word!

[pcock]

im new, ive come because im gearing myself towards an application to conservatorys soon, will be auditioning november 2008.

my piano teacher (gough) is being pretty tightlipped about what he considers my chances of success are, for reason unknown to me.

ive been playing since i was 6, not doing practise, just turning up for lessons, but then when i was 16 i found beethovens waldstien sonata, and its been three years of trying to learn music to hard for me basically.

pieces i can play either concert standard, or within weeks of being able to:

Debussy Images book II
Ravels valses nobles et sentimales
a smattering of chopin studys for fun, both revolutionarys, opus 25 no. 1, opus 11 no.1 and no.9
liszt, waldeshraucen, gnomreigein, un sospiro, ab irato (no2)
debussys octaves study,
some scriabin preludes opus 11, and etude opus 42 no.5

theres a whole host of stuff which i piss about with for fun, no serious intent of perfecting it at performance standard, rachmaninoff and scriabin sonatas, huge quantitys of beethoven, messian, metner so forth.

assuming i put together a musical and accurate performance of these works, what do you think my chances are of obtaining a place in a conservatory to study further?

[schubertiad]

Without wanting to state the obvious, what is important is not what you play but how you play. Why don't you post something in the audition room and give us something concrete to base any judgements on?

[pcock]

will do soon man, got a microphone on order.

[lazlo]

For piano, (I'm at oberlin conservatory), its just amazing the level some people are at. For instance, I met a freshman who auditioned with:

Prokofiev Sonata #6
Brahms Fantasia's op116 (complete)
Beethoven Sonata op90
And bach F sharp major prelude and fugue...

And this is a regular kind of program. A lot of the people here (particularly from the east) have already played ALL of the chopin etudes. It is hard.

[pcock]

ya i suspected it was gonna be pretty high standard, im just beginning to worry about how much. i prefer to go for pieces i can get to better than perfection than sicko difficulty though, so i mayaswell just go for it anyway. ive pretty much resigned myself to the fact im never gonna be one of the absolute best, im to old and didnt go mad on the practise early enough.

 

[lazlo]

I think the important thing to bear in mind is that you don't have to go to a conservatory to be a pianist or musician. And also, if you do get rejected it isn't the end of the world. One of my good friends was rejected from everywhere when he auditioned first. Then he took a year off and practiced, and then got in everywhere, including julliard... So a lot of it is just hard work. But don't get hung up on hte word "conservatory". A lot of top musicians come out of non-conservatories. And the truth is that there are a lot of elitist assholes at conservatory's. Good luck!

[soliloquy]

Where are you trying to get into?  If you have to ask the question "will I get in?" there's really no point in auditioning for Indiana, Curtis, Juilliard, Mannes, Manhattan etc.  It may be hard to swallow, but just from what you said, I would more suggest going to a university or state school and getting your bachelor's there, and then trying to get into a conservatory for your master's, because I'm not sure you're prepared for conservatory at this very second.

[leonidas]

Where are you studying, John?

Yeah, it might be hard to swallow...

[rallestar]

Excel! HA-HA-HA