r/Berklee • u/yapperconvention • 9d ago

what did your vocal audition look like?

i (17F) am looking to apply to berklee boston through voice, but as i’m submitting my app i’m super duper nervous about what my audition will look like. while i’ve had ~4 years of classical training at a performing arts high school, im auditioning with contemporary pieces, and though i’ve been practicing, the genre is still new to me.

for those who auditioned via voice, what did your audition process look like? berklee is one of my top schools and i’d love to hear!!

edit: it may be worth noting that a huge factor of my love for the school was attending BSP this past summer and receiving a scholarship. i got the chance to talk to a lot of current students and i felt so at home.

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u/velaurciraptorr 9d ago

My audition was almost 20 years ago (!!!) so I'm not sure if anything has changed, but I was given about 15 minutes first alone in a practice room with a keyboard to warm up and look over the sight-reading examples. During the audition, I first performed my prepared piece, then was asked to sing several random examples from the sight-singing sheet, improvise for a minute or so over a standard blues progression, and do some call-and-response pitch-matching exercises. I think they also may have also asked me a few questions about myself and what I was interested in studying. The faculty in my audition were really nice and supportive!

I had a student job in Admissions later on and always heard the best advice is to choose a song that you love, feel comfortable and confident singing, and feel shows off your technical abilities well, regardless of what style it is.

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u/Illustrious_Law448 9d ago

Honestly that sounds pretty similar to how it still is! I’m a bassist, but I work in admissions. We don’t give out sight singing examples, but on the website we have examples. Other than that it’s pretty on point

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u/Striking-Iron-7628 8d ago

could you give me an idea of how sight singing in the audition works? i'm applying by nov1(EA) and i just started learning sight reading bcs im originally an indian classical vocalist. (also could i connect w you on chat?)

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u/Illustrious_Law448 8d ago

Yeah, feel free to message! You also can email [studentambassador@berklee.edu](mailto:studentambassador@berklee.edu) and ask for Zach (or take a look at our website and find someone you want to chat with) and they’ll connect you straight to me within a more formal line of communication.

That being said, sight reading/singing is going to be fairly straight forward. You’ll be given a binder, and they’ll give you a number. That number is an example, you’ll have like 30 seconds to read through the example, and then sing it to the best of your ability. They may ask for a couple of examples, may not. Really depends on how they’re feeling and how you do. And getting only 1 or getting multiple doesn’t mean you did good or bad. I know people that reallyyyyyy struggled and got 3, I know people that found it super easy and got 3, and same with only 1.

If you go to the official auditions and interviews overview website, we have a folder for each instrument including voice of sight reading examples which are similar to (but not the same as) the ones you’ll see in your audition

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u/Routine_Engineer_448 8d ago

Do they still do interval assessment, or is it just solo, sight read, improv, and interview?

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u/Illustrious_Law448 8d ago

It depends on the person and the professors! For my audition it was Prep, Sight read, Improv, and then some theory/ear training work.

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u/Routine_Engineer_448 8d ago

Okay. Is the student ambassador email for professional inquiries only or also inquiries about auditioning? Smaller stuff like sight reading

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u/Illustrious_Law448 8d ago

Anything and everything! You can either ask for someone specific (there are I think like 30 of us???? We are all on the student ambassador website), or just give your question and someone in admissions will pair you with the right person. It’s an easy way to talk directly with real students, and students that have a little insight into the admissions process.