Undergraduate

All undergraduate students in the School of Music must follow the procedures listed here in order to be accepted to both the University of Oklahoma and the School of Music. At that link, you will find general information regarding university admissions, audition dates, deadlines, and more. For more general information about the degree programs offered by the School of Music, view the following page: Undergraduate Music Degrees.

Students are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Connor Stevens before the audition if there are any questions about the process or repertoire selection. The audition will include repertoire performance, sight-reading, and a few minutes for student/faculty questions and discussion. Each audition is scheduled for 20 minutes; therefore, we ask students to practice performing repertoire in sequence and limit the time to about 10 minutes of playing in order to allow time for sight-reading and questions. If you have prepared a longer work on any instrument, please consider performing an excerpt of the piece and submitting the full performance via video recording. Additionally, please be prepared to move quickly from one selection to the next. For more information, or to schedule a visit to the Percussion Studio or a lesson before the audition, contact Dr. Stevens (Connor.Stevens-1@ou.edu).

Students are encouraged to select repertoire that best displays their musical and technical abilities. We would rather see you perform repertoire within your comfort range at a high-level than see an uncomfortable performance of the most challenging pieces. Because we focus on a total percussion curriculum, we expect audition repertoire to focus on several areas of percussion playing. Below is an outline of an ideal audition. Examples of particular composers are just that – examples. Students should not feel restricted to those listed.

1. Concert snare drum etude (ex. Anthony Cirone Portraits in Rhythm; Keith Aleo Advanced Etudes for Snare Drum; Mitchel Peters etudes)
   
2. 4-mallet marimba or vibraphone solo (ex. Works by Ford, Davila, Sammut, Smadbeck, Stout, Friedman, Molenhof)
3. 2-mallet keyboard etude/solo (ex. Works by Green, Goldenberg, Bach, McMillan)
   • While an etude/solo is preferred, students may instead choose to display 2-mallet competency through prepared scale/arpeggio exercises in lieu of an etude/solo.
     
4. Timpani etude/solo* (ex. Works by Hochrainer, Horner, Firth, Peters, Goodman)
   • While a timpani solo/etude is preferred, if the student is unable to prepare a timpani etude/solo, a basic technique demonstration including rolls at various dynamics and tuning different pitches will suffice.
5. Sight-reading – snare drum and 2-mallet keyboard (Students are strongly encouraged to practice sight-reading as diligently as selected audition material.)
   

If the student would like to demonstrate drum set skills, we suggest submitting a video to display different styles such as rock, swing, funk, bossa nova, as well as any performances with an ensemble. Time permitting, students may request to demonstrate drum set styles live.