Preparing for Music School Auditions

An audition is the part of a music application where a school hears you, and the rules differ so much from school to school that the only reliable preparation starts with the school's own page. This guide shows what those pages typically specify and how to turn them into a plan. It does not tell you what repertoire will impress a panel, and it cannot promise that any preparation leads to a place.

Start with the school's audition page for your instrument

Audition pages are usually organised by instrument or voice type, and sometimes by level (first-year, transfer, master's). Find the exact page for your instrument and level, then copy the requirements into your own document with the date you read them. Requirements are revised between cycles, so a page from last year, or a friend's memory of it, is not a source.

Illinois State University, for example, lists separate repertoire pages for keyboard, voice, woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings and guitar, with jazz variants, and states that undergraduate and graduate voice requirements differ by major. At UC Irvine the page for the B.Mus. covers only piano, strings and vocal arts; other instruments are directed to the B.A. in Music, which that page describes as having no audition. Whether you need an audition at all can depend on which degree you choose, so read BM versus BA in music before you commit to a plan.

Read the repertoire as categories

Most pages ask for categories of music rather than named pieces. UC Irvine asks piano applicants, from memory, for a Bach prelude and fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, the first movement of a classical sonata, and a Romantic or 20th/21st-century work. For first-year vocal applicants it asks for three contrasting pieces covering three of four style periods, with at least one in Italian, French, German or Spanish. Illinois State says most instruments list suggested repertoire and that applicants may choose similar works. Jazz auditions there typically include scales, a bebop melody, improvisation over blues and standards, and sight-reading.

Practical steps:

• List each category the school asks for and mark which of your pieces fills it.
• Check whether pieces must be memorised. Some pages say so explicitly.
• Check time limits, required movements and whether a cadenza is expected.
• If a page is unclear, email the school rather than guessing. UC Irvine's own page tells string applicants to confirm with the listed faculty contact where requirements are not fully clear.

Plan around accompaniment

Accompanist rules are one of the least standardised parts of an audition.

• Codarts in Rotterdam says it provides a pianist for live exams except for harp, organ, piano, composition and percussion, that you may bring your own accompanist, and that if you use theirs you should choose mainstream, accessible repertoire; for less familiar or complex pieces it recommends bringing your own.
• Illinois State provides an accompanist at all in-person voice auditions and asks for the music by email or upload at least one week beforehand.
• UW-Madison lets vocal applicants with a live audition use its on-campus accompanist and asks for clear PDF scans at least one week ahead.
• UC Irvine states that for strings "no accompanist is needed or desired".

Some pages say nothing, in which case ask. Also ask whether an accompanist is free; a few schools' public pages do not say. See costs beyond tuition for how accompanist fees can appear on the cost side.

Choose live, virtual or recorded where the school offers a choice

Formats vary: Cleveland Institute of Music says audition days can be virtual or in person, but requires in-person auditions for DMA, Artist Diploma, collaborative piano and timpani and percussion applicants. UW-Madison states that for 2026-27 its auditions are hybrid and you choose a remote or a live audition, not both. Codarts allows applicants abroad to choose Rotterdam or an online exam through Teams, a choice made once in the application system. Check whether a virtual option is treated the same as a live one for scholarship consideration; if the page does not say, ask. If you are travelling, build the cost into your budget early.

Work backwards from the dates

Audition pages give dates that trigger a chain of deadlines. A few examples from the pages above:

• UC Irvine: prescreen due December 11, 2026, results by January 4, 2027, in-person weekend January 30-31, 2027.
• Cleveland Institute of Music: application and prescreening videos due December 1, 2026; in-person auditions on four February 2027 dates.
• UW-Madison: audition dates of November 21, 2026, January 30, 2027 and February 27, 2027, each with an earlier application deadline.
• RNCM: UCAS Conservatoires applications for most performance courses opened 9 July and closed 1 October 2026, with late applications accepted for most courses, and an additional Acceptd application required.

Set your own internal deadlines weeks earlier. Recordings, supporting documents, recommendation letters and sometimes music for the accompanist all have their own dates. Our guide to prescreening versus final auditions covers the recorded stage in more detail.

Prepare for more than the performance

Many auditions include other parts. Codarts includes a music theory test and a motivation interview in its entrance exam for classical bachelor applicants. RNCM states that applicants must show a high level of performing or composition ability and meet academic and English language requirements, and gives Grade 8 in the principal instrument and Grade 5 in theory as guidance for undergraduates. Sight-reading, scales, ear tests or an interview may sit alongside the pieces. If the page lists them, practise them as seriously as the repertoire.

Build a simple preparation calendar

1. Collect the requirements page, deadlines and format for each school in one table.
2. Choose repertoire that satisfies as many schools as possible, but never assume two schools' lists match.
3. Set a date by which each piece is performance-ready, with a buffer.
4. Do several full run-throughs under audition conditions, including the timing and the format (live, filmed or on a call).
5. Confirm travel, accompanist, instrument and room arrangements.
6. Keep records of what you submitted and when.

What this guide cannot tell you

Audition results depend on the panel, the cohort and the number of places, and no page we have read offers a formula. Whether a given repertoire choice or teacher will help you is a conversation to have with your own teacher. Use choosing a music school to decide where to apply, then browse bachelor's programmes and the instrument pages and confirm everything on the school's own site. Our methodology explains how we record audition details and when we last checked them.