# audition help



## leechan (Oct 12, 2014)

I'm planning to audition for several conservatories of music to study piano performance. The audition requirements are: complete classical sonata, substantial romantic period work, baroque prelude and fugue and a contemporary work. standard stuff. 
For the initial recording, I've decided to play Mozart sonata k.333 in Bb, Chopin's polonaise no. 1 and Chopin op 10 no 3.
Are these acceptable for a college level audition? I'm worried because the recommended pieces were things like the mephisto waltz, which I'm not ready for, or a chopin ballade, which I can struggle through but I don't have the time to learn something that involved right now. 
Are the pieces I have substantial enough, especially the polonaise since I know it is much less intense than the ballades or the other polonaises.
much thanks.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

To have something other than a Chopin Ballade isn't necessarily bad. It will make you more memorable for the judges if it's lesser known. Still, it would be good to find something "virtuosic enough" because you really need to shine. The Polonaise Brillante is such a piece. What ideas do you have for a contemporary work? A Shostakovich prelude and fugue would look pretty impressive, especially if you do one of the harder ones.

Also, what schools are you applying to?


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## leechan (Oct 12, 2014)

im hoping to get accepted to sanfrancisco's conservatory, or one of the Universities of California. I've looked into the polonaise brilliante before, and might end up going with that one.
And I love Shostakovich prelude and fugue no.2. I've never come across those wonderful pieces. thanks much for the suggestion/


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Two Chopin is _not_ a great idea. The Etude (none are 'easy') is nonetheless one of the lesser demanding and less virtuoso brilliant, even though it is revealing in voicing, its counterpoint, and with its difficult cadenza. (It should also be _in tempo as marked in the Chopin Institute editions (many play it at a slower tempo, and like a nocturne!_

The suggestions are not exactly what is expected, but a very significant marker of technical demand -- the Ballades much more technically and musically demanding than the Polonaise.

The Mozart K.333 is barely adequate, though if played in proper style and articulation might be enough: the classical sonata requirement being as much about your ability to elucidate in performance the architecture of sonata-allegro form. Better an early-mid Beethoven Sonata, though.

Much depends upon how well you play technically _and_ your musicianship; musicianship must be innately there to be further brought out, where anyone if they work hard can develop technique.

That said, higher level conservatories have many applicants playing at a more advanced level than your program, and I would strongly urge you to reconsider "what you have time for" if you are truly intending and hoping to get in to a conservatory of any merit and high standing, with what that demands and requires.

You need a _more brilliant etude_, and if you keep the Polonaise, that etude better not be Chopin.

You need a modern / contemporary work or movement; _for this check directly with the school._ Some schools accept repertoire as early in the modern era as Debussy, (and Rachmaninov may not count, being too similar to 'romantic') others require something in the more current vocabulary of music written post 1975 (which make very different technical and interpretive demands.)

Best of luck, break a leg, but do not think for a moment 'you just don't have time' to make the most competent _and competitive_ audition you can, with music of the highest difficulty still within your scope to play convincingly. I worry about that 'don't have time for' might mean a generally slack attitude, and if you should really think of being a piano major, or know, really, what level of demand and progress is required if you are accepted.

Change that program, drop every and anything not critical (social and extra-curricular other than actual required classes) because your getting in, or not, very much depends upon your coming up with other and more than you have listed (I'm near certain), and the level of competition from your peers who are auditioning for admission will be -- truly -- intense.

Best regards.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Hi leechan,

I guess my first question is: what does your teacher have to say? (and is your teacher well-informed about college/conservatory auditions?)

General advice: People at auditions are listening for how well you play your chosen repertoire, not what repertoire you choose. However, you do need to show that you care about each school enough to provide an audition program that fits their parameters, so if they specify classical sonata + romantic work + baroque p/f + contemporary, do not send classical sonata + romantic work + romantic-era etude.

The Mozart K. 333 could work if you have a very special connection with it and feel that it shows your skills to best advantage. If it's just one of the most recent things you learned, then maybe not.

Think about the music you play that really shows your strengths, preferably strengths in different areas.

Also, if you just aren't ready to audition yet (esp. if you started at an older age than most), it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a gap year, work part-time and save toward college, study with the best private teacher you can find, and practice 8 hours a day. That way you're improving your skills, you're saving money instead of spending money, and if you don't really like practicing 8 hours a day then you'll know and you can apply to study something else in college.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hreichgott said:


> ...if you don't really like practicing 8 hours a day then you'll know and you can apply to study something else in college.


*^^^* In a nutshell, _*Yes, Yes, Yes.*_


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