Pre-Screening Requirements
All jazz applicants are required to submit a pre-audition screening video through our upload page by December 1. Pre-screenings must be in video format. All videos received after December 1 will only be considered based on the availability of audition times.
Performance of two jazz standards of contrasting style and tempo, at least one from the Great American Songbook.
Note: your performance must have vocal improvisation and/or vocalese. The pre-screen performance can be with a live ensemble or pre-recorded tracks.
Each piece should be recorded in a single take and uploaded as an
individual track. All prescreening materials must be submitted as an online video with high quality audio that has no reverb or other sound enhancements or modifications. Videos must be produced for the purposes of this audition (i.e. not clips from concerts or previous performances). Recordings of individual tracks edited together from multiple takes are not appropriate.
Live Audition Requirements
Successful candidates who pass the pre-screening for undergraduate admission should be prepared to perform the following requirements for an in-person audition:
- A Ballad
- An up-tempo swing or even eighth selection
- A Bebop head with scat and/or vocalese
- A Bossa Nova or contemporary style performance
- Applicant must also, while singing, be able to play the chord changes with a swing feel on the piano to one of the following selections: Take The A Train, By Bye Blackbird, The More I See You, or I Thought About You.
- All graduate applicants will be required to submit a jazz repertoire list of known material and present one’s personally compiled book used for group performances.
- Applicant must sing and demonstrate technical proficiency of registration and range by singing a major and chromatic scale, 2 octaves (key of choice).
- Applicant must sight read 16 bars of a standard, chosen by adjudicator.
All selections, with the exception of the final requirement above, should be standard compositions commonly associated with jazz performance. Accompaniment will be provided at on campus, in-person auditions. Applicant must provide three legible lead sheets for chosen selections in his/her preferred keys for performance. The IREALPRO app can be used as backing tracks for off campus auditions, or you may provide your own accompanist.