We will not be accepting Artist Diploma applications for Fall 2026. Please contact the Music Admissions Office if you have any questions.
Faculty
Miguel Harth-Bedoya , Distinguished Resident Director of Orchestras, Professor of Conducting
Audition Requirements
Anyone entering the Artist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting should have great musical talent that comes across on the podium. A solid foundation in musical knowledge is required. This includes fluency in reading all clefs and transpositions, score terminology in multiple languages, form analysis, aural skills (including the ability to write down dictations in multiple voices, sight singing, fixed do and rhythmical solfege), keyboard skills (including figured bass, playing Bach chorales in four clefs, open score reduction), and score analysis appropriate for the study and interpretation of orchestral works. Applicants must have a broad knowledge of the orchestral repertoire.
Applicants for the AD in Orchestral Conducting degree are encouraged to submit the following materials with their application:
- a resume
- a video demonstrating their musicianship performing on an instrument or voice of between 5 and 10 minutes, and,
- a compilation video featuring excerpts of conducting footage of themselves (camera from the orchestra’s perspective) both rehearsing and performing a variety of repertoire that demonstrate the candidate’s strengths of between 20 and 25 minutes. Please include repertoire, ensemble, and the date of the recording.
From that initial screening, an online interview and initial skills assessment will be conducted. Then, finalists will be invited to campus to take further assessment exams, to interview with the conducting faculty, and to audition with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles as needed.
The repertoire for the conducting portion will include selections from Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90, Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (104-121), Chen-Yi Duo No. 2 (large orchestra version), Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor, First Movement, and recitatives from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (“E Susanna non vien”), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (“Die Weisheitslehre dieser Knaben” until “Er is ein Unmensch, ein Tyrann.”), Bizet’s Carmen (“C’est bien la, n’est-ce pas?”), Haydn’s The Creation (“And God said: Let the Waters bring forth”), and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (“Ye people rend your hearts”), for which the applicant, in addition to conducting, will have to sing the recitatives in Italian, German, French, and English respectively.