<p>I play the trumpet and I’m planning on submitting an arts supplement to schools like HYPS. My question is, how do these schools evaluate these supplements? Without sounding too vain, I am fairly good for a high school student and my recording will turn out to be decent. However, playing a brass instrument means a few cracks here and there. Will the music departments at such schools be forgiving of a chipped note here and there? Are they expecting perfection?</p>
<p>Also, Princeton, for example, requests 10-15 minutes of classical music. That will be very, very difficult to achieve on a brass instrument. It’s not like the violin, where you can use your arm for hours. Would it be okay if I didn’t meet that?</p>
<p>I have looked into the Arts Supplement issue for my daughter and it seems as though its significance varies from school to school. Generally it is my impression that it probably carries less weight with the larger Ivy type colleges/universities, some of which appear to be trying to discourage such submissions and do not even promise to have them evaluated by their music departments. On the other hand, some of the smaller colleges, such as Williams, seem to encourage such submissions and so it seems like they place more importance on them. It is my understanding that Stanford is unique in allowing a live audition as part of an Arts Supplement. I do not believe that any of the colleges I have looked at require or even expect that students that submit an Arts Supplement will major in music. Below are notes I made based on my review of various college websites.</p>
<p>Yale: “You should think carefully before submitting supplementary materials with your Yale College application. Most successful applicants submit only the items that we require. There are cases in which too many submissions, or submissions that do not reflect a high level of talent, can actually work against a candidate. Because the Admissions Committee gives greatest weight to the documents required of all applicants, we recommend that you focus your energy primarily on those elements of the application.”
“Supplementary submissions may make sense for students with substantial and well-developed talent that cannot be conveyed adequately in the rest of the application. Due to the large number of applications that Yale College receives, we cannot evaluate all supplementary materials. Admissions officers and faculty members will be selective in choosing which submissions to review.”</p>
<p>Columbia University: Can send in a CD. They recommend that applicants send supplemental recordings to the Admissions Office along with their regular applications. “Musical performance compact discs should include two works contrasting in period and tempo. Discs should be limited to no more than 20 minutes in length and should not include any biographical or introductory material.”</p>
<p>Harvard: Can submit an Arts Supplement. At the discretion of the Admissions Committee, such submissions may be evaluated by faculty.</p>
<p>Princeton: Can submit an Arts Supplement. “To the best of our ability, we’ll have arts faculty review your submissions and advise the admission staff regarding your abilities.”</p>
<p>Brown: Can submit an Arts Supplement. Music tapes/compact discs and art slides are forwarded to the respective departments for review. History has shown that submissions rarely affect admission decisions.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: There is an Arts Supplement. ”When you send the Common Application Arts Supplement to the Dartmouth Admissions Office, we will submit your portfolio or solo performance to our faculty for evaluation.”</p>
<p>If you are unable to meet Princeton’s request for 10-15 minutes of recording, then it is possible that your level of talent is not up to the level that would help you gain admittance at HYPS. A recording which is merely very good rather than genuinely excellent is apt to detract from your application. </p>
<p>Possibly you have misinterpreted the time requirement to mean a continuous, uninterrupted, unaccompanied time. Ten minutes of playing is not too much to expect from a brass player. Remember that within that ten minutes you will probably include two or three different movements that are recorded at different times to allow your embouchure to recover. If you record a single long movement (less likely because it affords less opportunity to demonstrate your abilities to deal with different styles of music), then there will be piano interludes which also give you some recovery time. </p>
<p>The better high school trumpet players that I have heard recently often have Arutunian as one of the works in their repertoire. It is just over 15 minutes long, but with cuts to the orchestral parts would come in well under the 15 minute suggested maximum. I mention Arutunian just as an example of the level of playing that a good trumpet player should have reached. Haydn and Hummel are fine too, if well-played. If you are not at least close to the level required to turn in an excellent performance of these standard works, then you might be better off not including a recording as part of your applications to HYPS.</p>
<p>You ask whether HYPS are expecting perfection on the recordings. The simple answer is no because no recording is perfect, including those of the superstar classical recording artists. However, for a recording to help your application, it must be of a high level. </p>
<p>Too often I encounter high school musicians that believe the absence of wrong notes and conspicuously out-of-tune notes along with adherence to marked tempo and dynamics is sufficient to constitute perfection. Their ears are not well enough developed to hear the countless small intonational consistencies they make or to hear the difference in the tone between themselves and an artist (and the difference is not the mere absence of cracked notes, rather it is the difference between consistent and beautiful) or to hear the difference between an accurate performance and a soul-wrenching performance. I would avoid using the word “perfect” in relation to music as it normally indicates a profound misunderstanding of the nature of musical performance.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about a couple of cracks in your sound if you otherwise have beautiful tone, excellent facility on your instrument, and a mature and deep understanding of the music.</p>
<p>I am surprised at the length required by Princeton. </p>
<p>Our daughter had plenty of music to send (she is a composer), but called the admissions office (another Ivy) and subsequently, out of consideration, accompanied her CD with a note indicating which 3 minutes constituted her best work, so that they would not have to spend too much time on her supplement.</p>
<p>I have no idea whether admissions listened to her CD, or music faculty, or really whether anyone listened to her CD. (She also sent a resume and a couple of programs from concerts where her compositions had been performed, and, perhaps most importantly, two recommendations from teachers.)</p>
<p>That said, I have no doubt at all that her arts supplement helped her get in.</p>
<p>I would call the admissions dept. at Princeton or wherever and talk to them. Find out how long they would like your CD to be, and what they would consider appropriate for your instrument. You can also include, as I mentioned, a resume, programs, awards, and recommendations from teachers and others familiar with your work.</p>
<p>I just got a reply from Princeton’s Chair of their music department. He said under 10 minutes is perfectly fine. I doubt you’ll find more than 10 trumpet players in this nation who can play 10-15 minutes of quality playing without trouble.</p>
<p>I know what repetoire to choose from. After making All State band four times and extensive research, I am perfectly capable of playing most of those pieces.</p>
<p>I only want to submit a supplement because almost all my EC’s and awards come from music. I want to substantiate the extensive activities I listed on my app. </p>
<p>Would playing a piece that normally requires a piano accompaniment without one be okay?</p>
<p>“Also, Princeton, for example, requests 10-15 minutes of classical music. That will be very, very difficult to achieve on a brass instrument. It’s not like the violin, where you can use your arm for hours. Would it be okay if I didn’t meet that?”</p>
<p>“I just got a reply from Princeton’s Chair of their music department. He said under 10 minutes is perfectly fine. I doubt you’ll find more than 10 trumpet players in this nation who can play 10-15 minutes of quality playing without trouble.”</p>
<p>You have got to be kidding with all this wind players who can’t play for 10 minutes stuff right ? Perhaps someone should have cued Mahler in on some of this stuff.</p>
<p>I have trouble imagining a college admissions person or music faculty spending 10-15 minutes listening to every music CD that comes in. I think it helps to think about why they would like an arts supplement from those who feel they can contribute on campus.</p>
<p>This is not a conservatory audition. Most or all of these schools do not have performance majors. I think that, basically, they want to know how you can add to the “mix” of students and talents on campus, and in your case would be looking to see if you could contribute to band, orchestra or other ensembles once there.</p>
<p>Your music resume and All-State experiences and any other accomplishments also show that you are a disciplined, committed person, which is important regardless of whether you pursue music at college, and these things tell admissions a lot about who you are and what your high school life has been like.</p>
<p>They only want arts supplements from people whose talent justifies sending them, and it would seem that you fit that bill. So good luck!</p>
<p>In orchestral pieces, there are long lengths of rest. These requirements mean playing continuous by yourself. These are two completely different things. Don’t confuse black and white. Also, playing something like the flute is different. On woodwinds, your mouth does not get physically worn after a short period. </p>
<p>My point is, they are asking you to perform say two movements of the Hindemeth Trumpet Concertro, Hayden, Arutunian. I fail to see how these cannot be played as they always are and there are many brass solo pieces that are over 10 minutes in length. I think you are completely misunderstanding what they are asking you to record.</p>
<p>Those are professionals. What I meant by 10-15 minutes was flawless playing. Playing a piece like Arutunian through without cracking a single note and having stellar musicality is quite hard to achieve. Anyone can go up on a stage and blow crap for 10 minutes.</p>
<p>violindad already explained what is meant by the 10-15 minute requirement: </p>
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<p>The requirement is not for uninterrupted playing, but rather the total time of all the pieces on the recording. As most here know, this is also true for pre-screen recordings required by conservatories. So I’m not sure why people are still debating who can or cannot play for 10-15 uninterrupted minutes.</p>
<p>Carefully check the admissions websites for all schools you are applying to for specific supplement requirements. My S did not use the common app supplement option for any of the schools he applied to, but perhaps there are some for which it would be applicable–again, only if they do not have separate instructions on their website. (I’m pretty sure the Ivies, which you indicated you’re applying to, each have separate submission procedures for supplemental materials.) When in doubt, contact Admissions and ask before sending anything or using the common app. You want the supplement to be something that will strengthen your application, making sure that you follow proper procedures for submission to provide the best opportunity for it to be actually listened to. And, for the Ivies, it won’t be sent along to the music department if the application itself is not strong.</p>
<p>How is less than ten minutes better than ten to fifteen?</p>
<p>If you’re straining after ten minutes, either the piece is WAY too hard for you right now, or it’s something other than fatigue. </p>
<p>If you’re going into a recording session on fresh chops (which I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be), ten minutes isn’t going to be long enough to cause fatigue problems. Anything you do in fifteen minutes of recording is about how well you’ve prepared and what your playing is like. If you’re fracking a bunch of notes, it’s not because playing the trumpet is just so hard that you’re already exhausted, it’s because you either don’t know the music well enough to have it in your ear, or you’re not ready to play the piece. Fracks are certainly something that will happen for brass players, but if you know the piece well enough to be playing it with expression, you should know it well enough not to have accuracy issues. </p>
<p>Either way, look at it that this way. These schools get supplements from talented pianists and string players all the time, so much so that one really needs to be head and shoulders above to make an impression. Do you think they want to hear a trumpet player miss a whole bunch, even if, as you assert, playing the trumpet well is an impossible feat of godly strength? Not likely.</p>
<p>I say, let your All-State and similar accomplishments be what they are. If you think you can’t possibly put together fifteen minutes of impressive playing, no amount of your playing is going to be impressive.</p>