To schedule an audition, email the Director of Music Admissions, Troy Centofanto at musicadmissions@duq.edu. Be sure to include your full name, mailing address, phone number, instrument, intended degree of study, and planned semester of enrollment. Arrangements to schedule auditions must be made at least two weeks in advance of the desired date.
Undergraduate Audition Overview
Applicants should plan to spend at least half a day at the School of Music to complete the audition. Parents or guardians are invited to attend concurrent informational sessions while auditions and tests are conducted. A schedule of the day's events will be distributed on the audition day, with specific times designated for the performance audition, the theory test and the musicianship test.
PERFORMANCE
Applicants will have 12 minutes to perform for a faculty committee. A repertoire sheet should be presented at this time. This form will be mailed to applicants prior to the audition. In addition to prepared works, students should be ready to demonstrate technical studies and/or scales. Instrument audition guidelines can be found here.
NOTICE: Voice auditions require piano accompaniment. If you are unable to furnish a pianist, The School can do so for a nominal fee. Piano music must be submitted two weeks prior to your scheduled audition. Music may be submitted via mail (attn. Director of Music Admissions) or email. Please limit file size to 2MB or less. Original music is assumed to be owned and present at the time of the audition.
THEORY
A written test will be administered. All applicants should bring two sharpened pencils. Material covered will include scales, intervals, triads, key signatures, time signatures, and treble and bass clefs. A suggested preparation text is Harder and Steinke's Basic Materials in Music Theory.
MUSICIANSHIP
Applicants are aurally evaluated on their abilities and potential in the following areas:
* Pitch matching (singing),
* Vocal repetition of given melodic patterns and phrases,
* Singing requested intervals (i.e., perfect 5th, minor 3rd),
* Singing arpeggiated major, minor, diminished and augmented triads with correct intonation,
* Sight-singing a simple diatonic melody (students may use "do-re-mi" syllables, letter
names, numbers or neutral syllables),
* Identification of melodic and harmonic intervals (up to an octave),
* Identification of the four types of triads,
* Sight-reading of six to eight-bar rhythms in standard meters (2/4, 3/4, 6/8 etc.).
Jazz Auditions
Applicants with any jazz abilities should also schedule an additional 15-minute jazz audition to occur on the same day as the classical audition. It will consist of two required components and one optional one. For jazz drum set auditions, please see the percussion audition guidelines. This audition will be performed in addition to the classical audition. The results of the (supplemental) jazz audition will not be considered when evaluating an applicant's performance in the required classical audition.
Sample Musicianship Entrance Exam
Sample Written Fundamentals Entrance Exam
Still have questions? Contact Director of Admissions, Troy Centofanto.
Audition Guidelines - Admissions Home
