Need help and a realistic opinion on my College Audition repertoire

[millancho]

I have played piano for over 8 years but I started taking it seriously around 1 1/5 years ago. I have decided that I will major in Piano Performance but I have lots of doubts whether or not I will get into a good university.

I'm currently on my hs senior year and I will be sending my application on fall of 2015 to enroll in fall 2016 since I'm currently working in my repertoire.

The requirements from most good music schools (depaul, mannes, msm, hartt, etc) are a little to high in terms of skill from the pieces I'm playing right now, that's why I'm spending a lot of time practicing (3-4 hours a day)


I'm working on:


-Bach, 2 part inventions (depending on the difficulty I can finish an invention in around 3 weeks)

-Haydn, Sonata in D hob xbi 37

-Czerny, OP 299 (mainly to gain speed)

-Debussy, Arabesque (haven't started it, have my doubts about it )


What I need to perform:


-One prelude and fugue from the WTC

-Classic sonata ( the haydn sonata im working on)

-a Chopin Etude, not every university asks for this but it would be a plus

-A 1900's work

-Romantic era work (don't know if Arabesque is a good Romanticism piece to present in a college audition)



I understand it will take a lot of focus and time to get this done, i just want to know if this is realist. Please be honest.

Also if you can recommend two works for both Romanticism and 20th century that'd be great!


Thanks for reading!

[murakumo]

Here would be my suggestion:

For the Prelude and Fugue, I would go for No.6 in D minor. Definitely more towards the middle ground in terms of difficulty, and the fugue is very approachable musically. They're going to be listening to your fugue more than your prelude, just keep that in mind.

The Haydn is a good choice.

As for the etude, not all schools require one. I know at least one school that requires a Chopin etude specifically, can't remember which one, but in general it doesn't have to be Chopin. If you really want to go for Chopin, I'd go for Op.10 No.5, No.8 or No.12. Don't pick a slow one. You should also check out Scriabin's etudes; there's a lot of great choices there.

There are numerous options for a modern work. In general, they'll want to hear something atonal, which means Bartok, Schoenberg, Szymanowski and the like, but there are even more recent options that would work too. Check out Nikolai Kapustin's music; very fun to play and gaining a lot of popularity (an example:

). Toru Takemitsu also has some great pieces. His Rain Tree Sketch II comes to mind (

). Other composers to look at are Liebermann, William Bolcom and Olivier Messiaen. Pick out something that you can really sink your teeth into, because they're going to want to see if you can produce a successful interpretation, which can be challenging with modern, atonal works.

As for your romantic piece, the Debussy isn't going to cut it. Conservatories generally want what's called a 'substantial' romantic work. This means 7-8+ minutes of music. Some suggestions would be Tchaikovsky's Dumka, Chopin's Ballade No.3, many of the pieces from Liszt's Annees de perelinage.

My audition repertoire, which got me into Boston Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Mannes and NEC was as follows:
Bach prelude and fugue no.5 in D major from WTC 1
Mozart Piano Sonata 14
Tchaikovsky Dumka
Toru Takemitsu Rain Tree Sketch II
Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau Op.39 No.5

[millancho]

My audition repertoire, which got me into Boston Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Mannes and NEC was as follows:
Bach prelude and fugue no.5 in D major from WTC 1
Mozart Piano Sonata 14
Tchaikovsky Dumka
Toru Takemitsu Rain Tree Sketch II
Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau Op.39 No.5

Wow that is way ahead of what you suggested above. How was the competition? Did everyone had pieces of that level? Which auditions where the most rigorous and which ones where not that much? Thanks for the input!