This year, all auditions will be video recordings. Video auditions must be received by the application deadline. Submissions after that date will be considered on a rolling basis.
Prepare and perform three songs, each as a separate video, no longer than 15 minutes total:
- Song 1 - A standard performed solo, with pre-recorded backing tracks or a live rhythm section if safe and possible. This tune should highlight your improvisational skills where applicable. Refer to the Traditional American Songbook, blues tune, jazz tune, and Bossa Nova descriptions in the Typical Repertoire information below. Review the Backing Tracks information below, too.
- Song 2 - A piece of your choosing, in any style (jazz, blues, pop, soul, rock R&B, an original work, etc.), which you can perform solo, with pre-recorded backing tracks, or with a live rhythm section if safe and possible.
- Song 3 - Another piece of your choosing, in any style (jazz, blues, pop, soul, rock, R&B, an original work, etc.), which you can perform solo, with pre-recorded backing tracks, or with a live rhythm section if safe and possible.
We want to see diversity in your three audition pieces. Aim to play three different tempos and styles, and show us works you love to perform. We want to see you at your best!
Typical Repertoire
The Traditional American Songbook includes songs taken from American musical theater and performed in a jazz context. Composers like George Gershwin Summertime, Irving Berlin Blue Skies, Cole Porter What is This Thing Called Love,
Rogers and Hart My Funny Valentine, and many others are common composers of these pieces.
Blues tunes include songs from the long tradition of American blues, from W.C. Handy St. Louis Blues to Robert Johnson Sweet Home Chicago to more swing-oriented songs like Alright, Okay, You Win and Got My Mojo Working, and more jazz-oriented songs like Now's the Time, Route 66, and Blue Monk.
Jazz tunes come primarily from the instrumental jazz world and include works by Duke Ellington Take the A Train, Charlie Parker Ornithology, Miles Davis Tune Up, Thelonious Monk 'Round Midnight, Charles Mingus Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,
John Coltrane Moment's Notice, and hundreds more.
Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim is the most commonly played composer of Bossa Nova tunes, including the commonly performed works Girl from Ipanema and Desafinado.
Singer-songwriter repertoire from the 1960s to the present including but not limited to Lennon and McCartney, Ashford and Simpson, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Elton John, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Prince, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Rufus Wainwright, Ani DiFranco, Alicia Keyes, and more are welcome.
Backing Track Resources
Applicants who are unable to record with a live rhythm section are strongly encouraged to use a digital accompaniment resource such as: