Recorded Arts Portfolio

All Arts Portfolio recordings and other materials must be submitted via Stanford's portal after submitting your application. Vocal, instrumental, and conducting auditions must be submitted in video format. No audio-only performance files will be accepted. Composition and MST/electronic media should choose the format that best represents the work. Music portfolios should consist of the following items:

• Performance video file(s), composition audio files, or MST files in any medium; multiple files are OK. No performance videos older than a year from the submission deadline.
• Music résumé (which might include instructors, musical interests, awards and honors, select performance experience and repertoire).
• For composition submissions only: Maximum of 3 works for acoustic instruments and/or electronic media, including web-audio project. Scores in pdf format are only required for notated work. Digital playback of notated score is accepted and encouraged, but not required.
• For music, science & technology submissions only: Maximum of 3 examples of experiences with music technology that may include but are not limited to compositions, improvisations, software, DIY music instruments or writing samples of music technology research.  Most common file types are accepted.

Encouraged: A letter of recommendation specific to the Arts Portfolio. For many students, this will be from a music teacher, but we welcome a letter from any other person in a mentoring role. This letter is optional but tells us so much about a student. This recommendation is separate from any other letters that Admission may require, and resides with the portfolio.

Additional conditions:

• Applicants are limited to one Arts Portfolio only.
• Students should focus on one category only, and Performance students should further limit themselves to one instrument/voice area only, with exceptions for percussion and performance areas that usually include instruments of a type but in different pitches.
• Conducting students must submit a video from a performance with live musicians.
• The Arts Portfolio is specific in focus but we encourage you to tell us about all your music in your résumé.

The application for Arts Portfolio students must be submitted by the deadlines below to be considered for review.

• Restrictive Early Action: October 15, 2025
• Regular Decision: December 5, 2025
• Transfer: March 15, 2026

Prepare two or three short, contrasting pieces that demonstrate your current level of ability. A suggested overall audition length is about ten minutes. Your submission should be in one instrument/voice area only.

Students may perform with an accompanist, though this is not required. We regret that we cannot accept recordings in which recorded accompaniment has been added through editing,  but students may perform with accompaniment from an output device (i.e., a speaker), or without accompaniment. Recording without accompaniment or with pre-recorded accompaniment does not put a student at any kind of disadvantage. Neither does a performance with live accompaniment put a student at an advantage.

Students may submit an Arts Portfolio through Stanford's portal. After an online application is submitted to Undergraduate Admission by the appropriate deadline, Arts Portfolio students will receive an email in a day or two with instructions for uploading an Arts Portfolio.

• Currently, only recorded auditions are available.
• One Arts Portfolio only. Although we are very interested in all the types of music a student may be involved in, we can only review one category per student. You can tell us more in your arts résumé.
• Performance students should submit in one instrument/voice area only.
• All performance submissions must be submitted in video format. Composers may submit audio-only recordings, along with scores, if possible.
• Performers should dress appropriately. Remember that your video is an audition with our performance faculty. Dress casual ("dressy casual," "business casual") attire is okay.
• You can submit each work as a separate file, which you might find more convenient.
• Students submitting a recorded Arts Portfolio are required to submit their files and all supporting documents via the web; see the Office of Admission website for directions and specific information about Common Application submission processes.
• Recordings must be submitted via Stanford's Arts Portfolio process. No recordings submitted directly to the Department of Music or any of our faculty can be reviewed.
• If you would like to learn more about the Department of Music and our undergraduate programs, we encourage you to explore the Music site. Still can't find the answer to your question? Contact Undergraduate Student Services Officer rleigh [at] stanford.edu (subject: Undergraduate%20programs) (Rowen Leigh).