Brass Audition Requirements

Brass Undergraduate Audition Requirements

trumpet, French horn, trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, tuba
 
Instrumental auditions for incoming freshman applicants must be performed without accompaniment. For transfer students, please prepare the graduate requirements for your audition. Audition material should include:
 
  • An étude;
  • Two movements of contrasting nature and tempi from a sonata or concerto;
  • Please prepare all major scales and arpeggios;
  • Possible sight-reading

Brass Graduate Audition Requirements 

Horn, trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, tuba

No pre-screen required

Instrumental auditions must be performed without accompaniment.

Prepare two movements of contrasting nature from the solo repertoire and three orchestral excerpts. For your solo repertoire, you may choose from the suggested pieces below or make your own choices at a similar level of difficulty. We ask that you play the listed excerpts. In addition, please prepare all major and minor (natural, melodic, and harmonic) scales and arpeggios and be prepared to sight-read.

If you are submitting a recorded audition, please make sure that there is no accompaniment, and that the recording has not been edited and does not contain reverb. Recorded auditions should also include one major and three minor scales (one each: natural, melodic, and harmonic) and corresponding arpeggios. Each piece or selection may be uploaded as a separate video file with the title in English or the original language in the file name.

As part of the Conservatory’s mission to advance diversity and inclusion in all forms, we strongly suggest that one or more of your selections be written by a composer from an underrepresented group(s), such as, but not limited to, works by Asian, BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and women composers, or other underrepresented identities.

Trumpet

Suggested repertoire:

  • Joseph Haydn: Concerto
  • Paul Hindemith: Sonata
  • Adolphus Hailstork: Sonata

Orchestral excerpts:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore (No. 2 and No. 3)
  • Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (Ballerina’s Dance)
  • Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

French Horn

Suggested repertoire:

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 2, 3, or 4
  • Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 or 2
  • Reinhold Glière: Horn Concerto
  • Gina Gillie: Sonata for Horn and Piano

Orchestral excerpts:

  • Richard Strauss: Opening solo from Till Eulenspiegel
  • Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3, third movement (Poco allegretto) solo, Horn 1, m. 98-110
  • Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, first movement, Horn 1, Rehearsal 17–21

Trombone

Suggested repertoire:

  • Frank Martin: Ballade
  • Darius Milhaud: Concertino d’Hiver
  • Anthony Barfield: Red Sky
  • Henri Tomasi: Concerto

Orchestral excerpts:

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Tuba Mirum
  • Maurice Ravel: Bolero
  • Hector Berlioz: “Hungarian March”

Bass Trombone

Suggested repertoire:

  • Elizabeth Raum: Concerto for Bass Trombone, movement 1
  • Alexei Lebedev: Concerto Allegro
  • Alexei Lebedev: Concerto in One Movement
  • Eugene Bozza: “New Orleans”
  • Ken Amis: Concerto for Tuba

Orchestral excerpts:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
  • Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
  • Richard Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”
  • Silvestre Revueltas: “Sensemayá”
  • José Pablo Moncayo: “Huapango”

Euphonium

Suggested repertoire:

  • Joseph Horovitz: Concerto for Euphonium and Chamber Orchestra
  • Kevin Day: Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Ensemble
  • Philip Sparke: Harlequin

Orchestral excerpts:

  • Mussorgsky/Ravel: “Bydlo” from Pictures at an Exhibition
  • Gustav Holst: “Mars” from The Planets
  • Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben 

Tuba

Suggested repertoire:

  • Paul Hindemith: Sonata
  • Vaughan Williams: Concerto
  • Ken Amis: Concerto for Tuba

Orchestral excerpts:

  • Richard Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”
  • Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
  • Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique