Topic: Conservatory Audition for Piano (Oberlin, Lawrence) (Read 4426 times)

glatour2496 · on: May 18, 2014, 10:03:24 AM

Hello everyone, I was hoping I could get some feedback on the pieces I am planning to play for auditions at Oberlin College and Lawrence University. I'm planning on applying as a double degree student so I'll be applying to both schools at these universities. I'll be applying this fall/winter so I have a ton a of work to do. Luckily, I don't currently have a job and summer's coming so I can study for these auditions. I'm only applying to two conservatories at the moment because I want to take advantage of the double-degree at these schools. I'll probably apply to other universities but these are the ones with piano.

Oberlin requires one composition by Bach, a complete classical sonata (Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven), one étude of virtuosity, one composition from the romantic period, and one composition by a 20th or 21st century composer. Lawrence is slightly less demanding with a Prelude and Fugue or other Bach composition containing a fugue (such as a Toccata or Partita); a sonata-allegro movement of a sonata by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, or Schubert; a composition from the romantic period; and a 20th or 21st-century composition.

I was planning on playing these

for the Bach I'd like to play Bach's Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor, BWV 851 from the Well-tempered Clavier,

for the classical sonata I want to play Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 13 No. 8 Pathétique.

   -for the sonata-allegro for Lawrence, I'd just play the Rondó. I know the first and second movement, just working out some small kinks.

for the étude of virtuosity I was planning on either Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 1 or Op. 25 No. 12,

   -I'm actually very undecided about these pieces, and I need to decide fast. I had lessons yesterday and my piano teacher advised against playing these. She said I'd need to do other preparation pieces which I don't have time for. She gave me a book of 15 études from Moscheles, Kessler, Czerny, Mendelssohn, Thalberg, and Rubinstein, Henselt. I looked through and found recordings of most of the pieces (most of them were very hard to find) but I really didn't like any of them. Any suggestions?

and for the 20th/21st century piece, I want to play Charles Tomlinson Griffes' "The Lake at Evening" Three Tone Pictures Op. 5 No. 1.

   -I'm thinking I should play all three pieces from Op. 5 because they're relatively short by themselves.

for the romantic period I'd like to play Chopin's Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52: Andante con moto.

   -I really, really enjoy this piece and I've been looking around on the forums and didn't see too many people playing this so maybe this will work? I'm on like the fourth page right now and it's going pretty well. I haven't had a lot of trouble with it besides a two-week learning stall I had on the first page.

A bit of background on my piano career;

I've been playing for 8 years. I've had three teachers. The first was pretty good, but she was more of a beginners teacher. Then I moved and didn't have a teacher for about two years. My second teacher was absolutely awful. I never received negative feedback from him and paid him to tell me everything was good. I finally moved again and got away from him. I moved to Italy (my father is military) and found a teacher after about a year. My current teacher is by far the best. She isn't afraid to tell me I'm doing something completely wrong and she'll out right tell me that she doesn't like how I play something. She has a degree in piano I believe from the Naples University or Conservatory and she's really knowledgable about technique and can actually play hardcore pieces, so she knows all the tricks and secrets to playing correctly. She's the first piano instructor to really have me work on posture, hand posture, and how I position my fingers, for example playing with my fingers very close to the keys and each other when playing fast. I also participate in the Jazz band at my high school.

All the pieces I've learned

Chopin Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C Sharp minor
Chopin Prelude Op. 28 No. 4 in E minor
Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 with some of the later modifications
Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 13 No. 8 (currently working on the last movement)
Mozart Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: III. Alla Turca - Allegretto
Mozart Piano Sonata No. 16 In C Major, K. 545 "Sonata Facile": I. Allegro
Clementi Sonatina Op. 36 No. 3 in G Major
La Campanella (I only know the notes and I pretty much butcher it playing fast so no way I'll play this for people anytime soon)
Bach Two Part Inventions No. 1, 8, and 13 (piano teacher wants to do the rest with me)
Czerny School of Velocity No. 1-6 (my piano teacher wants me to finish the whole book)
Schumann Wild Horseman
various Jazz pieces for Jazz Band
Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean (not classical haha)
Test Drive from How to Train Your Dragon (not classical but I thought I'd throw that in there. I learned GermanSeabass' arrangement from YouTube)
I also accompanied piano last year for the elementary school choir but I hated it.
Know all my major scales, working on the rest.

My theory is pretty bad. I know how to read music really well but I don't know all the under the hood stuff. I am taking AP Music Theory next year so that should help.

I know it's not a lot for 8 years but I've moved and had trouble finding teachers. I'm not worried about studying, I currently do about two hours every day, sometimes longer. I can increase that for longer periods of time (reasonably speaking, not like 16 hours straight) so I think I might be able to pull the auditions off.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and please don't be afraid to criticize my choices for the auditions.

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Topic: Conservatory Audition for Piano (Oberlin, Lawrence) (Read 4426 times)

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The Complete Piano Works of 16 Composers