Inclusive repertoire

College Majors Music Majors
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Repertoire came up in another thread so posting separately to avoid a tangent there.

These days does typical audition repertoire include any female composers or composers of color? I looked into Curtis and Juilliard for starters. What pieces are your kids playing to meet these requirements, if there are any?

I note that Curtis has violin applicants play a piece by a Curtis student composer. That’s great. In undergrad years, and at festivals, playing a fellow student’s work is often required.

Curtis requires “Schumann” but it would be respectful of Clara to indicate which Schumann.

For viola it includes Jennifer Higdon, among 20th and 21st century composers, so one female:

An entire major concerto from the 20th or 21st century, such as Bartók, Walton, Hindemith Der Schwanendreher, Penderecki, Schnittke, or Higdon. The concerto does not have to be chosen from this list, but should be at a similar level of scope and difficulty.

Juilliard requires a 20th/21st century piece for prescreen and a piece after 1960 for audition. And encouraging to see:

When you have an elective choice, we encourage you to include a work in your audition repertoire by a composer from historically underrepresented gender, racial, ethnic, and cultural heritages.

We are also happy to recommend the following as additional resources that expand our knowledge of a wider breadth of repertoire:

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Sent you a DM. :blush:

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Adding this: WOMEN COMPOSERS / by KAPRALOVA SOCIETY

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I think that most schools claim they want to do this and then set up their audition repertoire lists so it cannot really happen. There are some exceptions, but for the most part I feel most places pay lip service to these efforts.

Viola is a little better than most simply because most of the repertoire is more modern, and most places ask for something modern. Violists have more works by women by percentage (thank you Rebecca Clarke, among others, for starting that trend!) simply because more of their rep is 20th or 21st century.

But what I found for violin auditions was that even if schools suggested it, we couldn’t find a way to do it. They required Bach and Paganini and a concerto movement, and then maybe one extra piece. You really can’t stray too far on the concerto for violin – you have to play something standard. That only left the extra piece, which was sometimes virtuosic, sometimes modern, sometimes a sonata, sometimes Mozart, and sometimes an etude. In order to avoid having to prepare 10 different pieces, most people try to choose a piece that can satisfy multiple of those categories. My son only ended up playing one piece by an underrepresented composer, and that was for his recent modern piece at Juilliard.

There are some teachers who specifically require this (see the oboe audition list for Curtis, for example), but that is rare.

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Thanks @TooManyViolinists. I see 56 views and no responses! I found yours interesting so appreciate the info. I am a bit outdated when it comes to auditions.

The music world is very conservative, partly due to audience and donor preferences. And comparing applicants may be easier with the traditional repertoire. Too bad for the many composers working today or even the last 60 years. Some orchestras are making great progress though. New works may attract younger audiences.

Julius Eastman has gotten attention in recent years (sad story, died alone of AIDS), and to a lesser extent Florence Price. Caroline Shaw won the Pulitzer. And so on.

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Not so many by women and composers of color yet, although a number are on the way - but there are some terrific contemporary violin concertos out there. A shame they can’t be used for auditions - as they would certainly make the applicant stand out! Wonderful violin concertos by John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Thomas Ades, Gyorgy Ligeti, Missy Mazzoli, & Philip Glass, for a start.

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Valerie Coleman and Amanda Harberg both have rep for flute. S24 used a piece by Adolphus Hailstork for auditions. I thought that some of the flute auditions did request a piece by a under-represented composer

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I looked up Hailstork. Born 1941, he is of “African American, Native American and European ancestry and his works blend musical ideas from the African, American and European traditions.” Seems like a great choice for an audition.

Valerie Coleman is pretty well-known (“flutist, composer, advocate, educator”). I looked up Amanda Harberg, compose, pianist and professor at Berklee. I wonder if she studied with Corigliano.

New works to listen to…and maybe for others to play!

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I just realized where we have seen the inclusive repetoire, the National Flute association has a yearly competition for different levels and they always include an under represented composer and a new work

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I am stuck inside with snow and cold temps outside, bored, so I looked up various schools’ final violin audition requirements. I was curious. Maybe the info is helpful to someone.

NEC includes “One piece of your choosing which is personally meaningful to you. Applicants are encouraged to explore works by underrepresented composers.”

Oberlin : " We are committed to a diversity of voices in the literature. Works by composers from historically underrepresented groups are especially welcome in all choice categories."

USC includes “An open/choice work or movement (the Strings department welcomes repertoire composed by a member of marginalized and/or under-represented groups. To see a sample list of some pieces, please click here.)” List is of BIPOC composers, both M and F.

Boston Conservatory: " As part of the Conservatory’s mission to advance diversity and inclusion in all forms, we strongly suggest that one or more of your selections be written by a composer from an underrepresented group(s), such as, but not limited to, works by Asian, BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and women composers, or other underrepresented identities."

Manhattan School of Music: “The MSM String Faculty encourages applicants to explore the enormous variety of string repertoire, including the many important contributions from culturally diverse composers when choosing repertoire for auditions.”

Mannes Conservatory " encourages the performance of music of our time and the works of BIPOC, women, and gender-nonconforming composers."

Bard, Peabody and Lawrence include a “work of your choice.”

Jacobs, Beinen, UMichigan, San Francisco, DePaul, Eastman, St. Olaf have language like “standard concerto” or “standard repertoire”

One mentions a work composed since 1970 and a few mention a composition of their own (I didn’t keep track of these).

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Fascinating - that gives insight into the individual departments at those music schools.

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For cello, for us, that meant Andrea Casarubios or Reena Esmail. Both great options with lovely solo and accompanied works that check a few different boxes.

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Ah Andrea is also a cellist About - ANDREA CASARRUBIOS and Spanish American.

Someone else wrote me that they were playing Esmail Reena Esmail – Composer She is Indian American.

Both do some orchestral work.

@RangerDannger9 was this for an audition?

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Yes - this checked the boxes for modern/underrepresented/”piece of your choosing” to try to limit how many pieces of rep needed to be prepared.

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This is interesting and yes it is a growing thing in classical music, you are seeing it with repertoire and also in the makeup of ensembles for example. I can tell you with experience that presenters and agents are encouraging groups to broaden their rep to include music from under represented groups.

Some of the rep requirements as listed give pause. One of the big problems with choosing a work that is from such composers is how do you know what the panel will accept? If you choose Samuel Coleridge (the composer, not the poet), who was black, is that acceptable in terms of musical level/content for what they are looking for? (I don’t know his specific rep, whether for example he wrote a violin concerto). Also, some reqs seem to be limiting diverse composers to modern music, but there were people writing music in the baroque, classical and romantic periods who would qualify. But will the committee think it is deserving of being used? It is one of the reasons students stay with ‘the old reliables’, why violinists would choose a mozart or haydn piece, maybe the tchaikovsky violin concerto, and in modern music choose let’s say Bartok, because they know those are acceptable.

And so much comes down to the panel, you get people on it who are traditionalists, might be a problem.

Just saying why this to me introduces complexity for the auditioner, not about the goal. My guess is talk to your teacher about it, but also contact the schools you are thinking of applying to and ask.

Audition rep is already a pain because in some ways schools can vary a lot in what they require, and you end up with a fairly large list to learn even if a lot is standard (on violin, you can count on the bach solo violin pieces being part of it, whether single movement or contrasting movements), and while this in some ways gives you a lot broader list to choose from, it also adds to the burden of making sure it is acceptable musically. As always, just my views and opinions.

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When I viewed the school sites as listed above, a piece representing a contemporary composer/composer after 1960 and so on was specified separately (or instead of) a composer from an underrepresented group. So yeah, a much earlier composer would be fine to represent a more marginalized group. Women and LGBQT+ composers, LatinX composers are included, not just BIPOC.

I don’t see how a piece could be risky for schools that are explicitly asking for these works. In fact, in some schools (Oberlin) the braver the better.

The general public seems to think that composers stopped around 1900. The great white male masters have been made into marble busts and inscribed on buildings. The idea of the heroic composer really started with Beethoven. This perception leaves less room for others and the inclusive repertoire requirements are an effort to combat that. It’s a pretty small effort and as others have said, there are ways around it most of the time.

As I wrote before, music is quite conservative to please donors and audiences. Most schools are not requiring a non-traditional, non-standard piece. But as I noted, a few are. Some orchestras are adding new pieces, often in sandwich mode, with the more expected composers first and last. The musicians specializing in contemporary or underrepresented composers seem to be mostly playing in ensembles/quartets and it has become a struggle. At least one is moving to Berlin.

It is easy and fun to look at contemporary or modern art. Music takes time to listen to. I personally think one factor in music is that we enjoy it more hearing it more than once. It is almost as if the music gets entered into our brain the first time and experienced with later listening in a deeper way. The old canon is familiar. New pieces tend to be heard once. I don’t see a lot of change happening soon.

I did go to a concert where ushers and audience members were clearly not satisfied with the program but when Arvo Part’s Spiegel and Spiegel was played there was a standing ovation. Beautiful.

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