John EricsonEvery year I have to reject a number of applicants at Arizona State. Every horn teacher does. It is a part of the job that I don’t like, but it must be done.
The rejected don’t often contact me after the fact, but I am sure they have questions. I would guess “why was I rejected?” to be the principal question, and in general it is a combination of two factors–how you did on the audition and space in the studio.
The big show on the audition was how you played your prepared works. How good they have to be at the audition relates in part to what program you applied to enter. For performance you really do need to hit it well, for other programs we can be somewhat more forgiving but it still needs to be good. Your preparation tells us something about potential as does all the rest we ask of you (scales, sight-reading, etc.).
The audition is just a brief window on your playing, which is why a short lesson is also helpful to me in addition to your audition. Even with that I have accepted students who turned out to be much better players than I thought they were in the audition and I have accepted students that I thought had good potential but just could not realize that potential for a variety of reasons during their study. I suspect that I have rejected people who had a bad day who could have been great students. Auditions are an imperfect system but it is what we have to work with.
Space in the studio is another factor we have to consider. There can only be so many people in any studio or the ensembles will be thrown out of balance. If you are rejected more for this reason remember that, while you may not get in quite the top school you wish, if music is what you want to do for sure there is a place for you if you are willing to audition for a variety of schools and programs. Somebody has room, especially for a horn player.
In terms of Arizona State you need to be very ready to go to be accepted in performance and pretty ready to go as a performer in other programs (music education, etc.). It does not need to be perfect but you need to show strong potential to make it in the program you are applying for.
Related to that, apply for all the programs at the school that interest you. For example I have rejected undergrad performance applicants who went on to study music in other programs (such as music therapy or education) at other schools who would have actually probably been acceptable in that other degree program at ASU–but they did not apply for it. I can only accept you or reject you in relation to programs you actually apply for.
Finally, especially at the undergrad level there are some applicants that seem to be applying for music study mostly because it looks easy or they liked band or they can’t figure out what to do. Music study is not easy, and while there are a good number of openings every year for music educators, for performers especially it is not an easy profession to enter. Going in you do need to talk it all over carefully with your mentors, as it is not an easy or generally lucrative field. But if you want it and if you are among the best there is a place for you, don’t let a rejection or two hold you back.