Auditions

Selected contemporary performance applicants will be required to complete both an audition and interview. The audition and interview will happen simultaneously during your scheduled time. All other master's degree applicants selected to move on to this stage are required to do an interview only.

Your prepared piece should demonstrate significant understanding of musicality, expression, phrasing, appropriate articulation, excellent intonation and tonal quality, clarity of articulation or enunciation of notes (and lyrics for vocalists), and should be performed in a manner that is appropriate for the style of the piece. 
Berklee embraces and values all music styles, so you should prepare a piece that you are comfortable with and that displays your strengths as a musician. It should be approximately three to five minutes in length and should be in any style that demonstrates your instrumental proficiency and your overall musicianship. Here are some guidelines that may help when selecting your prepared piece:

• You might choose a tune from a well-known artist or band (in any style).
• You might choose a jazz or blues standard tune (which may include rhythm changes) to which you have the option of adding your own improvisation.
• You might choose a composition from the instrumental/voice repertoire or a movement, sonata, concerto, or etude.
• You might choose a transcription of a well-known artist's solo. 
   

If composing or songwriting is your primary focus, you may choose to play an original piece that showcases your individual style. However, the original piece should be no longer than three minutes, and you should also prepare a second piece drawing on the guidelines above.

If you require accompaniment for your prepared piece, you may bring an accompanist, or a play-along device such as a phone or laptop. It is not recommended to use the original tracks of artists or bands as play-a-longs.

While sight-reading, you should display strong accuracy of rhythm, pitch, and tone in order to achieve an interpretation that conveys musical substance with phrasing and expression appropriate to the style of the example provided.

We would like to hear you improvise over a short progression to gauge where you are in your development. Your prepared piece may also include improvisation, but it is not required.

You will be asked to participate in call-and-response exercises. The audition team will play short rhythms and melodies. For melodic playback, if you are an instrumentalist, you will be expected to sing it back and play it on your instrument, and if you are a vocalist, you will sing back melodies in diatonic and non-diatonic formats (chromatic lines in one- or two-bar phrases, in various styles). For rhythmic playback, tracks and rhythms will be supplied and you will be expected to reproduce syncopated examples in genres such as swing, funk, Afro 6/8, or samba.

For the online audition and interview, you must have:

• completed and submitted the application and paid the $150 application fee;
• been invited to participate in an audition and interview to the graduate program;
• access to a private room where you can participate without interruption;
• access to a computer with internet connection and audio/video capability that meets the system requirements*, do not connect to your audition on a mobile device or tablet;
• access to a set of headphones for use during the interview. Headphones-only will not work for the playing portion of the audition but are helpful to have for the interview;
• you must have speakers (other than laptop speakers) for playback of audition materials. This is so your playing will blend acoustically with the sound of the speakers and be transmitted through the microphone;
• access to all instruments and accompaniment you need to participate.

*See the specific system requirements for online auditions.