Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Music

First Advisor

Scott Herring

Abstract

The present study seeks to compare requirements for orchestral auditions with season programming for 15 American orchestras to gauge the perception that the most frequently requested percussion excerpts are from works that are rarely, if ever, performed. Examination of required repertoire lists for 35 auditions held by the surveyed orchestras from 2000-2025 shows the relative frequency of each excerpt among eight instrument categories and demonstrates that certain selections are more firmly entrenched in the audition canon than others. This analysis complements a comprehensive review of each orchestra’s Masterworks programming from September 2014-June 2025, wherein the appearance of the larger work from which each excerpt derives is identified and ranked by total number of performances.

Discussion of the most frequently requested excerpts from each instrument category highlights the musical attributes they seek to measure and rationalizes why they remain mainstays on orchestral audition repertoire lists. Subsequent comparison of requested excerpts to season programming reveals that while certain selections may be considered standard within audition repertoire, their relative infrequency among the surveyed orchestras’ annual performance schedules confirms this status as non-transferable.

Data collected in service of this study both reaffirms its initial overarching perception and presents several avenues for subsequent research, including the replacement of select excerpts with those from works programmed with greater frequency, identification of orchestras’ most programmed composers, and application of similar analytical strategies upon the audition excerpt lists for woodwind, brass, and string instruments. At its core, this study recognizes the disconnect between what is requested at percussion auditions and what is ultimately programmed each season and urges orchestras to reevaluate their adjudication processes.

Rights

© 2025, Julia Kathleen Ross

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