Percussion

The application fee for the USC Graduate application is $90. Application fee waivers are available to qualified applicants, and must be requested before submitting the USC Graduate Application. If you plan to apply for a waiver of the USC Graduate Application fee, please do so at least two weeks before the application deadline. The deadline will not be extended for applicants who fail to request a fee waiver in time. Details and instructions can be found here.

All transcripts are due December 1st. Please carefully read the transcript requirements below.

Scans (PDF format) of official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions you have attended must be uploaded into the USC Graduate application. Official transcripts are issued by the registrar’s office of each institution. Unofficial transcripts or documents printed from an on-line student system will not be accepted. Failure to upload scans of official transcripts may significantly delay the release of a final admission decision.

Please note that official transcripts must also be submitted separately to the USC Graduate Admission office following the guidelines here.

When completing the USC Graduate application, it is important to pay special attention to the following items that you will find in the “program materials” section of the application:

• Thornton SlideRoom portal – A link to access the Thornton SlideRoom portal will be provided in this section.
• The Documents tab – Documents submitted in this section will not be accessible to the Thornton faculty. Thornton faculty will only be able to review documents submitted via the Thornton SlideRoom portal. In order to complete this section, you must check the box indicating that you do not wish to upload documents in this section.
• The Questions tab – Enter your SlideRoom Confirmation number where indicated (you will receive your SlideRoom confirmation number upon submission of the SlideRoom form).

Click here for important additional requirements and instructions.

A link to the SlideRoom portal is located inside the USC Application for Graduate Admission, in the “Program Materials” Section.

The SlideRoom application fee is $25 (fee waivers are not available). Thornton supplemental materials will not be accepted via mail or email.

The SlideRoom form must be submitted before the USC Application for Graduate Admission (Applicants can start both forms and work on them at the same time). Once SlideRoom is submitted, you will need to enter your SlideRoom confirmation number into the “Questions” tab, also located in the “program materials” section of the USC Graduate application.

Applicants to programs in Percussion must submit video recordings to be prescreened by the faculty. Only video recordings are acceptable. The results of this prescreen will determine whether an applicant will be invited to perform a live audition. Prescreen results will be sent to applicants via email in late December.

Persons failing to prepare the full prescreen requirements described below will not be permitted to perform a live audition nor offered admission to the program.

For all graduate applicants, the prescreen recordings should include the following:

Snare Drum

• Long Roll-Start pp and gradually crescendo to ff, hold at ff for a few seconds, and gradually diminuendo back to pp for a total duration of 25-30 seconds.
• Pratt “Drum Corps on Parade from 14 Modern Contest Solos for Snare Drum”– From the beginning to the downbeat of measure 28 (1/4 note = 108)
• Delecluse “Etude No. 1 from 12 Etudes pour Caisse Claire”. Play from the beginning to the downbeat of measure 46. (1/4 note = 76).

Mallets

Two mallets

• Any two mallet movements from J.S. Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin or Suites for Solo Cello (no repeats).

Four mallets

• A 2-3 minute excerpt from a work of your choice.

Timpani

(Please tune exclusively with an A440 tuning fork, and without the use of an electronic tuner)

Record the following excerpts in one take without stopping as if playing a live audition.

• Beethoven “Symphony no. 9” coda (1st mvt., 18 before S to the end).
• Hindemith “Symphonic Metamorphases” (2nd mvt., S to T).
• Tchaikovsky “Symphony no. 4” (1st mvt., 2 before T to 3 before U).

The résumé should list musical, professional, and academic experience and is generally 1-2 pages in length.

This list should include works studied and performed. Etudes, scale studies, arias, art songs, chamber music, solo pieces, and original compositions are all examples of what could be included in this list.

Graduate applicants are encouraged to prepare a brief statement of their professional goals, as well as their purpose in applying for the Percussion program. The Statement of Purpose is typically 1-2 pages in length.

All transcripts are due December 1st. Please carefully read the transcript requirements below.

Scans (PDF format) of official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions you have attended must be uploaded into SlideRoom. Official transcripts are issued by the registrar’s office of each institution. Unofficial transcripts or documents printed from an on-line student system will not be accepted. Failure to upload scans of official transcripts may significantly delay the release of a final admission decision.

Please note that official transcripts must also be submitted separately to the USC Graduate Admission office following the guidelines here.

1-3 recommendation letters are required from graduate Percussion applicants. Recommendation letters are to be submitted online through the Thornton SlideRoom portal via the “References” section by December 1. We cannot guarantee the review of any material received after December 1.

A “Doctoral Introductory Video” must be submitted through SlideRoom by December 1st.

USC Thornton recognizes that DMA and PhD graduates are expected not only to be elite performers and scholarly experts in their fields, but also exceptional and versatile teachers, inspiring and innovative leaders, and consummate musicians with strong complementary skills. This is a tall order, and it necessitates a well-honed individualized academic portfolio. To this end, USC Thornton requires every Doctoral student to declare, in addition to the major field, an academic field and two elective fields, one of which may be a field outside of music. The purpose of this multidisciplinary approach is to support each student’s personal and artistic development in a way that will be well-aligned with her/his professional goals.

As a reflection of the individualized nature of the USC Thornton Doctoral programs, DMA and PhD applicants are required to submit a single-take, unedited, and preferably unrehearsed video of no more than four minutes, including a brief personal introduction, a description of professional goals, and an explanation of how pursuing a DMA or PhD at USC Thornton will support the pursuit of those goals.

Applicants to the Thornton School will be required to complete and upload the following forms in SlideRoom:

• Parental Consent Form (if applicant is under 18 years of age by December 1, 2022)
• COVID-19 Informed Consent and Release of Liability (signature of parent or guardian is required if applicant is under 18 years of age by December 1, 2022)

For helpful Slideroom media upload troubleshooting tips, please click here.

If invited to a live audition, applicants should bring two bound copies of all materials.

Snare Drum

• Rudimental Solo Etude from Pratt, Wilcoxon or the equivalent.
• Concert Solo Etude from Cirone Portraits in Rhythm, Mitchell Peters Advanced Studies or Delecluse 12 Etudes, or the equivalent.
• Knowledge of rudiments and ornaments.
• Ability to roll at all dynamic levels.
• Sight-reading.
• Four standard orchestral excerpts.

Mallets

• Two-mallet solo of your choice that would be suitable for a recital.
• Four-mallet Marimba or Vibraphone solo of your choice that would be suitable for a recital.
• Knowledge of scales and arpeggios.
• Sight-reading.
• Three standard orchestral excerpts on Xylophone and 2 on Glockenspiel.

Timpani

• Etude from Goodman method, Firth, Delecluse, Hochrainer books or the equivalent.
• Ability to tune accurately.
• Sight-reading.
• Four standard orchestral excerpts.

As much as possible, please try to record all repertoire with no stops, as if giving a recital. If your recording is too large to upload, you may break it up into 2-3 smaller recordings. Please be sure to precisely label each uploaded recording, and take care to be logical about how you organize your repertoire among the uploads.

Snare Drum

• Rudimental Solo Etude from Pratt, Wilcoxon or the equivalent.
• Concert Solo Etude from Cirone Portraits in Rhythm, Mitchell Peters Advanced Studies Delecluse 12 Etudes, or the equivalent.
• Long buzz roll from pp to ff to pp, 20 seconds long
• Four standard orchestral excerpts.

Mallets

• 2 minutes of a Two-mallet solo of your choice that would be suitable for a recital.
• 2 minutes of a Four-mallet Marimba or Vibraphone solo of your choice that would be suitable for a recital.
• Three standard orchestral excerpts on Xylophone and 2 on Glockenspiel.

Timpani

• Four standard orchestral excerpts.

DMA applicants to Percussion must take Thornton’s Graduate Academic Admission Examination. The examination will be administered via an online platform on January 14, 2023 from 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Standard Time. Applicants will receive materials to be reviewed in preparation for the exam about two weeks prior to the exam date. Additional details will be sent in mid-December to those applicants who are required to take the exam.

This written examination reflects the types of critical inquiry with which graduate-level courses at USC Thornton engage. The examination will be assessed by academic faculty as a measure of an applicant’s readiness for the academic rigors and multi-disciplinary structure of Thornton graduate programs. This assessment will be one of several important components considered by the faculty in order to reach a final admission decision for each applicant.

The examination will be administered in two sequential sections:

1. Conceptual Essay: Applicants will be given an essay prompt about an issue or issues in the music profession today. Applicants will be asked to write a short essay exploring various aspects of the topic(s) introduced by the prompt, responding to specific questions and drawing on their own experience, knowledge, and opinions as appropriate.
2. Analytical Essay: Applicants will be given a scholarly/literary text on a music-related topic. Applicants will be asked to respond in essay form to a series of analytical questions relating to the text provided. The analytical issues may concern basic music theory (possibly with reference to a short example in musical notation), music history, and/or aesthetics.

It is important to note that Thornton’s Graduate Academic Admission Examination is not an examination for which students are generally able to study or prepare. It is not designed to examine factual knowledge, but rather the ability to think analytically and express critical thought in academic language, as this is the type of work that is required for graduate-level academic courses at USC Thornton. While the content of Thornton’s Graduate Academic Admission Examination may be drawn from a wide range of scholarly sources, it may be helpful to refer to the following publications by our own faculty:

• Barrett, Janet & Webster, Peter: The Musical Experience: Rethinking Music Teaching and Learning.
• Brown, Bruce: W. A. Mozart: Così fan tutte (Cambridge Opera Handbook)
• Coppola, William, Herbert, David, & Campbell, Patricia: World Music Pedagogy: Teaching World Music in Higher Education.
• Demers, Joanna: Anatomy of Thought-Fiction: CHS Report, April 2214
• Foster, Kenneth J: Performing Arts Presenting: From Theory to Practice
• Garcia Corona, León: & Wiens, Kathy: Voices of the Field: Pathways in Public Ethnomusicology.
• Gordon, Stewart: Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas: A Handbook for Performers
• Nye, Sean: “Sprockets + Autobahn: Kraftwerk Parodies, German Electronic Music, and Retro Dreams in Amerika.” In Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor. Neil Gregor and Thomas Irvine, eds.
• Page, Tim: On Music: Views and Reviews
• Russo, Frank, Ilari, Beatriz, & Cohen, Annabel: Routledge Companion of Interdisciplinary Research in Singing
• Simms, Bryan: The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg, 1908-1923
• Sloan, Nate. Switched on Pop (blog with Charlie Harding). http://www.switchedonpop.com.
• Vest, Lisa: Awangarda: Tradition and Modernity in Postwar Polish Music