Piano Audition Guidelines For Incoming Music Majors
The piano faculty at Cedarville want to help you prepare for a successful audition! We strongly recommend that you take this document to your piano instructor, read it over together, and contact Dr. Mortensen with any questions, well in advance of your audition date.
Piano auditions must include all the components which are described below:
1. Audition Repertoire
Audition repertoire must be performed from memory. Compositions must be college level in terms of difficulty. Intermediate and pre-college repertoire is not appropriate for college-level auditions. (Your teacher knows the difference.)
Audition repertoire must include a selection from each of these three categories:
- Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I or II) by J.S. Bach. (Note: C minor and B-flat from Book I are acceptable if you have already begun working on them, but they are overplayed, so be adventuresome and choose something else if you can.)
- A fast sonata movement by Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, or Beethoven. (Note: Haydn sonatas vary widely in difficulty and must be approved by Dr. Mortensen prior to the audition. Please do not bring Mozart K. 545, any Clementi sonatinas, or Beethoven Op. 2 no. 1, or Op. 49, since these are not college-level in difficulty.)
- A college-level composition from the Romantic, Impressionistic, 20th or 21st century styles.
2. Musicianship Test
- The student must play scales and arpeggios, hands together, four octaves, ascending and descending, in 16th notes at a tempo where quarter note equals 100 beats per minute, from memory. Please note that the arpeggios must also be in 16th notes (not triplets) at the same tempo. We provide two explanatory documents. The first shows a good way to practive scales and arpeggios in rhythm. The second gives a chart which explains fingerings for all 24 keys, scales and arpeggios, both hands. (I worked a long time on that! Use it to get proper fingerings and you will not have to do remedial work later.)
- The student will be given a short sight-reading test. The difficulty of the sight-reading example will be approximately equal to hymns such as A Mighty Fortress is Our God, or piano literature such as Kinderszenen, Op. 15, by Robert Schumann.
3. Supporting Materials
- The student should provide a written music resume which includes a list of all significant repertoire studied during high school, performance experience (church, school, contests, recitals, etc), and a brief statement of the student’s music goals for college and beyond.
- The student should provide a written recommendation from the private piano instructor.
Additional Requirement for the Cristofori Competition:
A student who wishes to be considered for the Cristofori Competition should include an etude of virtuosity (or composition of equivalent technical challenge) as part of the audition repertoire. Normally this would also serve as the third selection (Romantic, Impressionistic, 20th or 21st century piece) of the audition repertoire. However, an exceptionally difficult classical sonata movement may also meet this requirement. As always, contact Dr. Mortensen for approval.
An etude of virtuosity is not required of students who wish admission to the music program but do not seek entrance to the Cristofori Competition.
A student will be invited to participate in the Cristofori Competition under the following conditions:
- An audition for admission to the music program has been successfully completed before the day of the Competition; and
- The audition repertoire meets all the requirements for the Cristofori Competition; and
- At the discretion of the piano faculty, the student is able to perform at a level appropriate for the Cristofori Competition.
Scholarships
All students who audition are considered for a music scholarship at the time of the audition. The scholarship deadline is February 23, 2007, for entry the following term. One scholarship, however, has an earlier deadline:
The Cristofori Piano Scholarship Competition was established to offer special scholarship opportunities at Cedarville University for incoming music majors (either freshmen or transfer students) whose principal instrument is piano. The aim of this competition is to recognize and reward young Christian artists who aspire to a career in music and who respond positively to a competitive environment. The Cristofori is an invitational competition open to any prospective piano major who has successfully completed an audition before Showcase weekend each February (see University calendar) and has been officially notified of his or her Cristofori candidacy by the Department of Music & Art. Contestants must have auditioned and been accepted as music majors prior to their competing for the awards at Showcase, and must meet all other criteria for entrance into Cedarville University for the following Fall semester. Up to six finalists will be chosen each year. Questions about auditions or candidacy should be directed ahead of time to Dr. John Mortensen, Director of Keyboard Studies (johnmortensen@cedarville.edu), 937-766-7734.
Application for The Christofori Piano Scholarship Competition
