I’m applying to music programs at UMich, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins for violin performance–is there a way to gauge my level of playing compared to admitted students? i want to see if it’s even worth auditioning lol. i tried looking on YouTube for successful audition videos but no luck
As noted, you can watch playing of others.
But really, for your acceptance chances as a music performance major, what matters is the strength of the applicant pool this year who are doing auditions on your instrument. Your playing will be judged alongside theirs…and there is no way to predict the strength of that group.
For opinions, you should be discussing your level of playing with your private applied instrument teacher and ensemble directors.
2 Likes
If you search for video by school name, limit to past year, there should be quite some results. They wouldn’t be audition videos but there are some current students’ playing. If you watch some of those quartet, quintet , and chamber performances, you should be able to get an idea of the range of their skills.
2 Likes
If you have a private teacher, they are a good reference to gauge your chances. Also, as a violinist, you must be part of several musician groups, such as school orchestra, city/metro youth orchestra, regional orchestra, all-state orchestra, music student organizations, etc. If you ask the adults directing and/or managing these groups, they can likely give you names of some previous members who are currently studying string performance in college. Get in touch with them and you can learn a lot more.
1 Like
Hi! My son is a freshman violist at UMich this year. This is going to sound sooooooo stalkerish, but it at least gave me an idea if my son was at least in the ballpark. UMich lists the concert programs on their calendar of events:
The following link will take you to a page where you can see the program from the first concert last month:
You can google their names and see if any videos pop up. You can also watch livestream of their concerts, and SMTD has a you tube page with all the past concerts. The University Philharmonia has a concert this Thursday coming up (all freshman strings are in this orchestra, but there are also upperclassmen and some graduate students in this orchestra.) One more thing you can do is google the violin professors’ names and master class and you might find some of them with students at their school.
5 Likes
Haha! I did this too when my kid applied. It works very well. (I felt a bit like a stalker, too)
3 Likes
Another thing you can do is google the school name, instrument, and senior recital. A lot of times the recitals will pop up on YouTube or the school website, or at least the programs pop up on the school websites. Obviously, there is a difference between an entering freshman and a senior, but it still gives you an idea.
Having said that, I am really familiar with the level of students at 2/3 of these schools and pretty familiar with the third. If you list the repertoire you are working on and some of the things you have done, or privately message a video link, I’d be happy to give you an honest impression.
With Hopkins, isn’t that Peabody? I thought Hopkins itself didn’t have a music program (and I could be wrong).
Michigan is pretty competitive and they have decent violin faculty. My S and his group have done master classes there with the students, and he said there was more of a wide range than at let’s say you would see at one of the top conservatories but they had a lot of talented kids on violin (my S is a violinist)
Northwestern is pretty high level too, one of the reasons is that Northwestern allows dual major and is a top academic school as well as a strong music school, so it attracts kids who are musically talented but their parents want them to have another degree,too.
I agree with others, that if you have contact through teachers or music programs you may be able to get an idea of the level there required and see what they think. Looking at videos of recitals can give you a general idea of the level, but those may be kids in their last year and may not reflect what they admit.
I would also recommend looking at the requirements for the audition and the level of them, and see what you have worked up to in terms of your concertos, solo bach and the sonatas and the like. Usually the more competitive schools ask for more rep (whether they actually will ask for it is moot IME). So instead of let’s say a movement of a Bach Sonata or Partita, they want an entire Bach solo piece, or the level of the concertos they ask for.
And as others have said it varies. There will be years where they don’t have many open slots, so it is a lot more competitive than it might be another year.
Another possibility, if your teacher isn’t sure or doesn’t know, would be to contact teachers at the school and see if they would be willing to do an assessment (via zoom or live). It might cost you something, but if you are worried they can tell you if you are in range or not.
I only know too well with auditions how hard it is, that you want to narrow it down to X schools because of having to travel for auditions, the cost, etc. But my opinion fwiw is that unless you look at the audition requirements, and see that you aren’t at that level, or if you do an assessment with a high level teacher and they point out major issues, don’t be afraid to apply at the schools you are interested in. Auditions are a crap shoot in many ways, who is on the jury, what they are looking for, and honestly if you are interested in the violin as a career don’t be afraid to stretch.
It’s absolutely NOT stalking… it’s Opposition Research, and it works even better for Jazz. While I wouldn’t consider the students you find during the process “opponents”, or “adversadies”, (unless they happen to also be applying this year), it is really the best way aside from showing up to live events at the schools and listening to the kids play.
It’s worked out really well for my Jazz drummer son who’s in the thick of the process right now. Luckily, he’s reasonably cooperative, and we already have most apps in and auditions scheduled. He’s even had a couple of admission successes already which really put some wind in his sails.
Good luck OP!
3 Likes
Music performance is done at Peabody, I believe.
Peabody is the conservatory but the applications go to JHU and the acceptances come from JHU.
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.