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Application now open for Fall and Spring 2025!

String Auditions

Collegiate Apply / Request Information

Application now open for Fall and Spring 2025!

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How to Apply 

Prescreening Audition Requirements

For violin, viola, and cello applicants only. Double bass and harp should see final auditions below.

Review the requirements for your area of study below. If you have questions about your repertoire selections within these requirements, please first consult with your current private teacher or other mentor.  Instrumental final auditions will be performed unaccompanied. 

Repertoire must be performed from memory.

Prescreening - All Programs

  • One movement of a standard concerto
  • Two contrasting movements of a Bach partita or sonata

Repertoire does not need to be memorized.

Prescreening - All Programs

  • One movement of a standard viola concerto
  • Two contrasting movements of either a Bach suite for solo cello or a Bach sonata or partita for solo violin 

Repertoire does not need to be memorized.

Prescreening - All Programs

  • One movement of a standard concerto
  • Two contrasting movements of a Bach suite

Final Auditoins

Review the requirements for your area of study below. If you have questions about your repertoire selections within these requirements, please first consult with your current private teacher or other mentor. 

Instrumental final auditions will be performed unaccompanied and a piano will not be provided for auditions. 
 

Repertoire must be performed from memory.

Undergraduate

  • Two movements of a Bach solo violin partita or sonata (one slow movement and one fast)
  • Two études, one must be a Paganini Caprice or similar work
  • One movement of a standard concerto
  • One composition of the applicant’s choice (Mozart preferred if the standard concerto previously listed is not a Mozart concerto)

Graduate and Postgraduate

  • Two contrasting movements of a Bach solo sonata or partita
  • One Paganini Caprice
  • One complete Romantic or contemporary concerto
  • One movement of a Mozart concerto

 PSC Concertmaster Track Only

  • Two contrasting movements of a Bach solo sonata or partita
  • One Paganini Caprice
  • One complete Romantic or contemporary concerto
  • One movement of a Mozart concerto
  • Orchestral excerpts:
    • R. Strauss, Don Juan (page 1)
    • Mozart Symphony No. 39, Finale (4th mvt) through bar #78

Repertoire does not need to be memorized.

Final Audition - Undergraduate

  • Two contrasting movements of either a Bach suite for solo cello or a Bach sonata or partita for solo violin
  • One movement of a standard concerto (with cadenza)
  • One contrasting work
     

Final Audition - Graduate and Postgraduate

  • Two contrasting movements of either a Bach suite for solo cello or a Bach sonata or partita for solo violin,
  • One movement of a standard concerto (with cadenza)
  • Two contrasting movements from a sonata for viola and piano
  • One work composed by a woman and/or person from a historically underrepresented racial/ethnic group

Repertoire does not need to be memorized.
 

Final Audition - Undergraduate

  • One movement of a standard concerto
  • Two contrasting movements of a Bach suite
  • One étude

Final Audition - Graduate and Postgraduate

Either the concerto or the sonata listed below should be from the 20th or 21st century.

  • One movement of a standard concerto
  • Two contrasting movements of a Bach suite
  • One movement of a sonata OR a solo contemporary piece written after 1950.

Repertoire does not need to be memorized.

Undergraduate

We encourage applicants to select at least one work by a woman and/or person from a historically underrepresented racial/ethnic group to fulfill at least one of the requirements below.

  • Two major and two minor scales in two octaves, or an étude of your choice
  • One movement of a baroque or classical sonata, concerto, or one-movement piece
  • One movement or a one-movement piece from the Romantic or Contemporary repertoire.

Graduate and Postgraduate

We encourage applicants to select at least one work by a woman and/or person from a historically underrepresented racial/ethnic group to fulfill at least one of the requirements listed below.

  • One concerto or virtuoso piece
  • Two contrasting movements from either a sonata or multi-movement work from the romantic or contemporary repertoire, or two contrasting movements of a Bach cello suite.

Repertoire does not need to be memorized.

Undergraduate

  • ​One étude for harp of intermediate difficulty (Bach/Grandjany, N.C. Bochsa, Dizzi, Godefroid, Posse, Salzedo, Schmidt)
  • ​Two compositions of intermediate difficulty from different periods, including one work composed by a woman and/or person from a historically underrepresented racial/ethnic group.

Graduate and Postgraduate

  • Ravel's Introduction et Allegro, Handel's Concerto in B-flat (entire work), ​or one fast movement of a major harp concerto
  • ​Two compositions of advanced difficulty from different periods, including one work composed after 1950, and one work by a woman and/or person from a historically underrepresented racial/ethnic group.
  • Two contrasting orchestral excerpts

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