During your time as a music major at the Hurley School of Music, you will be evaluated by the faculty several times. These evaluations are designed to assess your progress toward graduation and to help you be the best possible musician.
These are the evaluations you can expect:
Piano Proficiency
All music majors will be expected to demonstrate an adequate proficiency in piano. Piano assessment happens three times during your studies at Centenary. All new students must take a piano assessment given by the piano faculty before they begin classes. Students who need beginning keyboard technique must take and successfully pass Piano Class 130 and 131. In order for a student to successfully complete a Piano Class, that student must make a final grade of C or higher. Any grades lower than this will result in the student repeating the same course the next time it is offered. Students may not proceed to Piano Class 131 until they have passed 130. Students who qualify for private piano lessons may take them
in the place of Piano Class.
During the Sophomore Assessment (see below), students will take another piano exam. They must demonstrate keyboard skills in playing scales, sight reading and accompanying to pass the Sophomore Assessment. The Senior Assessment course contains the final keyboard exam, which covers the same material as the Sophomore Assessment keyboard exam. Students must pass the Senior Assessment course to graduate.
Juries
A jury is the most common performance exam. Juries occur at the end of each semester during exam week. Every student enrolled in private music lessons presents a list of repertoire they have studied that semester, and performs a portion of that repertoire for a faculty panel. The panel is composed only of the faculty members who specialize in the same instrument or area you are studying. Your grade on the jury affects your semester grade in private lessons.
Students will perform the required amount and level of repertoire on their principal instrument (or voice), and answer questions concerning the repertoire they are presenting. Music majors will also sight-read using their principal instrument.
You are not required to present a jury in the same semester you perform a recital, unless your recital is scheduled before mid-term. In that case, your teacher will assign you a portion of the material usually required for that semester and you will take a jury exam.
All students taking juries are responsible for filling out a Jury Repertoire Sheet (kept by the Music Office) and seeing that these sheets are completely and correctly completed. Bring one copy with you to the jury for the faculty panel. The faculty panel will allow you to begin with your choice of repertoire. They may then select any other piece on your list, to hear all or a portion of the work you have done.
Bring all of your music with you to your jury, and list all of the work you have done during the semester on your sheet, including etudes or other technical studies.
Students who are ill, or who have a family emergency during the day of their scheduled jury may receive an “Incomplete” grade for the course. Students who receive an “Incomplete” for their jury grade are encouraged to complete the exam as soon as possible during the following semester, so they can begin work on their new repertoire for that semester.
For further specific information about juries, students should contact their applied music teachers.
Sophomore Assessment
This exam occurs at the end of the fourth semester of private study. A panel composed of full-time faculty members and the part-time faculty members who specialize in the performance area in which the student is studying assess each sophomore student. The Sophomore Assessment consists of four basic components: performance, sight-reading, communication skills (interviews during juries and Sophomore Assessment), and keyboard proficiency. The purpose of the assessment is to determine if the student is making appropriate progress toward graduation in his/her studies. All students must pass this exam to continue as music majors. Students will perform the required amount and level of repertoire on their principal instrument (or voice) and will sight-read using their principal instrument. Composition students must present five minutes of original work, representing at least two genres, plus five minutes of music on their major instrument. Original works should be in both score and recorded or live form. All students must also be prepared to answer questions concerning the repertoire they are presenting. The faculty panel will pose these questions. A separate keyboard proficiency exam will take place on another day, and is part of the total evaluation.
Students will receive a grade of pass, probation, or fail on the exam. Probationary students will receive a letter detailing which portions of the exam must be retaken and the conditions of the probation. Students who fail all or any portion of the exam may retake the whole exam or the appropriate portion twice more at the conclusion of the next appropriate semester, and must ultimately pass with no probationary results. Students who fail the sight-reading portion of the exam will be required to complete an online tutorial at their own expense prior to retaking the sight-reading portion of Sophomore Assessment. Students who fail the keyboard portion of the exam must register for and successfully complete applied piano lessons before retaking the keyboard portion of the Sophomore Assessment. A student who does not successfully complete the entire Sophomore Assessment by the third attempt will NOT be allowed to continue his or her degree program in the Hurley School of Music. In the event this occurs, the academic advisor and the Dean of the Hurley School of Music will guide the student in choosing a new degree program that suits his or her needs and goals.
Students should turn in a copy of their repertoire for the Qualifying Exam one week in advance of the scheduled evaluation. Blank forms are in the music office.
Recitals and Hearings
Recitals
Students in the Performance concentration will give a required degree recital. The recital will contain at least 50 minutes of music and display the student’s ability in a wide variety of styles and musical time periods. For vocal and keyboard recitals, most or all of the material must be memorized. Common exceptions are chamber music pieces with more than two participants. For those, music is often used. Instrumental students must present at least one memorized piece.
Students in the Composition concentration will give a required degree recital. This recital must contain at least 30 minutes of original compositions, to be guided by the composition teacher. Performance on the student's major applied area must be included in the recital program.
No other music students are required to give degree recitals. If they wish to give optional recitals, performed at the School of Music, they must do a Recital Hearing according to the regulations below.
Hearings
Students planning recitals in fulfillment of degree requirements must schedule a Recital Hearing four weeks prior to the expected performance date. The Hearing jury generally consists of the student’s applied music professor and those faculty members specializing in the applied music area in which the program is to be performed. At least one jury member must be a full-time faculty member. The student will perform the entire program, with all required memorization complete.
If, in the judgment of a majority of the Hearing jury, a student's Hearing does not reflect an appropriate standard of achievement, the student will not pass the Hearing, and the recital may not be scheduled. The student may re-attempt the Hearing at a later date, and the panel will specify whether the student must repeat all or a portion of the repertoire in that Hearing.
These Hearing requirements also apply to any non-required recitals given under the auspices of the School of Music.
Performing Recitals
Once the Recital Hearing has been passed, the performance date will be confirmed on the calendar of the School of Music. The event will be added to the publicity materials of the School of Music. All recital dates must be approved by both the applied teacher and the accompanist before they are entered into the Hurley schedule. Students not required to give a full hour recital are encouraged to share their programs with other students, by giving a half-recital and collaborating. Degree recitals should be given prior to the middle of "Preparation Week", the specific beginning of which is set by the calendar of the college. Any change of recital date or change in recital scheduling procedures can be made only with the approval of the Dean of the School of Music in consultation with the teacher involved.
The student and the applied music teacher should submit any publicity and program printing details to the Music Office as soon as possible and in no case later than two weeks prior to the scheduled performance date. Students are encouraged to submit materials by email in MS Word.
Recitals used to satisfy degree requirements will be held on campus and will be open to the public.
Costs
Fees for using Hurley’s professional staff accompanists: Half recital: $150.00 (if this is a joint recital, each will pay $150.00) Full hour recital: $250.00
This fee covers the recital hearing and one dress rehearsal, in addition to the recital. Accompanist fees are due at or before the dress rehearsal. No exceptions.
Budgeting is an important element of giving a public performance. You must plan ahead for the cost of accompanists, other artists, programs, recordings, concert clothing, etc. This is part of your studies at Centenary and should be considered the same as paying tuition or purchasing textbooks or music. Do not wait until the last minute to plan for this expense.
A common budget for an hour-long senior recital could be:
Accompanist $250.00
Programs (50) $10.00
Reception $100.00
Clothing (tuxedo rental or dress) $50.00 – $200.00
Recording $50.00
TOTAL $460.00 – $610.00
You do have control over what you spend on the reception and the clothing, but those can be big ticket items, so plan ahead.
Students will pay the full expense of the cost of printed programs, which are formatted and printed in the Music Office. Do not print your own programs without special, prior permission.
Recordings
Turn in your recording request form as soon as possible after you have passed your recital hearing, to guarantee that the recording engineer will be available. The fee for recording a student recital is $50.00. It is highly recommended that you also book a second recording time with the recording engineer, after your program is completed, to re -record any pieces you may wish to use for auditions that might not have come out well on the live performance.
Repertoire
Half recitals should consist of 25 to 30 minutes of music. For instrumentalists this may be two groups of short selections; or a concerto movement or sonata and another brief group. For pianists, this may be a concerto movement and another two or three short pieces; or two groupings of shorter pieces. For singers, this is generally about nine selections, which may be arranged as two song groups and one aria. Students are encouraged to program collaborative pieces that include other musicians, such as a vocal piece with an instrumental obbligato or a four-hand piano piece. For these non-required recitals, repertoire may consist of music from any style period at the discretion of the teacher.
Senior or full recitals should consist of 50 minutes of music. For instrumentalists this typically includes one larger work in its entirety and both accompanied and unaccompanied music. For pianists this usually includes a larger work (like a sonata) in its entirety, perhaps a concerto movement, and some shorter selections. For vocalists this is generally about 18 selections, generally divided into four groupings by language. For students on the performance concentration, the recital must include music from a variety of style periods, including baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary. Singers must include repertoire in English, French, German and Italian.
Students are encouraged to tailor their recital material to the repertoire that will be most useful to them in their immediate future [i.e. – Students planning on graduate school in vocal performance will likely include operatic repertoire; those majoring in sacred music will likely include oratorio and other sacred selections; pianists intending to study collaborative piano will wish to include a chamber work, etc.] Students should consult the repertoire requirements for their individual areas for memorization requirements for their degree.
Recital repertoire may include material from any point during the student’s studies at Centenary. Teachers are encouraged to plan student’s repertoire throughout their career to cover a variety of style periods and to promote useful connections between pieces that could lead to cohesive recital programming. A review of the planned repertoire is part of the recital hearing process.