The college audition experience

[pianissima]

I didn't know which category this question would fall under, so I'm putting it here because I'm trying to think of this as a performance: I'm applying to a BA piano program that asks for four pieces for the audition, which is coming up soon; my four pieces total about 25 minutes or so of music. The audition will be 10 or 15 minutes. Can anyone share their experiences with this sort of audition - like, how much of each piece did you play, did you get to choose what to start with, did the committee ask you to jump around in the pieces (e.g., "skip to the development"), how did you get the feel of the piano in less than a minute, etc.? I've done auditions before, but there were not on piano and they were a long time ago. TIA

[lelle]

Hey. I've auditioned a couple of times.

how much of each piece did you play, did you get to choose what to start with,

It's varied, some auditions I've gotten to choose what order I play, others I have been told what parts of my audition programme to play.

did the committee ask you to jump around in the pieces (e.g., "skip to the development"),

It's happened that I have been asked to play to the development, or that they interrupt you after a while and ask you to play the next thing. Or ask you to play a specific movement if you being a sonata, not necessarily the first.

how did you get the feel of the piano in less than a minute, etc.?

You have to do your best to adapt. I would practice playing your program on different pianos and see what strategies you need to do your best on unfamiliar instruments.

[pianopro181]

I didn't know which category this question would fall under, so I'm putting it here because I'm trying to think of this as a performance: I'm applying to a BA piano program that asks for four pieces for the audition, which is coming up soon; my four pieces total about 25 minutes or so of music. The audition will be 10 or 15 minutes. Can anyone share their experiences with this sort of audition - like, how much of each piece did you play, did you get to choose what to start with, did the committee ask you to jump around in the pieces (e.g., "skip to the development"), how did you get the feel of the piano in less than a minute, etc.? I've done auditions before, but there were not on piano and they were a long time ago. TIA

I’ve done many in the past when I was student some with great results and others not. You simply don’t know what to expect but one thing you can certainly expect is that the more ‘high up’ the institution/programme the less welcoming they’ll likely be. In terms of what repertoire they choose and for how long the same sort of thing applies. All you can do is prepare your pieces extremely well in good time and have an open mind about whether or not you feel you played well regardless of the outcomes. Having a very good and professional coach to fall back on always helps a lot too. Remember that the panel doesn’t always make the right decisions either and there’s a lot of favouritism when it comes to narrowing down students in both competitions and auditions. Just do the best you possibly can, believe in your abilities and keep improving! Best of luck to you

[pianissima]

Little mini update: I got in! Will start in the fall.

At the audition, in case anyone would like to know, they heard all of my Bach piece and about two pages of each of my other pieces (all from memory, as required). It was a fairly pleasant experience, actually!