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I have been saving orchestral tuba audition lists for many years, and recently received a request to share what I have. I set up a dropbox with all of the files which can be accessed at the link below. There are a few junk files to be sifted through, but most of the major auditions over the last 40 years should be represented. On a side note, if anyone has the list for the Cleveland audition when Ron Bishop retired, I would love to add it to my collection.

EDIT: I have added the updated composite list and spreadsheet to the dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zep8ber6qqtw ... Gsila?dl=0" target="_blank" target="_blank

It would be great to see the first N.Y. Phil list from the late 1970’s.
K.

kathott wrote:It would be great to see the first N.Y. Phil list from the late 1970’s.
K.

My recollection is that it had every excerpt imaginable on it (almost).

I was at the NY Phil audition in 1978 that Warren won. Bydlo wasn’t on it and I don’t think the Ride was either. Fountains might not have been on it either. I'll have to look around. I might have the list somewhere. But, for the solo, they asked for the Kraft, Encounters II. Once we arrived at the audition, they apologized for asking for it, not realizing how difficult it was. I don’t think there was a solo that replaced it.

It’s hard to remember, being that I only got to play around 5 excerpts before they thanked me for coming. I also had the flu and had to drive back to LI in a car with no heat and it was snowing. Fun day!!

I have finished updating my spreadsheet that tracks which excerpts are asked on auditions and how often they appear on rep lists. I have compiled the stats for 124 auditions, dating back to 1979, and ranging from regional orchestras to major symphonies. I also have a few of the TUBA/ITEC mock audition lists as well as several Chicago Civic lists in the group, so it is quite diverse. I wanted to obtain a little statistical information for these excerpts, so I looked at how often (out of 124 auditions) each piece was asked. The median number was five (i.e., half the excerpts were asked at least five times and half were asked fewer than five times) and the standard deviation was 28. The 15 excerpts listed below are those which were at least two standard deviations from the median. As a side note, the top five excerpts were four standard deviations from the median.

Here are the top 15 excerpts asked on the auditions.

Berlioz Hungarian March
Symphonie Fantastique

Brahms Symphony No. 2

Bruckner Symphony No. 7

Gershwin An American in Paris

Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis

Mahler Symphony No. 1

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Prokofiev Symphony No. 5

Respeghi Fountains of Rome

Strauss Ein Heldenleben
Till Eulenspiegel

Stravinsky Petroushka

Wagner Ride of the Valkyries
Die Meistersinger, Act I Prelude

The five most often requested excerpts are as follows:

Wagner Ride of the Valkyries111
Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 110
Wagner Die Meistersinger, Act I Prelude 109
Mahler Symphony No. 1 97
Berlioz Hungarian March 90

I did the same project circa 2005 with approximately 50 lists at the time, and a few differences jumped out at me after 15 years. The Top 5 in 2005 (in order) included Meistersinger, Prokofiev 5, Ride, Petroushka, and Mahler 1. By 2020, Meistersinger had dropped to third and Petroushka had dropped out of the top 5 altogether (replaced by the Hungarian March). The other thing that I found notable was the increased popularity of An American in Paris, which jumped from 21 to 11 on the list.

Finally, here are the totals for the top 15.


1 Wagner Ride of the Valkyries 111
2 Prokofiev Sym 5 110
3 Wagner Die Meistersinger, Act I Prelude 109
4 Mahler Sym 1 97
5 Berlioz Hungarian March 90
6 Stravinsky Petroushka 88
7 Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique 74
8 Respeghi Fountains of Rome 68
9 Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis 53
10 Bruckner Sym 7 52
11 Gershwin An American in Paris 47
12 Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition 46
13 Strauss Ein Heldenleben 45
14 Brahms Sym 2 41
15 Strauss Till Eulenspiegel 37

This is really interesting - Thank you for putting in all of this work.

I'm sort of shocked that Ride wasn't on every audition list - Were there any notable auditions that it didn't show up on?

timayer wrote:This is really interesting - Thank you for putting in all of this work.

I'm sort of shocked that Ride wasn't on every audition list - Were there any notable auditions that it didn't show up on?

Not really. Since you asked, I went back and double checked, and found a few mistakes in my calculations, so it actually appeared on 114 of 124 lists.

The auditions where it was missing are mainly regional orchestras with short lists of fewer than ten total excerpts. And on all but one that did not include the Ride, Prokofiev 5 was asked.

Fort Worth in 2003 did not ask for either the Ride or Prokofiev 5, but did include Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet as a true contrabass tuba part.

kathott wrote:It would be great to see the first N.Y. Phil list from the late 1970’s.
K.

I took that audition. I have that list buried somewhere. If I find it I will post it. The one thing that sticks out in my mind was that the required solo was William Kraft's Encounters 2.

I just found the NY Phil list from 1978 (?). Yeah, I was there. Randy, after we arrived, they apologized for asking for the Kraft. So, we didn’t have to play it. I have a few other lists too.

Since Tinypic went under, I don’t know how to post pictures on this site. Any suggestions?

Or, if someone emails me, I can scan them, send them to you and you can post the pictures.

tubabill@me.com" target="_blank" target="_blank

Bill Troiano wrote:I just found the NY Phil list from 1978 (?). Yeah, I was there. Randy, after we arrived, they apologized for asking for the Kraft. So, we didn’t have to play it. I have a few other lists too.

Since Tinypic went under, I don’t know how to post pictures on this site. Any suggestions?

Or, if someone emails me, I can scan them, send them to you and you can post the pictures.

tubabill@me.com" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Email sent

Here's a copy of the list

Bill Troiano wrote:I just found the NY Phil list from 1978 (?). Yeah, I was there. Randy, after we arrived, they apologized for asking for the Kraft. So, we didn’t have to play it. I have a few other lists too.

Bill:

I was on the second day of preliminaries. They did not apologize to me for Encounters 2, but, it was not part of the preliminary audition. I played about 9 or 10 excerpts in the preliminary after scraping my very first, the first tuba entrance in Til Eulenspiegel. I heard the committee whispering and the only thing I could make out were the words, "big sound" and was given another shot at it.

I studied with Warren Deck for 2 years. Warren said, as part of either the semi-final or, most probably, the final round, he was asked for Kraft's Encounters 2.

Also, to my recollection, The Fountain of Trevi was not on the list. I remember Die Meistersinger, Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin, also the triplet passage from Til Eulenspiege and the Webern Six Pieces. The sight reading piece was on manuscript paper and, from what I heard, was written for the audition so no-one had any advantage. The rest of my memory is foggy. After all, it has been 42 years since that audition.