A prescreening is required of all composition applicants. Those that pass the prescreening will be invited to interview. All applicants residing in North America and all DMA and Harvard/NEC applicants must interview in-person here in Boston. Composition applicants residing outside of North America who are not applying to the DMA or Harvard/NEC programs may interview by Skype if they cannot travel to Boston.

Applicants should submit their portfolio and accompanying recordings via our online application. Portfolio scores can be uploaded as PDF files and recordings may be uploaded in several file formats. Please refer to the recording guidelines section of our general Audition Requirements page for information about uploading your prescreening files to our online application.

Prescreening Process

All applicants must submit a composition portfolio by December 1. After a prescreening review, qualified applicants will be asked to interview with composition faculty members at NEC. Applicants who are not selected for a live interview will be notified that they have not been accepted for study at NEC.

Composition Portfolio Requirements

Submit three scores of original compositions. If available, please also include recordings (live or computer-generated) of the submitted compositions. Please submit scores and recordings through the online application.

In addition, applicants should show proof of theoretical study through transcripts or other supporting documents.

DMA applicants should submit at least three scores and recordings of recent works. It is helpful if works are chosen to demonstrate a variety of ensembles and forms, including at least one larger work.

Interview

If invited, applicants are required to interview with the composition faculty. Interviews will last 20 minutes and will give our faculty the opportunity to learn more about applicants and their work and simultaneously allow applicants to learn more about NEC and our Composition program. The interview does not include an entrance exam or demonstration of instrumental proficiency. Applicants to the DMA, however, are required to take the standard DMA entrance exams while in Boston.