The School of Music provides a piano accompanist for string auditions in Boston. Candidates must bring the piano score to the audition.
The applicant should be prepared to perform at least two solo works, one from memory. One of the works should include a sonata or a concert movement that demonstrates cantilena style (slow tempo, legato melodic line, sustained phrasing, singing tone quality), and the other work should demonstrate technical facility (fast tempo, variety in rhythm, correct phrasing, tone quality, finger agility). Each applicant also should be prepared to play an étude or study written expressly for his or her instrument and all scales and arpeggios that demonstrate the applicant's knowledge and command of the fingerboard. The following are examples of literature appropriate for the audition:
Movements from sonatas by composers such as Bach, Handel, and Mozart; movements equal to the level of concerti by Mozart, Viotti, and Bruch; studies and/or études by Kreutzer, Fiorillo, Rode, etc.; or examples of solo literature selected from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic, and Contemporary eras of music.
Applicants seeking to enter the MusM program in string performance must perform from memory the first movement of a standard concerto, a movement from an unaccompanied Bach suite, a virtuoso piece with piano accompaniment, and a movement of a sonata.
String applicants should prepare material equivalent to a master's level recital program.