Preparing a Recorded Audition

An audition video is not a concert recording with a camera pointed at the stage. It is a short, fixed document that a panel watches once, often on a laptop, often after a long day of files. Everything that helps the panel hear your playing clearly belongs in the video. Everything that draws attention away from the playing does not.

The details cited in this entry were checked on Playing Hub pages at The Strad.

The two application processes that shape a young string player's winter are not identical, and it helps to keep them apart. A summer programme usually asks for a recording you make yourself and upload. A conservatory such as the Cleveland Institute of Music asks for a prescreening video for most string areas and then brings shortlisted applicants to campus for a live audition. CIM violin, viola, cello and double bass applicants all upload prescreening videos, and the Institute's own dates for Fall 2027 entrance place the application and prescreening deadline on December 1, 2026, with in-person auditions on February 7, 14, 21 and 28, 2027. A summer programme sets its own calendar. The principle underneath both is the same: the recording decides whether anyone hears you in a room.

What is the panel actually listening for?

An audition recording answers a narrow set of questions. Can this player hold a steady pulse without a conductor? Is the tone consistent from the bottom of the bow to the tip? Does the intonation hold when the passage gets fast? Is there a musical idea in the phrasing, or only notes in the right order? A summer chamber programme adds one more question to that list, because the students will spend their weeks inside a quartet: can this player listen to the others and adjust?

You cannot answer that last question with a solo showpiece alone. Many programmes ask for contrasting movements or short excerpts that reveal different sides of your playing, and some ask for scales and a study. Read the requirement list as a set of questions rather than a list of pieces, and choose repertoire that lets you answer each one cleanly.

How do you record a video with almost nothing in the room?

You need less equipment than most applicants assume. A phone or a tablet with a decent microphone will do if the room is quiet and the framing is honest. Put the camera at eye level or slightly above, far enough back to show your whole instrument, your bow arm and your posture. A panel that cannot see the bow contact point is watching half a performance. If the room allows it, keep some space behind you rather than playing flat against a wall, and choose a space with soft furnishings over a tiled hallway, because a hard room makes every tone sound brittle on a small microphone.

The Playing Hub pages at The Strad collect technique and practice articles written by players and teachers, and they are a useful place to test your own sound against what experienced performers listen for. The Strad's own header also carries a small warning that applies to every digital submission: the browser you use to upload matters. An out-of-date browser can fail on a portal, so test the upload page on a supported browser well before the deadline rather than in the final hour.

Which details on the requirement page decide the whole file?

A video that ignores the stated requirements is the most common way a strong player gets set aside. Before you record anything, write down the answers to four questions from the application page itself. How long may the recording be? May the movements be recorded separately, or must they run as one continuous take? Is a spoken introduction wanted, or is speech forbidden? Which angle, file format and upload method does the portal accept?

CIM's application, for example, asks applicants to record a one-minute video introduction inside the application system that states a full name, area of study and the degree being sought, and answers a question about what a successful career in music would look like. That video is made in the portal itself, can be re-recorded as many times as needed, works on Chrome or Firefox or an Android phone, and is not currently supported on iPhones or iPads. A summer programme rarely wants a spoken introduction at all, but the difference shows the point: the format is set by the organisation, not by taste.

Should you record in one take or in pieces?

Follow the instructions and nothing else. If the page asks for a continuous take, record in one take, even if it means a second attempt at the whole thing. Panels listen for how a player recovers from a small slip, and a file stitched from eight fragments hides exactly that. If the page allows separate recordings for separate movements, use the permission, since a clean file per movement is easier for a panel to navigate. Keep the file names plain and identical in form to what the page requests.

Detail to checkWhy it decides the outcome

Maximum lengthA file over the limit is often rejected by the portal before a person sees it Continuous or separate takesThe instructions say which, and the panel judges accordingly Spoken introductionRequired in some portals, unwanted in a plain summer recording Browser supportCIM's video introduction runs on Chrome, Firefox or Android, not on iPhones or iPads Deadline and fee changeCIM's application fee rises from $125 to $175 at midnight on December 2

Where should you send your questions?

Admission offices answer email, and the answers they give are more reliable than anything you will hear from another applicant. CIM publishes an address for its admission team, and a short message with a specific question about repertoire or file format gets a specific answer. Most summer programmes publish an equivalent contact. Ask early enough that the reply arrives before your recording session, not after it.

Then protect the schedule. Book the room, the accompanist if one is wanted, and the quiet hour, and do a full test run of the upload. A camera, a stand and a charged phone in a quiet room will carry your playing further than any file recorded in a rush the night before.

Start with the requirement page you were given, list its four or five conditions in your own words, and record the version of your playing that meets them. The recording can only be what it is, and that is enough.

About The Strad Playing Hub

The Strad Playing Hub is the playing section of The Strad, a magazine for string players. It groups technique articles, masterclasses and podcasts on interpretation and performance, with sections on tone, pizzicato, vibrato, bowing and performance nerves, written by players and teachers. It also carries the magazine's subscription and news pages.