Audition Songs - Part 2

A month ago, I listed the types of songs you should have in your audition package for both musical and opera auditions.  I left out one important caveat, however:  you need to consider if the song you pick can be 'sight-read' by the pianist for the audition.

Pianists for auditions have a tough job.  They are expected to play well enough for every singer even though there is a good chance they will not have seen a third of the songs they need to play.  We would never expect a singer to instantly sing 100 new songs in a day with fair accuracy, but we essentially are asking our pianists to do that...and most professional pianists do a great job.

That being said, try to be kind to your audition pianist.  For musicals, be careful  to pick piano accompaniments that are relatively easy and are  not 'too unusual' in their harmonic progressions.  Your best bet is to bring your songs to your voice teacher and ask their opinion (or even better, a professional accompanist if they are available).  For operas, you tend to have more leeway with piano accompaniments, but it is still wise to pick the majority of your arias from standard audition material.

For the record, I have only had two auditions where the audition accompanist did a poor job playing for my audition...both were for operas, and strangely enough, I got hired for both jobs.  So even if it is hard to sing with a struggling accompanist, it does not mean your audition will not go well!

DWS