school I mentioned, and it was only a few measures. But it didn't showcase his abilities like I knew it could if the accompanist played the piece well.</p>
<p>Anyway, the long and short of it ... My son got accepted to all three music schools -- the one where the accompanist played very well, the one where the accompanist made a few glaring errors a few times, and the one where the accompanist spent most of the song on the wrong notes! My son was right. He felt confident that the "judges" in the room could tell whether he could sing and didn't care whether the accompanist could play. They were there to judge him, not the accompanists, and he sang well at all three schools, despite a snafu or two with his accompanists -- who were all very kind and very talented and very good-hearted, by the way, two of them just had a little trouble on a difficult piece. (By the way, at both the schools where the accompanist had trouble, my son was required to send his music in at least (can't remember) 2 to 3 weeks ahead of time for the accompanist to peruse. He sent it in about 5 or 6 weeks ahead of time in each case. So it wasn't that they didn't have the music to review.)</p>
<p>Now, there's just one remaining worry that I sometimes have -- will the not-so-beautiful music they made together during auditions affect his chances at those schools' largest scholarships? Because he didn't sound as great as he does when the accompaniment is with him? Other applicants without the same accompaniment problems may have sounded better enough to win the schools' top awards, which would be unfortunate. But it's all part of the process.</p>
<p>Anyway, standbyme23, I thought my son's experience might help you weigh your options to leave the piece in your repertoire, or to take it out. I hope it helps and doesn't make the decision even harder!</p>
<p>Standbyme,</p>
<p>You mention "top" conservatories. Without knowing how you define that, I can give you a violin perspective (may not translate to voice) on the accompanists at the NYC "top" spots. In my experience, the accompanists are excellent and fully professional - not students - even advanced ones. They were the same pianists that frequently accompany for the violin studios - and they know the literature, even difficult and less common repertoire, cold. </p>
<p>Each school is going to be different regarding their policies on assigning collaborative pianists. Rather than guess or rely on the experiences of others - valuable as those war stories can be - why don't you call Admissions and explain your concern. If they can't answer your specific concerns, you can try the voice dept. Give a false name (or borrowed email address) if you are concerned about drawing undue attention to yourself.</p>
<p>Another only partly tongue-in-cheek thought, my kids had the world's worst rehearsal accompanist - ME! If they could get through a good practice performance with me at the keyboard, they could handle anything. Maybe you could ask your regular pianist/teacher to play a few "clunkers" unexpectedly to see how it might affect you. </p>
<p>In practicing/prepping for the audition, I'd also visualize/imagine many different scenarios from incredibly supportive circumstances to the worst case imaginable. Mental rehearsal of how to handle anything thrown at you is quite valuable. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>I would second fiddlestix and stephmin re: quality of accompanists at selective conservatories. In the rarest of cases you'll be performing with an accompanist who's stumped by your repertoire choice. And in any case, as SimpleLife has shown, even if it is a bumpy road, it doesn't automatically lead to disaster. However if in doubt you should not be afraid to contact admissions, and if possible get in touch directly with the person in charge of scheduling pianists for voice auditions, to let that individual know your repertoire ASAP. We just had a terrific violinist audition here at Bard, and he brought a "non-standard" concerto with him (Berg). He phoned in advance, though, and worked it out with our Piano Fellows program, just to reconfirm he could use that concerto. Luckily someone here had the Berg in his repertoire, so it went very well. </p>
<p>In addition to this practical consideration of "can the pianist play this?", there is the larger, more important issue of presenting yourself as an artist to the faculty at a particular school. In this respect, "programming" your audition well (within the confines of a particular program's requirements) can make a huge difference in how you are viewed by the audition committee. For many instruments, Bach is the baseline used to create a common denominator; singers regularly draw from the same bag of Italian arias and French art songs. This allows you to then be compared with your peers. But if one piece in your audition can then really make a statement about who you are, what your interests are, the kind of music you're really passionate about, and you can execute this piece as well as the standard/gateway works, then by all means go for it.</p>
<p>One thing to consider as you go into your audition with an accompanist...A Cautionary Tale</p>
<p>No matter how good the accompanist, be certain that you have a rehearsal before the audition!!!! There is more to it than having a capable pianist, you must have one that is interested in "doing it your way." D had an accompanist horror story. D chose to play a piece with more lyricism than the previous people the accompanist had played it with. Although D had told and showed her what to expect, the accompanist took the lead and began to play it faster that D wanted, based on how she had played this piece previously. The accompanist never followed D, and D was forced to change to accommodate the accompanist. This was at a top conservatory.</p>
<p>I will relate an opposite story from my son. When he auditioned at Juilliard for grad school, he only had a brief time to meet with his accompanist. She was very accomplished and the 2 of them clicked right away. He said that his audition for one of the pieces was the best that he has ever played that piece. He said the accompanist was so good that he lost himself in the music that they were making together. He still remarks that it was one of the best musical experiences he has ever had.</p>
<p>For her undergrad admission audition, D's teacher intentionally chose a piece that virtually every accompanist loves. It was simple and lovely. Sure enough, EVERY accompanist commented that they LOVED the piece and it made it easy on both of them. But some did slow the tempo WAAAYYYY down. D had practiced her music with four different professional accompanists before hand to learn how to communicate her instructions and how to deal with different approaches to the music. One cant always have time with the accompanist before hand and it behooves you to be ready for just about anything.</p>
<p>My son had two auditions that required accompaniment last year. (He’s a trumpet player.) It was a challenging piece and both pianists were great. He sent them the music as soon as he was given contact information. No issues at all.</p>
<p>It depends upon your “instrument” and where you are applying.</p>
<p>On oboe, my daughter will audition on the standard pieces, which is expected. Piano accompaniment is not terribly difficult.</p>
<p>On saxophone, she will play the most difficult literature she can in order to get a scholarship–graduate level pieces. Most of these pieces have difficult accompaniment parts. Several times last year when my daughter did concerto competitions using university/conservatory pianists, those “fantastic” pianists really messed up. So she will not audition on two of her best pieces due to the accompanist problem. And if the audition is within a few hours drivve of our house, she’ll bring her own accompanist if they let her. She will definitely have rehearsals in advance with any new accompanist.</p>