Audition Requirements

Your Audition should include a performance of one selection on your instrument. This piece may be of any style and should contain elements that display the range of your developed skills. Students are permitted to play along with recordings.

You must be prepared with all instruments and materials required for your audition, including sticks, reeds, guitar cables, etc. and must be prepared to play your selection.

Click here to view the full RUBRIC used during Instrumental Music auditions.

Judging Criteria
Auditions are used to understand a student’s artistic interests and potential, but no single part of the audition will keep a student from being admitted to BAA. Instrumental Music auditions are evaluated on the following:

• Repertoire: Your prepared piece.
• Technique: The ease and comfort in which you hold, play, and control your instrument.
• Tone Quality: The clearness, fullness, and consistency of the sound you make on your instrument.
• Pitch and Intonation: The ability to play in-tune and with clear pitch (if applicable to your instrument).
• Pulse and Rhythm: The ability to play steady rhythms and tempos.
• Call and Response: The adjudicator plays a musical phrase and the student repeats it back either precisely or with embellishment as directed.
• Sight Reading: How well you can play a piece of music you haven’t had the chance to practice in advance.

When evaluating the Judging Criteria, the adjudicators may ask you to play:

• Scales, chords or rudiments common for your instrument.
• Grooves in various musical styles for rhythm sections players (pop, rock, r&b, latin, jazz, gospel)

Callbacks
After your Audition, you may receive an email invitation to attend a live callback. Receiving a callback does not mean that a decision on admission has been made, it simply means the panel wants to see you one more time before coming to a final decision.

For instrumental music callbacks, you may be asked to play from the same judging criteria above.

If you have any audition questions, please contact baa-admissions@bostonpublicschools.org.