Trivial Question...but need advice! :)

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LaMusicaSenior

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Hello to all,

Compared to the deeper questions on this (and feel free, Moderator, to move this if I posted this in the wrong section) my question is pretty shallow, but I need advice.

In 30 days, I go to a Catholic college to audition for classical piano in front of the head of their music department. Incredibly excited, incredibly nervous!

While up there, I’ll also get a tour on campus, lunch, meet with finance and admissions, and sit in on a class.

What do I wear? (I’m a girl, if this helps :D). I always dress up to go to audition (skirt and blouse, dress, and heels) but beings that everything else is informal, what should I do?

Thanks to all!

God bless,

Chloe M.
 
My advice would be to wear a skirt and blouse which are on the borderline between casual and formal. Dress it up for the audition with heels and nice jewelry, then change into flats and more casual (or no) jewelry for the rest of the day.

Godd luck with the audition. 👍
 
Also, if you have your hair up for the sudition you could let it down afterwards. 🙂
 
thewanderer said:
My advice would be to wear a skirt and blouse which are on the borderline between casual and formal. Dress it up for the audition with heels and nice jewelry, then change into flats and more casual (or no) jewelry for the rest of the day.

Godd luck with the audition. 👍
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thewanderer said:
Also, if you have your hair up for the sudition you could let it down afterwards. 🙂
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I don’t usually consider it my place to tell teenage girls what to wear, but this sounds like good advice.
 
I’m not sure what the schedule will be like for your orientation, but might you have time to change? Or just stick with being formal? I’ve had people come to class in suits before because they’d have an interview with a company that day. Or find some middle ground with a semi-formal outfit.
 
First of all, best wishes for your audition! I hope you’ll do great!

I definitely recommend dressing for the audition. You want to show them your professionalism and seriousness towards your craft, aside from your technical piano skills alone. I know for myself that dressing up just makes me feel more confident, and therefore act more confident. A good rule of thumb is that it’s almost always better to be over-dressed than under-dressed.

That being said, is it possible to change clothes in a restroom during your visit? If not, you can even just change shoes and jewelry in between as another poster said. I hope this works out.

edit: we’re all posting at the same time, saying very similar things.
 
Dress for a concert, but a *day time *concert. Wear shoes appropriate to the instrument and to the amount of walking you’ll do over the course of the day…a heel is OK, but probably not a particularly high one.

Dress appropriately for your age, but think something along the lines of what you would wear if you were interviewing to be on the faculty. You can often get online and look at the faculty directory to see what kind of clothing the faculty favors. If they tend to wear something with some personal expression in it, take that as a cue not to be too bland in your clothing choices.

Most of all, wear something in which you will feel confident, something that shows you are not afraid of some spotlight. You want your best side as a performer to happily shine.
 
LaMusica,

My opinion would be to dress A) makes you feel comfortable B) is something that you would feel appropriate wearing in Church as you stood in front of a Priest to accept communion.

Also try to relax – If you are being allowed to audition then I am sure that you have great talent. Let your love for the music flow and you will do great. Good luck also 🙂

May God Bless and grant you Peace.

Winter

P.S. You should come back on and let us all know how you did.
 
Lots of great suggestions here so I won’t add to that, but I do want to wish you the very best on your audition! 🙂
 
bigflower said:
First of all, best wishes for your audition! I hope you’ll do great!

I definitely recommend dressing for the audition. You want to show them your professionalism and seriousness towards your craft, aside from your technical piano skills alone. I know for myself that dressing up just makes me feel more confident, and therefore act more confident. A good rule of thumb is that it’s almost always better to be over-dressed than under-dressed.
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This.

Wear whetever makes you most confident for your audition. If you project seriousness, they will take you more seriously.

And always best to over-dress than under-dress. I can’t imagine it would be frowned upon in any of the contexts you describe (tour, lunch, meet with finance and admissions, sit in on a class) to appear to be too serious. Universitites want serious students! And I think you’ll find that people on campus will be dressed in a wide variety of clothes anyway, as many students work too and will thus be dressed more formally.

Best of luck.
 
I have a degree in voice, and have been in many auditions. I would just advise you to wear a dress with a full skirt. You do not want to look as if you are trying to show too much leg. You want the committee to be listening to your playing and not be distracted by anything else! Good luck!
 
Yup. Follow the dress advice for your addition.

Bring a backpack or bag (you will probably get lots of info papers on the tour and such), and include a simple change of clothes- a dress or skirt/top should be lightweight, easy to pack/slip on in a bathroom after your audition.
 
Dress for the weather.

I assume that the audition will be held indoors in a comfortable concert hall or auditorium. Obviously you will dress up for a performance.

But it’s very likely that the tour means outside. Right now in our city, it’s about 40, with an icy rain. Further north of us, there’s snow. In my daughter’s city in California, it was 90 a few days ago.

There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. A pretty dress and shoes will not look pretty very long, and neither will you, if you are wet and cold, or hot and sweaty, or in some other way discombobulated by whatever the weather is.

There are ways that you can dress attractively for the audition and still be appropriately dressed for the outdoors. Be wise.

Be especially careful with shoes. There are heels that are just plain dangerous to walk in, and there are heels that are very comfortable and practical for walking. This is the time to wear the comfortable heels, or better yet, a stylish flat or low heel. The last thing you want to do is stumble and take a fall in front of the tour guide (who might be a student) or be limping during one of the interviews. Embarrassing.

(BTW, it’s possible that the college doesn’t required you to ever be outdoors. My older daughter visited a college in Minnesota where every building was connected by tunnels. It was pretty awesome, and it makes sense in a state like Minnesota that has tons of snow. Saves the college a lot of money on snow removal, and it’s sure nice for the students, faculty, and staff! My daughter didn’t choose that college, BTW–she had to walk through snow at the college she selected.)

Good luck to you!
 
Marysann said:
I have a degree in voice, and have been in many auditions. I would just advise you to wear a dress with a full skirt. You do not want to look as if you are trying to show too much leg. You want the committee to be listening to your playing and not be distracted by anything else! Good luck!
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This is good advice. Avoid the current styles that are so short, and especially realize that if you are on a stage above your audience, it makes the apparent length of a skirt much shorter. If you want to avoid erring on the side of too conservative, because you don’t look like a mousy version of a 1940s librarian, express yourself in color or jewelry, but not by showing a lot of skin, as if you were trying to get by on sex appeal.

Again, OP, if you cruise different university web sites and look at the posted photos of female faculty, you’re going to run across some who are shown in day time dress (rather than formal concert dress), and you’ll get an idea about what those in academic music think women in their field ought to use for professional day time wear. (Concentrate especially on female faculty under 50.)
 
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