 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: cnet424
Date: 2013-08-25 15:56
I'm a high school senior looking into auditioning at Curtis. I need advice for the Curtis audition and pretty much college auditions in general. Is there anybody here who has auditioned at Curtis and can tell me what it's like? Thank you in advance.
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Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2013-08-25 17:33
Okay first of all relax. An audition for Curtis is no different than any other audition you've ever done. They will be looking for things like dynamics, articulation and tempo (always have some kind of metronome handy). Make sure that your forte is different than your metzo forte, that you're tonguing and slurring in the right places and that you play at a consistent speed. These are the major things they look for. Most importantly just relax, the one thing that causes most people to mess up is just being nervous. Also, I hate to use a cliche but practice makes perfect!
Best of luck to you!
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Author: NBeaty
Date: 2013-08-25 18:30
Practice makes better...there's no end to improvement.
Play for people, people you respect, and ask for comments and take them to heart. Play for people as many people who will listen, even if you don't necessarily want their comments. Sometimes that situation will make you more nervous.
Record yourself and listen as much as possible (and as soon as possible). You can teach yourself a lot, since you can usually hear things that you thought you were doing well that maybe didn't come across the way you intended. Send the recordings to people that are willing to listen. A fresh perspective never hurts!
Also, don't freak out about comments. Some will be positive, some will be negative, some will be constructive. There is always a reason why people make each comment. If you choose to disregard a comment, be sure it has nothing to do with the person them-self (I don't think I should do that because I don't like them as a person,etc).
Above all, don't waste time. Time can be wasted through practicing too fast before fundamentals are solid, not using a metronome, repeating mistakes, not utilizing a recorder, not searching for those who can help (clarinet teachers in your area), and flat out not putting the time in. Other things take a backseat to practice if you really want to go into music.
Good luck.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-08-25 19:27
Bad rhythm is by far the most common reason for downgrading. Get a steady metronome click in your ear, listen hard to it, and listen twice as hard on long notes and rests.
Play a little bit slower than your best tempo. Slow and precise is MUCH better than fast and sloppy. If they want it faster, they'll ask, and you'll have the advantage of having just played it.
Before the audition, work hard on intonation. Matching your pitch to a tuner is only the first step. Set your tuner to play a pitch and then play unison, octave, fifth above and below, fourth above and below, and major and minor thirds above and below. You will easily hear beats in unisons and octaves, and fifths and fourths are also easy. Major and minor thirds are more difficult, but it can be done.
If you're given an A and asked to tune to it, also check at least octaves, fourths and fifths.
Play everything (including scales) as if you're singing. The best players reach out and sit in the listener's lap.
Good luck. The competition to get into Curtis is really stiff. Let us know.
Ken Shaw
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Author: kdk
Date: 2013-08-25 21:44
I think auditioning for Curtis is not really the same as auditioning for other college programs.
For one thing, unless things have changed there recently, the number of places in the class for each orchestral instrument is limited to the number of players needed to populate their orchestra - I think they may have 5 clarinet positions. As a result there aren't necessarily openings every year, so you'd need to find out if they are even auditioning clarinets the year you graduate from high school.
For another, students all attend Curtis expense-free, including AFAIK living expenses.
Add that the faculty is highly prestigious and the students are all taught by the major faculty - no TAs teaching the incoming students with the main teachers reserved for the advanced upperclassmen.
The bottom line is that, whatever the competitive level is for prospective incoming students at other universities, it tends to be much higher at Curtis and the level of technical and musical polish already achieved by prospective students is very high.
That doesn't really change the approach you need to take to preparing. The advice you've gotten is good - be very attentive to rhythm, intonation, control of sound in all registers and musical phrasing. What it does change is that you *must* have a backup plan - a couple of strong second choices if Curtis doesn't accept you or they aren't auditioning clarinets.
I've known several friends of my generation - older now to be sure (going to college in the 1960s and '70s and even '80s) who got into Curtis by the more indirect route of studying with the Curtis teacher (Gigliotti, later Montanaro, now Montanaro and Morales) elsewhere, most often at Temple University. When they finally auditioned for Curtis as Temple sophomores or juniors, they were far more polished as players than they had been as high school graduates, and they knew exactly what the teacher, who has a major say in who is accepted into his class at Curtis, expected in terms of musical approach, preparation and audition repertoire. They also had the experience with the teacher to tell them if they were really comfortable with him. I'm not sure where else Montanaro teaches these days - I think maybe Temple. Morales teaches at Temple but also in one of the major New York City schools - you could research that easily enough.
Karl
Post Edited (2013-08-25 23:29)
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-08-26 12:13
Curtis students do *not* receive living expenses. Furthermore, they are discouraged from having a roommate. A decent apartment in the Rittenhouse Square area will set you back at least $12K a year.
The audition is more like an orchestral audition: There are two rounds, not necessarily on the same day.
Curtis has the lowest acceptance rate of any school in the country, around 4%.
Interestingly, you do not need a high school diploma to attend.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2013-08-26 12:32
rmk54 wrote:
> Curtis students do *not* receive living expenses. Furthermore,
> they are discouraged from having a roommate. A decent apartment
> in the Rittenhouse Square area will set you back at least $12K
> a year.
>
My mistake. But their new building, as I remember, has dorm space, which they've historically never had before. Do you know anything about that? Are students charged a fee to live in the dorm?
Karl
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-08-26 15:41
I see that there is now a dorm which opened two years ago that accommodates about half the student body. However, the web site characterizes it as "affordable" which I take to mean "not free".
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