Curtis Institute and Juilliard School

[horowitz05]

I'm curious to know, has anyone here auditioned at the Curtis Institute or the Juilliard School?

If you have, WHAT was it like, what did you play, and, ahem, did you get in???

I'm auditioning this year, and have never done anything remotely like it before. 
So any suggestions would be very very helpful!

[birba]

congratulations!  I would imagine not just anyone can audition there. 

[orangesodaking]

I'm curious to know, has anyone here auditioned at the Curtis Institute or the Juilliard School?

If you have, WHAT was it like, what did you play, and, ahem, did you get in???

I'm auditioning this year, and have never done anything remotely like it before. 
So any suggestions would be very very helpful!

I didn't audition there, but I have some tips that may still help:

Practice well, be calm and confident at your audition, and make sure your music follows their audition guidelines (lol). Sure, certain pieces may seem like "better" audition pieces than others, but if you're at the level to get into these schools, it will reflect no matter what pieces you play.

That's exciting that you're auditioning there!

[kelly_kelly]

Congratulations! I would never dream of auditioning for schools like Curtis or Juilliard in a million millennia, but one of my classmates did (to Juilliard) and was accepted!  (She was enrolled in pre-college though... I'm not sure if that gives an advantage). I don't know exactly what she played for the audition, but I have some idea of what her repertoire was based on the excerpts she used to practice before orchestra rehearsals:

Bach - WTC II, No. 14 in F sharp minor
Beethoven - Op. 110
Schubert - D. 845, first movement (I don't know if she played the other movements - I only heard her practicing this one)
Chopin - Scherzo No. 3, Etude 25-1
Mendelssohn - Songs without Words, "Lost Illusions" (don't remember the op. number)
Liszt - Vallee d'Obermann
Brahms - Sonata No. 2
Rachmaninoff - Concerto No. 2, first movement (again, don't know if she played the others. Our orchestra performed this movement with her)
Barber - Sonata

Some things I think she was playing for fun rather than practicing seriously (i.e. the Mendelssohn and the Chopin etude), but I hope the rest will give you an idea. She was also a finalist for the MTNA competition.

Also... I don't know if you will want to hear this, but I was just talking to one of my teacher's students (currently a high school junior), who is a very accomplished pianist and wants to pursue a double degree in piano and something else, and she said some things which surprised me. She mentioned that right now she is targeting the exchange program between Barnard and the Manhattan School of Music, which prompted me to ask, why not Columbia-Juilliard? She said that she dislikes Juilliard because it is overly focused on performance rather than a well-rounded musical education. Apparently (I guess you would know this) they do not require transcripts or test scores, or anything that shows that the applicant can do anything besides play their instrument. She went on to recount an anecdote regarding a student who was a junior (violin performance) at Juilliard who didn't know what musicology was! It seems that all their requirements are performance based. This is just what she told me (I don't really know anything about the matter), but it may possibly be something you want to consider.

[avguste]

Both Curtis and Juilliard  are great, especially if you are ready and focused on performance and being a performer.

Personally I wish more schools and universities would focus on performance.

[slow_concert_pianist]

20 years ago I had a friend who was invited to the Juliard school to study. He was at the Royal College of Music (London) at the time. After playing the Beethoven 2nd [piano] concerto piano solo extremely poorly, he proceded to dedicate 3 songs based on Japanese poetry to me. They were not only published but had been recorded to my surprise .

Mind you this guy had a passion for mild narcotics & black [female] prostitutes, so I came to the conclusion I wasn't the next "Messiah" after all. But, rather, touched by the Bohemian spirit !

[viking]

Congratulations! I would never dream of auditioning for schools like Curtis or Juilliard in a million millennia, but one of my classmates did (to Juilliard) and was accepted!  (She was enrolled in pre-college though... I'm not sure if that gives an advantage). I don't know exactly what she played for the audition, but I have some idea of what her repertoire was based on the excerpts she used to practice before orchestra rehearsals:

Bach - WTC II, No. 14 in F sharp minor
Beethoven - Op. 110
Schubert - D. 845, first movement (I don't know if she played the other movements - I only heard her practicing this one)
Chopin - Scherzo No. 3, Etude 25-1
Mendelssohn - Songs without Words, "Lost Illusions" (don't remember the op. number)
Liszt - Vallee d'Obermann
Brahms - Sonata No. 2
Rachmaninoff - Concerto No. 2, first movement (again, don't know if she played the others. Our orchestra performed this movement with her)
Barber - Sonata

Some things I think she was playing for fun rather than practicing seriously (i.e. the Mendelssohn and the Chopin etude), but I hope the rest will give you an idea. She was also a finalist for the MTNA competition.

Also... I don't know if you will want to hear this, but I was just talking to one of my teacher's students (currently a high school junior), who is a very accomplished pianist and wants to pursue a double degree in piano and something else, and she said some things which surprised me. She mentioned that right now she is targeting the exchange program between Barnard and the Manhattan School of Music, which prompted me to ask, why not Columbia-Juilliard? She said that she dislikes Juilliard because it is overly focused on performance rather than a well-rounded musical education. Apparently (I guess you would know this) they do not require transcripts or test scores, or anything that shows that the applicant can do anything besides play their instrument. She went on to recount an anecdote regarding a student who was a junior (violin performance) at Juilliard who didn't know what musicology was! It seems that all their requirements are performance based. This is just what she told me (I don't really know anything about the matter), but it may possibly be something you want to consider.

Emiko?

Nobody plays Brahms 2nd Sonata...

[sonatainfsharp]

Also... I don't know if you will want to hear this, but I was just talking to one of my teacher's students (currently a high school junior), who is a very accomplished pianist and wants to pursue a double degree in piano and something else, and she said some things which surprised me. She mentioned that right now she is targeting the exchange program between Barnard and the Manhattan School of Music, which prompted me to ask, why not Columbia-Juilliard? She said that she dislikes Juilliard because it is overly focused on performance rather than a well-rounded musical education. Apparently (I guess you would know this) they do not require transcripts or test scores, or anything that shows that the applicant can do anything besides play their instrument. She went on to recount an anecdote regarding a student who was a junior (violin performance) at Juilliard who didn't know what musicology was! It seems that all their requirements are performance based. This is just what she told me (I don't really know anything about the matter), but it may possibly be something you want to consider.

This is exactly spot-on. I have studied under two professors back in the day who were Julliard grads and they both said basically the same exact thing to me at different times, and since they didn't know each other, they weren't influencing each other's opinions.

One of the professors actually quit his last year and took classes at another college to finish his degree because he wanted to learn more about music than just playing his instrument.

[avguste]

Again, this is subject to each person. And i guarantee that for each person that disagrees with the Julliard ways, you will find a person that agrees with how they do things.

My personal take is very simple: all universities/colleges should give priority to performance training and performance opportunities.
Or at least have a specific program tailored to people wanting to study performance, while also obtaining their degree.

[prongated]

Emiko?

Nobody plays Brahms 2nd Sonata...

Edwards?

Nah, she doesn't play the Brahms...does she? In any case, why nobody play Brahms 2 then? It's a great sonata Sam De! That 3rd movt...wiw...

[birba]

Argerich plays it.  Or, at least, she used to.

[claude_debussy]

Not sure how they work things now -

At the Juilliard audition I played they skipped over all the more musical pieces I'd prepared and asked for the coda, the hardest technical passage, at the end of the Chopin g minor ballade. 

That threw me and it didn't go well. 

What I didn't offer them, which I did have prepared, was the Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand.  I think it would have turned things in my favor, but who knows.  It's a gorgeous piece and the final cadenza is overwhelming in any context, but it wasn't on the repertoire list.  Still, I could have suggested it, and should have. 

They want to hear what you can do, how you are at your best.   

But get rational in your thinking about all this - it's a topic which is always mixed together with strong measures of fantasy, childhood wishes and dreams, parental pressure and peer expectations and a lot of other psychological baggage, but the bottom line is: it's beyond risky to plan a future based solely on piano performance expertise. 

Giving up the chance at a college education to play an instrument: Is it rational for anyone to make a bet like that? 

And, is it even necessary?  Is your only path to becoming the best player you can be, with the imprint of an elite music school? 

Probably not: ultimately the experience of studying at any of the elite music schools boils down to who your teacher will be, and what that relationship will be like.

You can work with such a master teacher even in college and it doesn't need to hurt your chances for future success.  Yo Yo Ma went to Harvard, so did Ursula Oppens, and so did many others at lots of top universities.   

For myself, after the tryout, some time later I found myself doing extremely well at another conservatory, but I became alarmed, growing increasingly certain that I wanted a real college education, and that this time, these years, were probably my only chance of getting one.  So, I transferred into liberal arts, a decision I won't ever regret, later taking advanced graduate degrees in music and probably having better performing opportunities as both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student as a result - solo recitals, concertos with orchestra, numerous chamber music concerts, and on and on. 

I think my performance opportunities and experiences were actually far better outside a highly competitive conservatory, where stage time is hard to get but where stage experience can be as important as anything.  I don't really feel I missed out *as a performer* ... and studying privately in grad school with Leonard Shure was certainly as good an experience with a master teacher as I could have imagined, at Curtis or anywhere. 

Of course, finally it's all up to you.  Get the best teacher you can, work hard, and plan a future that can work in the real world - you won't have to give up anything to achieve that. 

Good luck,

Claude






 

[avguste]

It may be risky to plan solely based on performance, but if your dream is to be performer, take the risk.

As far as Curtis and Julliard and any other performance schools, personally, if one doesn't want to be a performer, that person has no business being at that school.

[birba]

Just as an aside, Julliard, in my days, had one of the highest suicide rates in all of america.  I think one should be mentally prepared to attend this school, and realize not everyone who graduates becomes a concert pianist.

[viking]

Edwards?

Nah, she doesn't play the Brahms...does she? In any case, why nobody play Brahms 2 then? It's a great sonata Sam De! That 3rd movt...wiw...

Sam Dh?

[olsonpiano]

   Any audition should include music from all the different period of music i.e. Barque, Classical, Beethoven (he stands alone) romantic and modern. All performances should be polished and up to professional tempos.  Be prepared to have them stop you at any time, with no reason being given.  And be prepared to start at any place too.  They may ask for the final theme of the last movement of a sonata for instance.  All this may seem cold and un-nerving, but they only have so much time to here so many auditions.  And they are looking for one thing - read on.
   Be able to show a variety of styles of playing - fast and flashy, musical and artistic.  In fact, if you can play a Brahm's Intermezzo with a high level of artistry that will get you in, if you have control technically of your instrument.  There are so many piano players out there that play like machines.  What the schools are looking for is a combination of solid technical skills combined with a strongly developed musicianship. But if you have a true sense of the "poetry of sound" (and I do not mean playing all feel-y / touch-y /oozing emotionally all over the place) this is what they are really looking for. You either know what I am talking about or not.  And if you do not understand, then you probably will not make the audition. 
   You may even be asked to leave after playing 5 minutes.  The atmosphere is tough, but if you are well prepared and confident you will shine.  Weak players really should not audition for top schools like Julliard, Curtis, Eastman.  They are looking for the best of the best.  You should also have a record of performing and winning local and state competitions.  National too, but if you are still in HS national competitions are often not possible.  Remember that nervousness is inversely proportional to preparedness!