If you are planning to apply to the Artist Diploma program please follow the audition requirements on the Artist Diploma page.

Applicants to programs in Flute or Clarinet must submit an audition recording to be pre-screened by the faculty. A video recording is preferred for Flute but REQUIRED for Clarinet. (Applicants to all other Winds and Brass programs are not required to submit a pre-screen recording.) The results of this pre-screen will determine whether an applicant will be invited to perform a live audition on the USC campus in Los Angeles. Recordings must be received by the December 1st deadline. Any application not complete by December 1 may be removed from consideration. Using a permanent marker, please label the actual CD/DVD itself with the following information (the case that the CD/DVD comes in will be removed during processing):

• First and Last Name
• Date of Birth
• Program to which you are applying (i.e., BM Vocal Arts)
• Year you are applying for (i.e., Fall 2012)

IMPORTANT NOTE: The prescreen recording MUST be accompanied by a completed Thornton Prescreen Information Form. Both the recording and the form should be mailed directly to the Thornton Admission Office:

Mailing Address:
(for United States Postal Service only)

Flute (or Clarinet) Admission Review
USC Thornton School of Music
Office of Admission
University Park Campus- LPB 200
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0851

Street Address:
(for private mail carriers only- ie. Fed Ex, UPS, etc.)

Flute (or Clarinet) Admission Review
USC Thornton School of Music
Office of Admission
3450 Watt Way- LPB 200
Los Angeles, CA 90089

Please Note: Current USC Thornton students applying for a graduate program are not required to submit a prescreen recording, however they must indicate on the application that they are a current Thornton student or they will not automatically be scheduled for a live audition. Current USC students are encouraged to contact Kit Bellamy in the Thornton Admission office with any questions or concerns regarding audition scheduling.

FLUTE- Audition repertoire for all degrees of application:

• PRESCREEN RECORDING - Piano accompaniment is NOT required.
• Mozart G-Major Concerto - first and second movements, exposition only
• EITHER the Ibert Concerto (first movement, m. 1 through m. 142 {rehearsal #13}) OR the Nielsen "Concerto" (first movement, m. 1 through m. 70)
• Anderson: Opus 33, Number 1 (metronome: 120 bpm) - DO NOT PLAY REPEATS, BUT DO PLAY THE DC.
• The opening solo of Debussy "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" AND Mendelssohn "Scherzo" (start at m. 338)
• B major scale and C-sharp harmonic minor scale (both in two octaves, 16th-note patterns {metronome: 132 bpm} - first slurred, then double-tongued)
• LIVE AUDITION
• Two contrasting movements from the sonata or concerto repertoire (e.g. the first movement of the Mozart G-Major Concerto and the third movement of the Ibert Concerto)
• Two orchestral excerpts (standard selections preferred)
• All major and minor scales (two-octave, slurred and double-tongued, ascending and descending)

CLARINET- Audition repertoire for all degrees of application (same for LIVE and PRESCREEN):

• Three selections representing various stylistic periods of music. These selections should be full-length pieces from the standard solo literature, although excerpts from ensemble literature may also be included. If any of the selections are taken from a multi-movement sonata or concerto, applicants need only prepare one movement of the piece. (DVD ONLY FOR PRE-SCREEN)

Oboe, Bassoon, Saxophone, French Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba- There is NO prescreen requirements for these programs. The required live audition repertoire for these instruments are as follows:

• Three selections representing various stylistic periods of music. These selections should be full-length pieces from the standard solo literature, although excerpts from ensemble literature may also be included. If any of the selections are taken from a multi-movement sonata or concerto, applicants need only prepare one movement of the piece.

Additional Information

A recent recording may be submitted in lieu of a live audition if necessary. Video recordings (DVDs) are generally preferred over audio recordings (CDs). For students auditioning for Flute or Clarinet (pre-screen programs), s/he may request that a pre-screen DVD recording be considered in lieu of the live audition. It is extremely important to note, however, that only a DVD recording which includes both the required pre-screen audition repertoire and the required live audition repertoire would be considered in lieu of a live audition. Recordings that do not include the required live audition repertoire will not be considered in lieu of a live audition.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Undergraduate applications are not accepted for Spring admission to this program unless the student is already enrolled at USC. All applicants for Spring admission are not required to submit a recording for pre-screening. Spring applicants must contact the Winds department directly at (213) 740-7416 to arrange for an audition.