auditions & accompaniment

kristysb · Post by **kristysb** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 2:30 pm

i'm going to be auditioning at the end of this august for a college orchestra. i previously practiced up to 3 hours a day, but unfortunately decided to stop practicing about a year ago. i'm starting to practice again to polish up my skills so i can get into the orchestra, so i've been looking at good audition pieces. i dont want to buy more music, but i need 2 contrasting pieces. also, my college is about 3000 miles away, so i cant hire a pianist to accompany me so i was looking at unaccompanied music i have. (debussy's syrinx, piazzolla etudes, and cpe bach sonata in a minor) but does it matter if i play a good piece (faure fantaise/chaminade concertino) without accompaniment? i performed at a solo/ensemble festival once and the judge told me my piece was incomplete without a piano. but if this is an orchestra audition, do oyu think its necessary? any advice would be awesome! thanks

flutepicc06 · Post by **flutepicc06** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:52 am

It should not matter if you have no accompaniment. I have done college auditions on major pieces of the flute repertoire without the piano/harp/whatever parts and won auditions before. However, you may want to contact the director of the orchestra to discuss this, as every school is a bit different, so they may not like an accompanied piece unaccompanied. And an audition is a bit different in that it is a performance, but also is not a performance. You want to play your best, but you're not presenting a piece of music to an audience, you're presenting yourself to a panel of judges. So playing a piece without accompaniment in S/E festival is not the way to go, as the judge wants to hear the whole piece, not just the flute part, but the judges at an audition are not going to be listening to the piano anyway, so being accompanimentless is not as much of an issue.

kristysb · Post by **kristysb** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 6:32 pm

thanks!

kristysb · Post by **kristysb** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:13 pm

and how do you think excerpts would be for an audition, if there aren't movements, like Movement I, Movement II, but mnore of a change of ideas, and piano interludes?

flutepicc06 · Post by **flutepicc06** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:12 pm

Well some auditions ask for excerpts, some ask for two contrasting styles, some ask for something entirely different. As long as the excerpts are fulfilling the requirements of the audition, there's no problem (at least in my mind) with using them. I've never done it myself, though, so you may want to check with the director of the program you're auditioning for to be certain it's not a problem.

MeLizzard · Post by **MeLizzard** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:47 pm

In choosing audition repertoire when given very few guidelines, it's always safe to choose a solo that includes a lyrical section as well as a technical one, as well as to avoid pieces that take too long to get down to business (ex. Genin Carnival of Venice, Doppler fantasie, etc.--long intros). Be sure the college doesn't have a list of required excerpts or solos. At one school I attended, all major ensembles were auditioned each quarter. The audition material was always a list of excerpts, posted the first or second day of the term, from the coming quarter's repertoire for both of the "top" groups, the wind ensemble and the orchestra. For example, one quarter we each played all the flute and picc solos from Scheherezade, Beethoven something (?), Lincolnshire Posy, the Hindemith Symphony for Band, and...oh, whatever else we played. Parts were assigned, and a bonus to this system is most of the hard parts were already well under control! So, it's possible you may not be able to prepare too far in advance for the audition. But have a solo ready anyway!! One of my off-to-college seniors is preparing Honegger's Danse de la Chevre (dance of the goat

), which is full of character and tempo changes.