<p>I agree with Lorelei that you should not be put in this position at all - the school should provide whatever other artists are required for your audition, and good ones too. Did you ever ask Rutgers whether that was a possibility?</p>
<p>However, since you are in this position, I will say that as a singer and instrumentalist who occasionally freelances I have never had a contract that pro-rated my pay in chunks of less than an hour. The pay has always been either a fixed amount for a specified number of performances plus up to a certain number of rehearsal hours, or else based on an hourly rate that paid the full hourly amount for every hour or fraction thereof (often with a lower rate for rehearsal hours.) Personally, I find it easier to deal with the former type because a lot less clock watching is done by both parties and everyone knows up front what their basic costs and income for the job are going to be. In your position, I would probably start with an offer of $200 for the audition plus one rehearsal of up to two hours and possibly be willing to move to $250 if you feel that this is someone with whom you work really well. If that turned out to be insufficient, I know several very good sopranos who live within an hour of Mason Gross, know lots of repertoire and would probably be happy to get the work at that rate. Feel free to PM me if you need some contacts.</p>