Admissions

Congratulations – you survived your college auditions!  You may feel a bit like you’ve climbed Mt. Everest, and the hard part is over.  However, the waiting period before you receive your admissions decisions can be equally (sometimes even more) difficult.  Here are some tips to help you make the most of the next phase of the admissions process.

• Take some time to think about each of your auditions.  What went well, and what could have been better?  What would you like to do differently in your practicing and preparations next time you have an important audition?  By making each audition a learning experience that will help you grow as a musician, you gain value from it regardless of the outcome.

• Don’t be too hard on yourself.  This might sound contrary to the previous point, but it won’t do any good to obsess over a mistake whether big or small.  Musicians have a tendency to be their own toughest critics. Keep a positive outlook, and take some time to celebrate all that you’ve accomplished thus far.  Missing a note or two doesn’t mean that you blew an audition completely. If you were already perfect, there would be no point in going to music school!

• Take on new musical challenges.  You’ve probably been so focused on your audition pieces that you are eager to set them aside for a while.  Now is a great time to start new repertoire, change up your warm-up routine and/or devote some extra time to practicing fundamentals.  Set some new goals to accomplish before the summer is over.

• Stay focused on schoolwork.  Now is the time to catch up in the classes you missed during the audition season.  Also be sure to stay on top of your academics during the upcoming months, and don’t give in to “senioritis.”  The school you attend in the fall will require a final transcript from your previous school, and you don’t want there to be any questions about a sudden downturn in grades.

• Re-connect with family and friends.  The spring and summer will go fast, and next fall you may be far away from people you care about.   Take the time to make some great memories with them now, and let them know how much you appreciate all the support and encouragement they have given you.

When will I find out?

All applicants will be notified via email of their admission decision.  Graduates will be notified by April 1^st, and undergraduates will be notified by April 15^th.  Decisions are sent as they are finalized, and are not sent all at once.  If your friend receives a decision before you, that doesn’t mean anything except that their decision was finalized sooner.  Rest assured that the admissions team is working feverishly to let you know as quickly as possible.

Image: Clocks by blue2likeyou

Many of you will have an interview as part of your audition day at Eastman, depending on the program you are applying to.  Interviews are conducted by a member of Eastman’s faculty or staff – either individually or in small groups.   Interviews are one of my favorite parts of audition days, because they create an opportunity for us to get to know you face-to-face in a more personal way.

The best interviews I’ve participated in are the ones that applicants approach with candor and an open mind, not a rehearsed spiel.  We have your resume on file already, so reciting a list of your notable accomplishments isn’t particularly useful. We are more interested in learning about what inspires you, what your goals are, and how you would fit in as a part of the Eastman community.

In group interviews, it can also be interesting for you to hear from other applicants who share similar goals, though their stories may be very different from your own.  You may be one of the few serious musicians in your high school, but from now on you’ll find many kindred spirits who care about music as much as you do. Your interview will be a unique experience shaped by you and the other participants. Sometimes interview groups are chatty and funny; sometimes they delve in to serious topics like the future of music.  On more than one occasion I’ve even seen applicants strike up new friendships during the course of an interview.

Here are three tips that can help make your interview a good experience:

1. Be yourself.  That’s who we’re interested in getting to know.
2. Plan at least one or two questions that you would like to ask your interviewer.
3. Keep your ears open. You never know what you might learn, or who you might meet!

by Nick German – Music Education/Piano. Class of 2015

As I write these words to my eager, excited, and potentially stressed-out prospective fellow students, I am sitting in front of a computer with a smile on my face. This smile is not there because I finally played my Bach to my teachers’ liking, or even because I just listened to an amazing concert. This smile is here because I know that dreams really can become reality. It feels like it was just yesterday when I shared a dream similar to so many of yours: to find myself in a place where I could develop into the best musician and person I could be. During my college search, I had a strong feeling that the Eastman School of Music was the place for me: a place where hard work pays off, where you can walk down the halls singing your favorite Mozart piece without getting funny looks. (I know…sounds nice doesn’t it?) It’s a place I now call home. I would love to take you through the day where it all began.

My name is Nick German and I am a freshman pianist here at Eastman. As you read this, I can imagine how you might be feeling: anxious, nervous, and stressed. It’s OK! You are no different from me or any of my classmates when we auditioned. Sometimes you may even think “What am I doing!?” or “There is no way I can get into this school!”. I’m going to let you in on a little secret….professors here at Eastman are not looking for perfection. What they look for is a large amount of talent, confidence, and potential.

Here is a little glimpse into what my audition day at Eastman was like…

It all started when I got out of my car and glanced at the words “Eastman School of Music” on the exterior of the building. As my heart raced, I grabbed the door handle and entered. I’m not going to lie…I was a little nervous (to say the least).  Here I was, a senior in high school who came from a tiny school: a big fish in a little pond. I was suddenly thrown into this huge ocean filled with fish from all over the world. I couldn’t get over how many other students were there: musicians from China, Canada, Russia, Germany, South America, France, and of course all over the U.S.

At first, I was expecting to see serious and straight faces reflecting pompous attitudes among students and faculty (as I’ve seen in so many other schools). To my delight, I found the complete opposite! I saw smiles on the faces of every student and faculty member I encountered at Eastman. It wasn’t until August that I found out why (although that’s a completely different story!). At this point, my fear and anxiety was starting to fade. It was now time to take my theory exam. When I walked in the classroom, I felt a bit intimidated seeing all those other prospective students in the room. Don’t be worried! Just keep in mind that others are feeling the same way. After my test, I realized that I was worried for nothing.

Now, it was almost time for the audition I’d been working toward for so many years. As I pianist, I had the difficult challenge of finding the “piano basement”. Luckily, I was approached by two current students who were part of the Eastman Orientation Committee, also known as the E.O.C. (The students on the Eastman Orientation Committee were there for any questions I had, and they will be for you too!) One of the students kindly led me down to the basement, and my ears were greeted with a cascade of notes coming from the bottom of the stairs. As I reached the door, I opened it and was slapped in the face with the overwhelming sound of pianists playing Chopin, Debussy, Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven (among so many others). Once again, my heart raced. I opened the door to an empty room and started to warm up. Some advice for all prospective students: don’t feel like you need to impress the musician next to you by playing your fastest and loudest piece. They are not the ones you need to impress – just focus on you and your music.

I looked at the clock, and saw that it was time to make my way upstairs to my audition. It seemed like the longest walk I have ever taken. In the audition room, I found myself face-to-face with eighty-eight keys and several professors. I took a few deep breaths and began. Our professors have a knack for helping you feel right at home and allowing you to play your best. I finished my last note with a smile of relief and joy. The professors smiled too, and even asked me how I was enjoying my audition (just to be sure I wasn’t overwhelmed.) I walked out with a deep breath and finished up the day by meeting a few other nice prospective students. Eventually I was back in my car and headed home.

I won’t lie to you and say that the whole day was stress-free. It wasn’t. However, I will say that my audition here was made as relaxed as it could be. To those of you who will be coming here to audition, I offer a few last words of advice….

1. Get some sleep the night before and try to eat a good breakfast.
2. Relax and breathe! We all know what you are going through and we’re here to help you with anything you need.
3. Try your best and have no regrets (easier said than done, I know).
4. Be yourself and play from your heart.
5. Have fun and enjoy your experience here!

As I close, I want to wish you all the best of luck. Wear a smile and remember why you are here. No matter what the outcome is, remember: dream big and be proud of yourself! In the words of J.S. Bach: “There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.”

I wish you all the best of luck on your auditions, and I’m looking forward to seeing those big smiles!

Today is the first of five on-campus Friday Audition Days at Eastman.  We are excited to be welcoming such a wonderful group of auditionees and their families to our campus.  Your schedule will be busy while you are here, but make sure you find some time to talk with our current students.  We wish you all the best of luck on your auditions and interviews, and look forward to meeting you!  If you’ve been reading this blog while preparing for your audition, we’d love to hear about which tips you found most useful.

Performance decorum in Mozart's day demanded that there be music on the stand, though he often played from memory. On at least one occasion, he placed a blank sheet on the stand, just to keep up appearances.

Many of you are required, or at least encouraged, to perform all or part of your audition from memory.[i]  What I’ve learned from my own performing and teaching career is that memorization is not important so much for its own sake, but more so for the musical benefits it brings.  The ultimate goal is a musically satisfying, communicative, and ‘alive’ performance.  I’ve also learned that it is rare for a student to get direct training in how to memorize effectively.  As a result, I’ve developed a whole workshop on memorization, but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to hit just on the basics.  I’ll be happy to respond to questions in more detail—just leave a comment on this page.

Memorization basics:

• Put down the instrument.  Study your music as a conductor would study.  Conduct through it.  Sing it.  Understand it (key, meter, tempo, rhythms, dynamics, form).  Get it to a point where you can ‘perform’ the piece in your head.  The better you understand what is happening with the form and the harmony especially, the better you will know the piece.  This is also a good indicator of the difficulty level of the piece relative to your current skill level.  If it is difficult for you to sight-read, and subsequently to visualize, it will be difficult for you to learn, and a more appropriate repertoire choice may be in order.

• Respond to novelty.  Our brains respond to novelty.  We remember well things which have a profound effect on us emotionally.  Repetition in practice is necessary but it is also dangerous in this regard.  It desensitizes us to what is truly remarkable in a piece of music.  Find ways to rediscover what is extraordinary about a particular piece.  There are many ways to do this, but it boils down to approaching the piece with ‘beginner’s mind.’  What would this sound like to someone hearing it for the first time?  What would it have sounded like to someone hearing it for the first time at the time that it was written?  Are their unexpected intervals, cadences, etc., that a lesser composer would have handled differently?  Allowing yourself to be ‘struck’ by these novelties will help them to stick.

• Do mindful repetition only.  It’s no secret that repetition is a necessary part of your practice routine.  But how you engage in repetition has a profound effect on how well you learn your music.  In his book, The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle writes about how learning takes place in the brain when synapses are repeatedly fired, and ‘white matter’ (myelin) wraps around the circuit.  This is good news and bad news.  Our brains learn every time we repeat something—whether we are doing it correctly or not.  This is what makes bad habits so difficult to overcome. Before repeating a passage with a mistake in it, fix the mistake.  Repeat the fix, not the mistake.  Give yourself the experience of doing it correctly, no matter how slowly you have to do it.  It’s after you’ve fixed the problem that mindful repetition should begin.  The ‘maybe-I’ll-get-it-this-time-if-I-get-a-running-start’ approach is not recommended!  This kind of mindful repetition will result in memorization (i.e. ‘learning’), without that being the primary goal.

• Let’s NOT start at the beginning.  It’s not a very good place to start…if you want to be prepared to overcome memory slips.  We’ve all experienced, either directly or indirectly, the memory slip that sends the performer back to the beginning of the piece, only to hit the wall again at the problem spot.  Set up ‘memory pillars’ throughout your piece.  These can be structural (which requires that you know the form of the piece), or they can be the beginnings of particularly vexing passages.  Learn these inside out.  Practice starting cold at each of these pillars.

• Forget perfection.  The aim here is not to avoid mistakes, but rather to be able to overcome them, and minimize them, when they do happen.  An audition jury will be more impressed with your ability to handle a little stumble than they will with a bland ‘mistake free’ performance.  They are interested in gauging your potential artistry.  Pay attention to where the mistakes tend to come.  Why are you making them?  Does your attention tend to lag at a certain point in the piece?  Have you not analyzed that passage, so the accidentals don’t make sense and are difficult to remember?  These might be good places for memory pillars…

• Study theory.  I still remember ‘train-wrecking’ in Bach’s Partita No. 2 in my junior recital.  Afterwards, the jazz guitar teacher, who was on my jury, came up to me and said, “you gotta know the changes, man.”  It seemed an odd thing to say about Bach, until I realized what he meant: you have to understand the underlying harmonic structure in this seemingly ‘linear’ music.  He was right, of course.  The better an understanding you have of how traditional voice-leading and harmony work, the more deeply you can absorb your music.  Ear training and keyboard skills help too, by the way…which is why they are a required part of your curriculum in music school!

• Prepare to be nervous.  As I mentioned above, an audition is not a typical performance experience.  In a previous post, Christina Crispin suggested ways to ‘practice being nervous,’ such as running up and down a flight of stairs before practicing.  This is great advice.  Your body chemistry changes when you are nervous (fight or flight!).  This in itself can cause unexpected memory slips, which can further throw you off.  There is, of course, a direct link between how nervous you feel and how well prepared you are.

Remember that memorization is not the end in itself.  My hope is that I’ve provided some insights to enhancing memory as a step toward the greater goal of deepening the musical experience for both the performer and the listener.  With increased confidence in your knowledge of the music, more of your artistic self is available to interpret, to react, to truly play by heart and from the heart.

The previous post offered some ideas on preparing for your auditions.  Here are some more suggestions to help you get ready.

Use visualization & mental rehearsal.  Creating positive mental images of an event like an audition can be a powerful preparation technique.  Imagine yourself walking into the audition room, greeting those who will hear your audition, and performing each selection in order with musicality and precision.  The goal here is to imagine the performance exactly as you would like it to go. The more detailed your mental picture is, the more it can help you to perform at your full potential. Doing this well requires discipline just like any form of practice.  You can also use mental practice time away from your instrument to help avoid overuse injuries, and to make the most of spare moments that would otherwise be wasted (waiting in line, etc.)

Practice being nervous.   You can do this by performing your audition in a variety of situations, especially ones put you under a bit of pressure.  Even if you don’t feel quite ready yet, set up a time to perform your pieces for a group of friends.  Schedule another run- though for someone you don’t know as well, but whose playing you admire.  Let your listeners know what kinds of feedback you are looking for (musicality, stage presence, rhythmic accuracy, etc.) At least one of these “mock auditions” should be performed in the same clothes you plan to wear at the audition, so that you can test them for comfort.

Another method to simulate the effects of performing under pressure is to jog up and down a flight of stairs before playing or singing though your audition rep.  This will elevate your heart rate, and make you a little bit short of breath.  Also try playing through your audition rep with minimal warm-up time in a room that is slightly cold. Create a variety of these mildly stressful situations for yourself, and then pay close attention to how you react in the moment. Some nervousness is to be expected at an audition, but you’ll be better prepared for a reaction like dry mouth or sweaty palms if you know to expect it and know how it will affect your playing. Demonstrate to yourself that these physical factors are manageable, and that they won’t throw you off.  Also, the more you practice performing under stressful situations, the less nervous you are likely to feel when your audition day arrives.

Keep in mind: everyone wants you to perform your best.  The faculty members listening to your audition know what it is like to perform under pressure, and nothing would make them happier than to hear you play your best. Don’t be fooled into thinking that an audition is an adversarial situation where you are being harshly judged.  Instead, approach it as an opportunity to challenge yourself and to learn something new that you can use in your next performance. At Eastman, faculty members often mention that they are looking for applicants who are eager to learn, and have the potential to develop into better musicians.

Remember that you are also “auditioning” the school.  During your audition day and other college visits, keep in mind that you are looking for the school that feels right to you.  Does the school you are visiting offer the types of opportunities and atmosphere that you are seeking?  Don’t focus so narrowly on the question of “can I get in here?” that you neglect to ask yourself “is this a place I want to be?”

We hope these suggestions will be helpful as you prepare for your upcoming auditions.  Do you have any tips or resources to share?  If so, please use the comment section below.  We are looking forward to hearing you!