Historical Performance Auditions

SFCM Students playing Historical Instruments

Welcome, historical performance students!

Below are the audition requirements for the Historical Performance area. For full details—including application requirements and audition dates—please visit our Application & Auditions page.

Audition requirements are updated each September for the upcoming application cycle.

Live auditions will be held on campus in San Francisco. If you’re unable to attend in person, virtual auditions via video recording are available upon request once the audition scheduling module opens. Additional details can be found on the Application & Auditions page.

SFCM Historical Performance

Historical Performance opportunities in performance and academic courses are open to all SFCM students. We seek to stimulate a vivid dialogue between students, faculty, guest artists, and audiences about the important place of historical performance in music making today. Our acclaimed period instrument Baroque Ensemble performs regularly throughout the year. Our remarkable period instrument collection includes instruments from the seventeenth century to the present. A full complement of baroque violins, violas, celli, double basses, viols, historical plucked strings, historical keyboards, transverse flutes, baroque oboes and bassoons are available to all SFCM students. Read more about Historical Performance.

Audition Requirements

There is no prescreening requirement for Historical Performance applicants.

Audition requirements are flexible. The repertoire as specified in the catalogue should serve as a guide. While some potential students may have extensive experience with period instruments, others may be newer to the field having primarily studied modern instruments. Being new to the instrument should not discourage potential students from applying. What is most important is a passion for the music and a desire to study it on historically appropriate instruments.

Degree Level	Repertoire Requirements
Bachelor of Music	One J.S. Bach French suite or other dance suite of Bach or two preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier One movement of a composer of the English Virginalist school or a work by a French baroque composer One Scarlatti sonata
Master of Music	One work of the English Virginalist school or a toccata of Frescobaldi or Froberger One major work of J.S. Bach (e.g. an English Suite or Partita, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, Italian Concerto, Overture in B Minor, or another large work) One suite by one of the following composers: L. Couperin, D'Anglebert, Froberger, F. Couperin, or Rameau

Professional Studies Certificate:

One 17th-century Italian toccata or French unmeasured prelude
One major work of Bach
One third work of your choice of either 2 Scarlatti sonatas or a work of F. Couperin or Rameau
Optional: a Classical-era sonata or excerpts performed on a fortepiano or modern piano.

Degree Level	Repertoire Requirements
Master of Music	One early Italian violin sonata (before 1650) One slow movement from one of the three solo Bach sonatas One fast movement from one of the La Stravaganza (opus 4) Vivaldi concerti One slow and one more lively movement from Couperin Concerts Royaux
Professional Studies Cert.	One early Italian sonata (before 1650) of your choice One slow and fast movement from the Bach solo sonatas (no partitas) One Allegro from a solo Vivaldi concerto

Master of Music and Professional Studies Certificate:

First or last movement of Brandenburg 6, first viola part
One Sarabande from one of Bach’s cello suites
First and second movements of Telemann’s viola concerto
One first movement from one of Robert Flackton’s three viola sonatas. They are sonatas 4-6 at this link (sonatas 1-3 are for cello)

Master of Music and Professional Studies Certificate:

One Gabrielli Ricercar
Two contrasting movements of solo Bach
Two contrasting movements of an 18th-century concerto or sonata

Master of Music:

Two contrasting movements of a Bach sonata
Two contrasting movements of Marais
A division by Simpson or Ortiz

Professional Studies Certificate:

One solo song of Caccini, Peri, Monteverdi, Strozzi, or other early 17th C. Italian composers
One Purcell song or work of a 17th/early 18th C. French composer
One secular or sacred secco recitative by J.S. Bach or Handel
One secular or sacred aria by J.S. Bach or Handel