The School of Music is now accepting applications to audition for the 2023-24 academic year. Please complete the audition application form through Acceptd, using the button on the righthand side of this page.
Live auditions will take place in the Coulter Building on the WCU campus on the following days:
Please contact the studio faculty in your performance area with any questions you have about specific requirements for your audition, or to arrange an alternate audition day.
Space in each studio is limited. The earlier you're able to submit your application, the more likely you'll be to receive full consideration for the School of Music’s Fall 2023 incoming class.
Please note that you must also apply for admission to the University and for scholarship consideration by February 1, 2023. While the university will continue to accept undergraduate applications after February 1, students who apply after the February 1 scholarship deadline cannot not be considered for scholarships in the 2023-24 school year.
For more information, please contact the School of Music at:
Phone: 828.227.7242
Fax: 828.227.7162
Email: mus@wcu.edu
The School of Music is not accepting string auditions at this time.
Flute
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Eldred Spell, Professor of Flute, at: espell@wcu.edu
Oboe
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Will Peebles, Professor of Bassoon, at: wpeebles@wcu.edu
Clarinet
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Shannon Thompson, Professor of Clarinet, at: thompson@wcu.edu
Bassoon
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Will Peebles, Professor of Bassoon, at: wpeebles@wcu.edu
Saxophone
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Ian Jeffress, Associate Professor of Saxophone, at: jeffress@wcu.edu
Trumpet
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Note: Trumpet applicants should come to the 1/15/22 audition date, or set up an individual audition date/time directly with Dr. Ulrich at ulrich@email.wcu.edu
Your trumpet audition should include the following.
Questions? Please contact Dr. P. Bradley Ulrich, Professor of Trumpet, at: ulrich@wcu.edu
Horn
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these:
Questions? Please contact Dr. Travis Bennett, Professor of Horn, at: tbennett@wcu.edu
Trombone/Euphonium
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Note: Trombone/Euphonium applicants should come to the 1/28/22 audition date if possible, or set up an individual audition date/time directly with Dr. Szabo (zszabo@wcu.edu).
Questions? Please contact Dr. Zsolt Szabo, Associate Professor of Trombone and Euphonium, at: zszabo@wcu.edu
Tuba
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these:
Questions? Please contact Dr. Michael Schallock, Professor of Tuba, at: mschallock@wcu.edu
PERCUSSION
Acceptance into the percussion studio is highly competitive and space is limited. Auditions that occur after the School of Music’s last audition date are not guaranteed to be considered for acceptance.
You must prepare an etude or solo in all three of the following areas. When choosing repertoire, students should select etudes that are at least one page in length. You may substitute pieces of similar or greater difficulty.
**Any questions about repertoire selections may be directed to Dr. Groh**
In addition to your prepared repertoire, you will also be asked to perform the following:
Choose repertoire that showcases your highest level of technical and musical skill. How you play is more important than what you play. As such, students who give mature, polished, and convincing performances of “easier” repertoire are more likely to be successful than students who struggle with the technical demands of “harder” repertoire. Your audition is your opportunity to demonstrate what you are capable of, so choose repertoire that will allow your artistry to shine through.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Adam Groh, Assistant Professor of Percussion, at: amgroh@wcu.edu
PIANO
In your audition, you will be asked to perform prepared solo repertoire for your instrument, a selection of scales and technical elements, and a short sightreading exercise. Please see below for specifics regarding each of these.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Andrew Adams, Professor of Piano, at: aadams@wcu.edu
VOICE (Classical)
A classical voice audition consists of three parts.
Part I. Prepared Songs. The Classical Voice audition should include two polished, memorized songs in contrasting style with accompaniment. The contrast should demonstrate to the faculty what your voice can do NOW. Appropriate choices might display your vocal range, agility, breath control, size, power, language acuity, interpretation skills, ability to tell a story, etc. We do not accept acapella songs, hymns, or part singing from a choral piece as appropriate audition repertory. Here are some song collections which might help you choose your repertoire:
Part II. Sight Reading: You will be given a short acapella piece to sight read. You may use any method of sight-reading – solfege, numbers or neutral syllable. Reading music is essential to success as a Music Major, but perfection in sight reading is not required for acceptance into our program. Sight reading is an improvable skill, but reading music is essential.
Part III. Brief Interview: The audition panel will interview you to briefly explore past musical experiences as well as college and career goals.
Tips for success:
Any questions regarding voice auditions should be directed to:
Dr. Mary Kay Bauer, mkbauer@wcu.edu (classical voice)
Dr. Tiffany Jackson, tjackson@wcu.edu (commercial voice)
Piano
In your audition, you will be asked to perform in a selection of styles, demonstrate scales, and sightread. Please see below for specifics regarding the components of your audition.
1. Scales: Demonstration of fundamental piano technique by playing one major and one minor scale, two hands together one octave apart, four octaves up and four octaves down in slower to moderate tempo
2. Prepared Piece: Demonstration of jazz/pop music styles by playing at least three of the following:
3. If you have played any classical music, it would be helpful to hear that as well – Bach’s Invention or part of Prelude and Fugue, some Classical period piece such as first movement of Haydn or Mozart sonata, and/or Romantic piece by Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, or similar (not too complicated or too difficult). While this part is not required, it is welcome to those who recently switched from classical to pop/jazz piano.
4. Sight Reading: Sight Reading is required of all Jazz and Commercial Piano Majors. Each prospect is encouraged to demonstrate sight-reading of a standard real book lead-sheet with proper harmonization in left hand and melody in the right hand, as well as a sight-reading of a short two-staff piano excerpt from classical repertoire (both to be determined by the in-structor at the end of the audition process).
Questions? Please contact Pavel Wlosok, Professor of Jazz Studies, at pwlosok@wcu.edu
Guitar
In your audition, you will be asked to perform a jazz standard, improvise, demonstrate scales and chords, and sightread. Please see below for specifics regarding the components of your audition.
1. Scales and Chords:
2. Improvisation: Perform an improvised solo over a rock or funk backing track of single chord. Many backing tracks are available on YouTube and Spotify, and should forwarded to Dr. Beyt prior to audition.
3. Jazz Standard: With a backing track, perform a jazz standard of your choice. Examples would be Autumn Leaves, All The Things You Are, Blue Bossa, Recordame, etc. Play the melody for the first chorus, comp the chords of the form for the second chorus, and improvise for one to three choruses over the form.
4. Sight Reading: Sight reading is required for all jazz guitar auditions at WCU. Students should be pre-pared to sight read melodic material in traditional music notation (not tablature), and an understanding of key signatures will be required. Open position reading is expected, but it is a good idea to read in higher positions on the guitar neck, such as 2nd, 5th, and 7th positions. Prospective students will also be asked to sight read a chord chart consisting of major and minor chords as well as major, minor, dominant, half diminished, and diminished 7th chords.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Chris Beyt, Assistant Professor of Jazz Guitar, at: cjbeyt@wcu.edu
Bass
In your audition, you will be asked to perform a jazz standard and walk and solo over a blues form, demonstrate scales, improvise a funk bass line, and sightread. Please see below for specifics regarding the components of your audition.
1. Scales: be prepared to perform one octave major and minor scales using at lease 2 different scale fingerings (the shifting of one scale fingering to a new position does not fulfill this requirement).
2. Performance of Jazz Standards:
3. Funk Bass Line: improvise a funk bass line with a single-chord backing track that does not already have a bass in the recording. Many backing tracks are available on YouTube, and should for-warded to Dr. Beyt prior to audition.
4. Sight Reading: be prepared to sight read melodic material in traditional music notation (not tablature) and an under-standing of key signatures will be required. Prospective students will be asked to sight-read a lead sheet style song by performing the melody for a chorus and improvising a bass part over the chord changes as if accompanying a soloist.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Chris Beyt, Assistant Professor of Jazz Guitar, at: cjbeyt@wcu.edu
Drumset
In your audition, you will be required to perform a prepared piece, improvise, and have the option to demonstrate proficiency with hand percussion.
You may audition with hand percussion instruments such as congas, bongos, cajon, timbales, frame drum, or another primary instrument. If so, be prepared to demonstrate the following:
For further questions, please contact Dr. Justin Leo Kennedy at jkennedy@wcu.edu
Commercial Music (Voice)
A vocal audition for admission to the School of Music at WCU consists of three parts.
Part I. The Singing Portion. The Commercial Voice audition should consist of two songs contrasting in style AND feel. Examples of contrasting contemporary songs are: an upbeat rock tune, a jazz ballad, a slow R&B song, or a country up-tempo song, etc. Both pieces may be contemporary, or from different style eras, but a classical selection is also acceptable. All selections must be memorized.
Additional acceptable styles:
Part II. Sight-Reading/Tonal Memory. You will be given a short acapella piece to sight read. You may use any method of sight-reading – solfege, (do, re, mi, etc., numbers, or a neutral syllable – la la la, doo doo, etc.).
Part III. Brief Interview: The audition panel will interview you briefly to explore past musical experiences as well as college and career goals.
Tips for success:
For further questions please contact Dr. Tiffany Jackson at tjackson@wcu.edu
Performance Technology
There are five audition requirements. Keyboard is the preferred audition instrument for the first 4 requirements outlined below, but you may perform them on any instrument you choose.
Please bring 3 printed copies of your sheet music to the audition. Do not play from sheet music you have downloaded from MuseScore.
A student auditioning for the Performance Technology studio must also demonstrate:
What is taught to Performance Technology students? The Performance Technology Studio is anchored in 4 disciplines: performance, sound design, audio production, and computer literacy. Regardless of instrumental background, all students study piano keyboard proficiency and live performance with technology. If you have questions or want more information, please contact Dr. Kennedy jkennedy@wcu.edu
The Music Theory Placement Test will be given on the weekend prior to the first day of classes (date and time TBA). It will be used to place you into music theory courses appropriate to your skill level, but will have no effect on your acceptance into the School of Music. If you have transfer credit or advanced placement in music theory, you may be placed into more advanced theory courses upon demonstration of advanced competence. Topics covered in the Music Theory Placement Test include: