It is normally a “no-no” to do songs from anything currently on Broadway or on tour as the basic songs that you use for college auditions. However, its OK to have one or two in your rep book ready to go. It is common in auditions to be asked, “what else do you have?” and they may want to hear you sing a song currently on Broadway if its in your book and they think it may show something that they are looking for in you. Hence, the recommendation from Matt to put at least one current Broadway song in your book.
An “Art Song” is a song from the classical repertoire commonly used for Vocal Performance auditions by music majors. These are used by some BM in MT programs like Belmont. An example of a book of art songs commonly used for such auditions is Hal Leonard’s *24 Italian Songs and Arias/i and Hal Leonard’s *First Book of Soprano Solos/i. For more examples, Google, “Art Songs for College Auditions.”
My d keeps two rep books:
- Her "Master Book of Rep" which contains everything that she has prepared other the past 10 years for auditions, shows, recitals, etc. that she likes to sing. She purges some things from this book as they age, about once a year.
- Her "Bring to Auditions Rep Book" that contains her current go-to audition songs that she is ready to sing at any time. Her MT classes have included a lot of work on audition rep.
For college auditions, you should have a set of songs like those that suggested by Matt (Golden Age, Contemporary, etc.) plus any other songs that meet specific audition requirements and/or are recommended by classes or coaches. You don’t want to include too many songs, but you should include any songs that you feel show important characteristics of your range and interpretive capabilities. For example, many students include something from Disney, which is another “no-no” for most auditions, but these songs are sometimes be picked by college audition panels if they ask “what else do you have?”
However, you don’t want to have so much material in your book such that its hard to put on a piano music rack.