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Giving & Alumni
College of Music
Giving & Alumni
College of Music
Admissions

Auditions

The College of Music requires a successful audition on major instrument or voice for all freshmen, transfer students, and graduate performance or conducting students. The audition determines acceptance as a music major. The audition will be performed for representative members of the music performance faculty.

Audition Procedures

  • A live, on-campus audition is required for full acceptance and for scholarship consideration.
  • Those who cannot visit the campus because they live a great distance from East Lansing, Michigan, may submit a recording but are not considered for scholarships, assistantships, or fellowships. Additionally, such students can only be accepted on provisional status until a live audition is successfully completed within the first semester of study. This live audition could take place immediately or at any time within that first semester, at the discretion of the area faculty.
  • All piano performance applicants at the graduate or undergraduate level, are required to perform a live audition.  Recordings are only accepted in rare cases.  Please contact the College of Music Admissions Office prior to applying if a live audition is not possible.

Candidates requiring recordings: All graduate performance and performance diploma applicants in voice, classical saxophone, classical percussion, flute, clarinet, violin and classical piano must submit a pre-screening recording. All undergraduate piano performance applicants must also submit a prescreening recording.  This recording must be received no later than December 1 (fall applicants). Recordings will be reviewed by a committee beginning the week following the December 1 deadline. You will be notified via email as to whether or not you will be invited for a live audition. The recording quality must be sufficient to make a reasonable judgment of ability.

Voice recordings should include one German lied, one French mélodie, two arias (at least one must be an opera aria), and one English art song. Piano or orchestral accompaniment is required except in the rare instance where the selection is designed as an a capella piece. In this case, the other selections should be with either piano or orchestra. There should be no selection offered as a capella that has a designed accompaniment.

Piano recordings should contain three major works of contrasting periods.

Saxophone, Violin, Clarinet, Percussion and Flute recordings should contain literature comparable to the live audition requirements (refer to the Admissions section under your specific program).

To help guide prospective undergraduate and graduate students as they prepare for auditions, we offer the following links, which include a list of suggested audition materials. Please note that these are suggested audition materials and represent the minimum level of proficiency required for admission. It is most important that you prepare an audition that best demonstrates your musical and technical capabilities in your chosen performing medium.

For audition materials, see details listed within the degree program.

To register for an audition, you will need to create an admissions account to submit two applications:

  1. Main, University Application (First-year, Transfer or Graduate)
  2. College of Music Supplemental Application
Create an Account