UNLV Music

Keyboard Studies

Undergraduate and Graduate Programs
The UNLV Keyboard Area offers several degree programs, including a Bachelor of Music in piano performance, Master of Music in piano performance, Master of Music in accompanying and Doctor of Musical Arts in of piano performance. The degree programs are designed to provide an educational environment that fosters the artistic, intellectual, and personal growth of its students. The students are prepared to embark on successful careers and productive lives as artists and citizens, as well as to become leaders in their field. The performance-intensive undergraduate and graduate degree programs develop comprehensive musical skills and literacy and integrate artistic performance, music scholarship, pedagogy, and business skills to prepare students for new challenges in the professional world of music.

Keyboard students will:

• Be part of a community of musicians aspiring toward the same musical and professional goals.
• Study in an atmosphere of encouragement and support, nurturing expressive freedom and artistic development through extensive challenges and personal mentorship.
• Complement their major studies with courses in music history and theory, chamber music, piano ensemble, piano literature, piano pedagogy, and collaborative performance with all vocal and instrumental types.
• Develop from competent musicians to artistic achievers.

UNLV Graduates
Numerous UNLV graduates hold positions in professional orchestras, chamber ensembles, opera companies, school music programs, community music schools, and many other fields. A recent example of artistic achievement is Elena Miraztchiyska, an UNLV graduate in piano performance. Ms. Miraztchiyska won first prize in the 2007 National Music Teacher's Association (MTNA) Young Artist Piano Competition and was awarded a Steinway grand piano. She is the first woman ever to be awarded this prize from Steinway and Sons.

Guest Master Classes, Lectures, and Performances
The Department of Music and the UNLV Performing Arts Center host a number of recitals, lectures, and master classes each year. Through the artist-in-residence program, UNLV keyboard students have the opportunity to work with an impressive group of visiting artists. UNLV was privileged to welcome recent guest artists, including Gabriel Chodos, David Dubal, Jerome Lowenthal, Gianluca Luisi (Italy), Walter Ponce, Victor Rosenbaum, Jerome Rose, Vladimir Shakin (Russia), Boris Slutsky, Nelita True, and Janice Weber, among many others.

Educational Travel
The College of Fine Arts Department of Music sponsors group travel to classical music concerts. Students have attended Los Angeles Philharmonic performances and recitals featuring the most prominent musicians of our time, such as Andras Schiff, Mikhail Pletnev, Christian Zacharias, Lang Lang, and many others.

Piano Scholarship Auditions

Audition Procedures
Undergraduate and graduate auditions are approximately 15+ minutes in length. Doctoral auditions are approximately 40+ minutes in length. Each applicant chooses their first work and the faculty will determine the remainder of the audition program from the applicant’s audition repertoire list.

Applicants must perform all works from memory.

Undergraduate Audition Requirements

1. Prelude and fugue by J.S. Bach or D. Shostakovich or another work which contains a fugue
2. Complete sonata by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Clementi or Hummel
3. Complete work from the 19th or 20th centuries

Graduate Audition Requirements

1. Prelude and fugue by J.S. Bach or D. Shostakovich or another work which contains a fugue
2. Complete sonata by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Clementi, Hummel or comparable major work (i.e., Beethoven “Eroica” Variations)
3. A major Romantic work from the 19th century
4. Complete work from the 20th or 21st century

D.M.A. Audition Requirements
D.M.A. applicants must prepare a recital-length audition program of stylistically diverse, musically and pianistically challenging works. (Shorter programs may be subject to approval by the piano faculty.)

Sample Audition Program:

1. Sonata by Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert
2. One substantial work by Chopin, Mendelssohn. Schumann, Liszt, Brahms
3. One substantial work by a composer of late 19th or early 20th century such as, but not limited to, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Busoni, Debussy, Ravel, and Grieg.
4. A substantial 20th or 21st-century work by a composer post-dating Impressionism.

For further information, please contact the Keyboard Studies coordinator, Dr. Mykola Suk at 702-895-4980 or mykola.suk@unlv.edu.

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