So Many Excerpts, So Little Time

[Kory101]

Im auditioning for a summer orchestra and they want 4 contrasting excerpts. Suggestions? Tips? Previous experiece with preparing contrasting excerpts?

[eupher61]

contrasting....

Die Meistersinger

Prok 5

Tchaik 4 or 6

Fast Ride/anything else that's pretty contemporary and shows an ability for disjunct playing. Could even go as early as Petrouchka.

[Kory101]

And I forgot to mention that for the solo piece that is required I have chosen "Adagio" from the Limpid Stream by Shosty

[The Jackson]

You can't go wrong with the classics. The Ride, Meistersinger, Fountains, Pictures (Prom, maybe Bydlo), etc.. Maybe throw in An American In Paris for good contrast.

[a2ba4u]

I would use the criteria to your advantage to put down four excerpts that you can rock the hardest on.

Everyone who sends in a tape is most likely going to have the same 4 four excerpts, so I would use the chance to distinguish myself from the crowd and find something that I sound like gold on while expanding my excerpt knowledge horizon a bit. There are plenty of great excerpts that can give an accurate picture of your playing even though they never get asked at auditions.

Use the freedom you have to distinguish yourself and put your best work forward.

Kyle

[happyroman]

I have collected audition lists over the last 25-30 years, and based on this research (which includes approximately 50 auditions) the top 5 excerpts asked, in order, are as follows:

Wagner, Die Meistersinger Prelude
Prokofiev, Sym. No. 5
Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries
Stravinsky, Petroushka
Mahler, Sym. No. 1

The next two most often asked excerpts are:

Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique
Berlioz, Hungarian March from the Damnation of Faust

If you need to prepare four excerpts, I would recommend that you definately include Die Meistersinger, which was included on every audition list I found. Then, I would do one of the two big contrabass works (Prokofiev or the Ride). Do Mahler 1 for something really soft, and then do one of the Berlioz works. Since you would already have one Wagner excerpt, I would probably lean toward the Prokofiev over the Ride.

It was interesting to me that Cleveland asked for the first five works for their taped audition when they filled Mr. Bishops vacancy. Someone had apparently done their homework.

[Biggs]

I have collected audition lists over the last 25-30 years, and based on this research (which includes approximately 50 auditions) the top 5 excerpts asked, in order, are as follows:

Wagner, Die Meistersinger Prelude
Prokofiev, Sym. No. 5
Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries
Stravinsky, Petroushka
Mahler, Sym. No. 1

The next two most often asked excerpts are:

Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique
Berlioz, Hungarian March from the Damnation of Faust

Ted Cox put together a similar list several years that is an excellent resource.

[happyroman]

Ted sent me a copy of his list, which I incorporated into my research. At the time he did his work, he had about 20 audition lists. I have added approximately 30 more lists, and our final results are pretty similar.

With the additional audition lists, I had a large enough sample to do some statistical analysis, identifying the median and standard deviation for the number of times a particular excerpt was asked. Approximately 50% of the excerpts were asked on at least four auditions. The standard deviation was 13, which is a statistically meaningful way to determine the relative importance of one excerpt to another.

Most excerpts fell within one standard deviation from the median (i.e., 1-17 times). The five excerpts that were asked most often were four standard deviations from the median (asked at least 43 times out of 51 auditions) and the two Berlioz excerpts were three SD from the median (asked 30-42 times).

There were ten excerpts which were two standard deviations from the median (asked 18-30 times), and included:

Respeghi, Fountains of Rome
Bruckner, Sym 7
Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition
Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel
Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphosis
Strauss, Ein Heldenleben
Brahms, Sym 2
Mahler, Sym 5
Tchaikovsky, Sym 6
Wagner, Eine Faust Overture