Percussion Audition Requirements
Undergraduate requirements (BM, BME)
Prospective students will be evaluated on their skills of tone production, intonation, musicality, rhythmic accuracy, technical proficiency, sight reading, and overall musical experience.
1. Prepare a solo or etude of moderate difficulty in each of the following instrumental areas:
- Snare Drum* (concert style)
- Marimba or Xylophone (4-mallet preferred, but 2-mallet acceptable)
- Timpani*
- Drum Set (a demonstration of time-keeping in contrasting styles of swing, bossa nova, mambo, and 1/2-time funk shuffle, plus trading fours in up-tempo swing will suffice on drum set; a prepared solo is not required)
2. Demonstrate sight-reading ability on snare drum and marimba
Please bring one (1) copy of your audition music for the panel.
*We recommend the following selections for auditions, however, comparable alternates may be performed: Cirone: Portraits in Rhythm (Snare Drum) and Etude #1 from Hochrainer: Etudes for Timpani, Vol. 3.
On-campus audition dates can be found here. It is highly recommended that all undergraduate percussion candidates attend an on-campus audition. If you are unable to audition on-campus, please select the “recorded” audition format preference on your supplemental music form. Undergraduate applicants who would like to submit a recorded audition should follow the steps outlined here.
Graduate requirements (MM, DMA)
Pre-screening requirement:
All graduate percussion applicants are required to submit a pre-screening video recording by December 1st. Please upload each prescreening video requirement individually.
- 1 Concert Snare Drum Solo, from Delecluse Douze Etudes or equivalent
- 2-3 Minutes of a solo work for Marimba or Vibraphone of a work suitable for a graduate audition. Works may include (but are not limited to) Juri Seo: V or 12 Preludes, Thomas: Merlin Schwantner: Velocities, Ptaszynska: Graffito, Wijeratne: The Spirit and the Dust, Sueyoshi: Mirage, etc.
- A solo timpani work or etude from Delecluse Trente Etude or similar (something that demonstrates rolls, muting, tuning preferable)
- One orchestra excerpt each on: Snare Drum, Xylophone OR Glockenspiel, Timpani, Cymbals OR Tambourine
Live/Recorded Audition Requirements:
Applicants who advance through the prescreening round are strongly encouraged to attend an on-campus audition.
1. Perform one major solo in each of the following instrumental areas:
- Snare Drum (concert style)
- Marimba
- Timpani
- Multiple-Percussion (an audio recording and score of a recent solo performance will satisfy this requirement)
- Drum Set (a demonstration of time-keeping in contrasting styles of swing, bossa nova, mambo, and 1/2-time funk shuffle, plus trading fours in up-tempo swing will suffice on drum set; a prepared solo is not required)
2. Prepare contrasting orchestral excerpts for:
- Snare Drum (2)
- Xylophone (2)
- Timpani (4)
3. Demonstrate sight-reading ability on snare drum and marimba
Please bring one (1) copy of your audition music for the panel.
The School of Music will provide instruments for the on-campus audition.
Graduate applicants seeking financial aid in the form of an assistantship or fellowship must audition on-campus. Candidates who opt for a recorded audition in lieu of an on-campus audition should upload their final audition recording to the Graduate College application.