WARTBURG MUSIC STUDENTS PREPARE FOR JURIES

“Prospective music majors perform a First-Year Jury at the end of their first year in their major applied area. This serves as an audition for official acceptance into a music degree program.”

HARLIE JACOBSEN, STAFF WRITER

Wartburg College music majors and Meistersinger Scholarship holders prepare throughout the semester to perform a music jury, which is a final performance by a student in a music major for a panel of music faculty, according to the Wartburg College Music Department Student Handbook.

“In most cases students are expected to perform an excerpt of what they’ve been working on in their lessons throughout the semester and a few scales,” Gabrielle Way, a fourth-year music education major, said.

Students are required to perform a jury at the end of each semester or perform a junior or senior recital or student teach, according to the Wartburg College Music Department Student Handbook. The two required juries are the First-Year Jury and the Sophomore Barrier.

“Students are accepted into the department on a probationary basis during their first year,” according to the music handbook, “Prospective music majors perform a First-Year Jury at the end of their first year in their major applied area. This serves as an audition for official acceptance into a music degree program.”

For a First-Year Jury, students may pass, be on probation or not recommended for continuation. There is only one chance to retake the jury. For the Sophomore Barrier, students may attain either a passed, passed with reservations, or not passed status, according to the handbook.

“In order to prepare for them, there’s only one thing you can do, practice,” Way said. “That’s the only way you’ll be confident in your part, even if your hands are shaking like crazy. You should practice so much that you could play your music even if you were falling out of a plane.”

Some students may find juries less stressful than a final exam. Even though juries are new to first-year students, students have time to prepare. “Music has always come pretty easy to me, and I’ve had plenty of time to practice my pieces,” Josh Pollitt, first-year music education major, said.