RCM exam

[ttortaro]

Hi! Im doing the royal college of music exam soon. I’d like to know if anyone could share their experience so I can be more ready. They ask for 3 different style pieces, so my repertoire is Beethoven’s sonata op2 n3 1st mov, Chopin etude op25/11 and Balakirev’s Islamey. Thank you

[essence]

Is that the entrance audition?

[ttortaro]

Is that the entrance audition?

Yes, the admission audition

[essence]

I think this may have come up before, and the advice from memory is to aim for quality and musicality rather than virtuosity. alone.

I thought maybe Islamey might have been in the FRSM syllabus, but it seems not.

Even auditioning for RSM was always beyond my ability. I preferred to be a competent amateur.

[lelle]

I have not auditioned for the RCM specifically, so can't talk about that, but I have auditioned and gotten accepted to another music college back when I did a bachelor's and master in music.

I think it's important to remember that all you can do is show up and do your best. So don't stress about what you "have" to deliver to get accepted and control that outcome, because you can't. If you are unlucky, Yuja Wang, Lang Lang and Martha Argerich all decide to audition and then the rest of us are cooked. So take the pressure off, just try your best and aim for as high quality musically as possible. The juy hears tons of students with really solid mechanics / technique, but lesser quantities of students with really captivating musicianship.

Especially Islamey I would go for squeezing as much musical interest out of it as possible (but don't force it and put artificial things in it that aren't there in the score). It's impressive to be able to play that piece, but it can also quickly get boring if that's all there is to it, and that will probably not help you.