Graduate Audition and Portfolio Information

Graduate Student Audition & Portfolio Information

Welcome to the School of Music at WSU, where we invite talented and passionate musicians to join our vibrant community of artists and scholars. The audition requirements for graduate students are listed below. We encourage prospective candidates to prepare a diverse repertoire showcasing their technical proficiency and expressive capabilities. We look forward to talking with each candidate more about WSU and witnessing the exceptional talent that they bring to the audition.

Required Supplemental Materials by Area

Woodwinds

Flute

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either five orchestral excerpts or an unaccompanied solo piece by a living composer

If you have questions about flute repertoire or flute audition procedures, please contact Dr. Hilary Jones, Assistant Professor of Flute.

Oboe

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either five orchestral excerpts or an unaccompanied solo piece by a living composer

If you have questions about oboe repertoire or oboe audition procedures, please contact Dr. Kristin Weber, Instructor of Oboe.

Clarinet

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either five orchestral excerpts or an unaccompanied solo piece by a living composer

If you have questions about clarinet repertoire or clarinet audition procedures, please contact Rachelle Goter, Assistant Educator of Clarinet.

Bassoon

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either five orchestral excerpts or an unaccompanied solo piece by a living composer

If you have questions about bassoon repertoire or bassoon audition procedures, please contact Zachary Hauge, Instructor of Bassoon

Saxophone

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either five orchestral excerpts or an unaccompanied solo piece by a living composer
In addition, if you are interested in jazz, you are welcome to perform repertoire from that genre as well

If you have questions about saxophone repertoire or saxophone audition procedures, please contact James Pisano, Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies, or Dr. Courtney Long, Instructor of Saxophone

Brass

Horn

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either five orchestral excerpts or an unaccompanied solo piece by a living composer

If you have questions about horn repertoire or horn audition procedures, please contact Dr. Jeb Wallace, Associate Professor of Horn.

Trumpet

Video recording:

One solo work
Three orchestral excerpts of the applicant’s choice

If you have questions about trumpet repertoire or trumpet audition procedures, please contact Dr. David Hunsicker, Associate Professor of Trumpet.

Trombone

Tenor Trombone

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Orchestral excerpts
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Tuba Mirum from Requiem
- Richard Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
- Gioachino Rossini: La Gazza Ladra
- Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

Bass Trombone

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Orchestra excerpts
- Richard Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
- Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
- Joseph Haydn: The Creation
- Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 3

If you have questions about trombone repertoire or trombone audition procedures, please contact Matt Blauer, Instructor of Trombone.

Euphonium & Tuba

Video recording:

Two movements of a standard concerto or sonata
Either three orchestral excerpts (tuba) or an Arban characteristic study (euphonium)

If you have questions about low brass repertoire or low brass audition procedures, please contact Phillip Black, Assistant Professor of Tuba.

Percussion

Video recordings of both solo and orchestral repertoire.

Solos (required):

- 4-mallet marimba, two examples
- Contemporary solo
- J.S. Bach solo (violin sonatas & partitas, lute suites, cello suites)
- Snare drum solo (ex. Mitchell Peters Advanced Snare Drum Studies or Hard Times, Jacques Delecluse Douze Études or Keiskleiriana)
- Timpani solo (ex. Hochrainer, Woud, Delecluse, Carter)

Standard, contrasting orchestral excerpts (required):

- Two timpani excerpts
- Two xylophone excerpts
- Two glockenspiel excerpts
- Two snare drum excerpts

Optional:

- Drum set
- Multi-percussion
- Chamber music
- Latin or other non-Western percussion
- Steel pan

If you have questions about percussion repertoire or percussion audition procedures, please contact Gerald Scholl, Professor of Percussion.

Piano (Performance and Pedagogy)

Video recording:

Recent performance of roughly fifteen minutes. Include at least two pieces in contrasting style periods such as a Baroque dance movement or prelude and fugue, Classical sonata movement, Romantic era work, or a contemporary work.

Other material:

Repertoire list (PDF)

If you have questions about piano repertoire or piano audition procedures, please contact Dr. Meg Gray, Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy and Area Coordinator, Keyboard.

Organ

Video recording:

Prelude and fugue by J.S. Bach
Lyrical piece or movement from a work by a composer of the late-19th to early-20th c.
Short piece by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault or François Couperin
Major virtuosic piece or movement from a work by a composer of the 20th century

Other material:

List of repertoire studied in undergraduate studies (PDF)

If you have questions about organ repertoire or organ audition procedures, please contact Lynne Davis, Professor of Organ.

Voice (including Opera Performance)

Video recording:

Four recordings showing facility in English, Italian, German, and French repertoire of various styles

Other material:

Headshot and resumé (PDF)
Statement of academic and career goals (PDF)

If you have questions, please contact Alan Held, Professor of Voice / Director of Opera Studies / Area Coordinator, Voice

Strings

Violin

Video recording:

One movement of a major concerto
One complete unaccompanied Bach Sonata or Partita
One additional contrasting piece of repertoire

If you have questions about violin repertoire or violin audition procedures, please contact Dr. Timothy Jones, Assistant Professor of Violin.

Viola

Video recording:

One movement of a major concerto
One complete unaccompanied Bach Sonata, Partita, or Suite
One additional contrasting piece of repertoire

If you have questions about viola repertoire or viola audition procedures, please contact Catherine Cosiglio, Professor of Viola.

Cello

Video recording:

One movement of a major concerto
One complete unaccompanied Bach Suite
One additional contrasting piece of repertoire or five orchestral excerpts

If you have questions about cello audition procedures, please contact Dr. Leonid Shukaev, Associate Professor of Cello.

Bass

Video recording:

One movement of a major concerto
One complete unaccompanied Bach Sonata, Partita, or Suite
One additional contrasting piece of repertoire

If you have questions about Bass audition procedures, please contact Dr. Mark Foley, Professor of Double Bass, Electric Bass.

Guitar

Prepare three jazz standards of varying tempos and styles, of which one should be an unaccompanied ballad performed in a chord solo manner. All materials must be memorized, and tune selection should reflect a graduate-level understanding of jazz repertoire. Some examples of possible tune choices might be: Confirmation, Alone Together, Ceora, Stella by Starlight, Darn that Dream, Stablemates, It Could Happen to You, Wave.

Follow the requirements above, and please ensure your video makes it clear you are not reading music.

If you have questions, please contact William Flynn, Associate Professor of Guitar and Area Coordinator, Jazz Studies.

Conducting

Wind ensemble conducting

Video recording:

Brief rehearsal and/or performance of the candidate’s conducting

If you have questions about the wind conducting program, please contact Dr. Timothy Shade, Director of Bands.

Choral conducting

Video recording:

Brief rehearsal and/or performance of the candidate’s conducting

If you have questions about the wind conducting program, please contact Dr. Ryan Beeken, Director of Choral Activities.

Orchestral conducting

Video recording:

Brief rehearsal and/or performance of the candidate’s conducting

If you have questions about the wind conducting program, please contact Dr. Mark Laycock, Director of Orchestras / Area Coordinator, strings.

Composition

Portfolio of scores and recordings of original works (not arrangements):

Minimum of three and maximum of four works
Works should be written or substantially revised within the last four years
Works should be written for a variety of media (instruments and voices)
Include both scores and recordings
Scores (where applicable) should be professional, computer-engraved, and print-ready PDFs
Recordings of all works are required; live performance or rehearsal recordings preferred, computer realizations acceptable. Recordings may be videos or audio-only.

If you have questions about the wind conducting program, please contact Dr. David MacDonald, Assistant Professor of Composition, Theory, and Technology