The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Stephane
Date: 2007-08-31 02:50
Hello everyone. I'll be applying to college this fall and was wondering what the procedure was for tapes for non-conservatories (such as Yale) that do accept tapes, that is,
1. What is typical material (excerpts?, a solo?, etudes?)?
2. At what quality should the recording be (this was touched on in previous topics)?
3. Should I be accompanied?
Thank you all,
Stephane
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Author: Iacuras
Date: 2007-08-31 06:46
Hey Stephane,
It all really depends on the school. For instance, as I went through this process last year, each school I applied to was different. For UF with Mitchell Estrin, I had a lesson with him early in the year, and he told me just to send a tape of the piece I was working on at the time (Weber 2 mvmt. 1). At DU with Abbey Raymond, I had to play scales and Weber Concertino. At UNC with Bil Jackson, I had to play Weber Concertino and a romantic or 20th century sonata or etude (I chose the first movement of Bernstein's sonata for clarinet and piano). I ended up making it into UNC and DU, but my schools post-grad center screwed up my admission with UF, so I didn't get in there. I'm now studying at UNC under Brad Bayne (and ex-student of Bil's and an excellent clarinet player/mouthpiece maker) and Bil Jackson.
So essentially that was a long way of saying, get a couple of schools in mind that you want to go to, contact the professors and talk to them about your situation. Also, if possible go and get a lesson with each one, that way you know which is the right professor for you. Good Luck. (By the way, UNC has a great clarinet program, Bil is one of the foremost teachers and soloists in the country. You can check out the school of music at www.arts.unco.edu/music/default.html)
Steve
"If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon."
"If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly."
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Author: Iacuras
Date: 2007-08-31 22:03
Yes I do. Sorry about the spelling error.
Steve
"If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon."
"If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly."
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Author: tdinap
Date: 2007-09-01 05:52
I assume you're not going to major in music, but want to continue playing through college. (If I'm wrong, take all this with a grain of salt...)
I had this same problem when applying to schools two years ago; I'm planning to minor in music at Dartmouth, so obviously there was no audition requirement. I did send CD's with my apps, though. I just played the Adagio from the Mozart Concerto and the second movement of Hindemith's Sonata, both unaccompanied. Wherever I applied, they were pretty open about what to play; since you're probably not directly competing with others for spots in a studio, it seems that they just want to have a general idea of how you play.
In the end, I'd say pick your two best contrasting pieces or movements, and record in the best circumstances you can reasonably manage. If you have an accompanist easily available, go for it, but don't go and pay someone a ton of money to do it--you're spending enough in application fees and tuition. Same with the recording--I wouldn't use a Fisher Price tape recorder, but don't go and rent out an expensive studio. I was fortunate enough that my band director was willing to help in the recording, using an Alesis hard disk recorder with a very nice cardioid mike. I recorded mainly in a practice room at school.
Unless you send in a really bad recording, I don't think anything you asked about could hurt your chances. Looking back, my repertoire choices probably could've been a bit better, the playing could've been MUCH better, and the recording had some noise from keys and even one or two passersby. But I still got into two of the four Ivies to which I applied, so it couldn't have hurt that much. (Disclaimer: one of the Ivies I didn't get into was Yale.)
Tom
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