Audition Requirements

Vocal

Applicants must schedule an audition time and perform the following:

• Three art songs and two arias (one may be from an oratorio)
• Four language requirements: Representation of German, French, Italian, and English
• Style requirements: The repertoire presented should reflect a variety of time periods and styles, tempos, moods, and characters. One piece must be written in a contemporary idiom; works written after 1950 by Stravinsky or Schoenberg, for example, would be suitable.

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Guitar

Applicants must schedule an audition time and perform the following:

• One of any of the Bach violin, cello or lute suites, or the “Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998”
• One larger work of contrasting style, either a sonata or theme and variations from the classical period by Sor, Giuliani, or Aguado; or a larger work by a more modern composer such as Ponce, Tansman, Brouwer Tedesco, or Villa-Lobos.

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Keyboard Collaborative Arts

Applicants must perform the following:

• One complete solo work, performed from memory
• One complete instrumental sonata
• One opera aria
• Three art songs of varied style and language

Applicants may also be required to demonstrate sight-reading skills. All sonatas must be performed with an instrumentalist. All songs and arias must be performed with a singer. The applicant is expected to provide his or her own musical partners.

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Percussion

Applicants for the music performance degree must schedule an audition time and may select from the following list of books that are highly recommended for use in auditioning. You are not limited to this list; you may use anything comparable in level and content. As a Master of Music candidate you are expected to perform on all of the following instruments (drumset is optional).

Snare Drum: Portraits in Rhythm by Anthony Cirone, Advanced Snare Drum Studies by Mitchell Peters, Douze Etudes pour Cassie Claire by Jacques Delecluse. Also be prepared to sight-read.

Keyboard Percussion: A 2-mallet transcription of any Bach work; a 4-mallet solo, grade 5 or higher such as those by Abe, Musser, Stout, etc. Also be prepared to demonstrate major/minor scales and to sight-read.

Timpani: Modern Method for Timpani by Saul Goodman, Fundamental Method for Timpani by Mitchell Peters, Exercises, Etudes and Solos for Timpani by Raynor Carroll, or something comparable. Also be prepared to sight-read.

Drumset (optional): Jazz Drumset auditions consist of the applicant being able to demonstrate rhythmic and “groove” competency in the following musical styles:

• 4/4 swing at a variety of tempos
• Shuffle
• Funk, Hip Hop and Rock styles at a variety of tempos
• Funk, Hip Hop and Rock styles at a variety of tempos
• Samba and Bossa Nova
• Mambo, Songo etc.
• Afro-Cuban 6/8

Additional skills assessed during the Jazz Drumset audition:

• Brush technique
• Knowledge of form and repertoire
• “Trading Fours” in each of the above styles
• Solo based on the form of a jazz standard
• Sight-reading big band charts

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Piano

Applicants must schedule an audition time and perform the following:

• One Prelude and Fugue from The Well Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach
• One complete classical sonata by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert (excluding Beethoven “Opus 49”)
• One large-scale work from the Romantic period
• One virtuoso etude

The applicant may also be required to demonstrate sight-reading skills.

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Strings

Students preparing for an audition on Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, or Harp should prepare the following:

• Three octave major scales of your choice
• One movement of a standard concerto, or an equivalent work
• One other work of your choice, preferably a movement of a Bach Sonata, Partita, or Suite
• Sight reading

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Winds/Brass

Please contact Alisa Barsegyan at abarsegyan@apu.edu to schedule an audition time.

Woodwinds

Two to three selections of solo literature representing various stylistic periods of music should be prepared. If any of the selections are taken from a multi-movement work, applicants need only prepare one movement of each piece, unless otherwise indicated. The repertoire listed below are faculty preferences but not required.

Flute

• Bach: B minor Sonata
• Mozart: Concerto in D Major or G Major
• Dutilleux: Sonatine
• Prokofiev: Sonata

Oboe

• Mozart: Concerto in C Major
• Strauss: Concerto
• Dorati: Cinq Pieces Pour Le Hautbois

Bassoon

• Mozart: Concerto in B flat Major
• Vivaldi: Concerto in E minor or A minor
• Milde: Scale Studies and Etudes

Clarinet

• Brahms: Sonatas No. 1 and 2
• Mozart: Concerto, K. 622
• Debussy: Premiere Rhapsodie
• Stravinsky: Three Pieces
• Weber: Concertos No. 1 or 2, Grand Duo Concertant
• Rose: 32 Etudes

Saxophone

• Creston: Sonata, Rhapsodie
• Glazounov: Concerto
• Heiden: Sonata
• Ibert: Concertino de Camera
• Muczynski: Sonata
• Bozza: Etudes
• Ferling: Etudes
• Karg: Etudes

Percussion

Snare Drum

• Etudes by Cirone, Peters, Delecuse

Multiple Percussion

• Solo pieces by Kraft or other approved composers

Marimba

• Bach: Sonata
• Multiple mallet solos by approved composers
• Concertos by approved composers

Timpani

• Solos by Carroll, Carter, or other approved composers

Brass

Trumpet

• Fasch: Concerto in D
• Haydn: Trumpet Concerto
• Hummel: Trumpet Concerto
• Honegger: Intrada
• Charlier: Etudes

French Horn

• Bach: Selection from Cello Suite
• Beethoven: Sonata
• Bozza: En Fore
• Gallay: Etudes
• Gliere: Concerto
• Hindemith: Concerto
• Kling: Etudes
• Alphonse: Books 4-6
• Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 2 or No. 3
• Strauss: Concerto No. 1 or No. 2
• V. Reynolds: 48 Etudes

Trombone

• Bourgeois: Concerto
• Bozza: Ballade
• Ewazen: Sonata
• Grondahl: Concerto
• Saint-Saens: Cavatine
• Hindemith: Sonata (1st or 3rd mvt)
• DeFaye: Deux Danses
• Ewazen: Sonata
• Martin: Ballade
• Rimsky Korsakov: Concerto (1st mvt)
• Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suites

Tuba

• Bordogni: Solfeggi for Tuba
• Broughton: Sonata
• Plog: Three Miniatures
• Vaughan Williams: Concerto
• Williams: Concerto
• Excerpts:
  • Berlioz: Overture to Benvenuto Cellini (#16 to 5 measures after #19)
  • Gershwin: An American in Paris (#67 to #68)
  • Respighi: Fountains of Rome (#11 to #14; 13 measures after #14 to Largamente)