SUNY Potsdam - The Crane School of Music
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Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. The Crane School of Music is SUNY’s only All-Steinway institution and, in 2021, was named one of only ten Yamaha Institution of Excellence programs nationally. Crane offers Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education, Performance, Music Business, Composition, Music Theory, and Music History, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree.
The Crane School of Music offers rigorous degree programs with a strong emphasis on performance and practice, in a tightknit atmosphere. You’ll benefit from working closely with our distinguished, dedicated, and overwhelming full-time faculty artists, teachers and scholars. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures, and concerts presented by faculty, students, and guests each year.
The Crane School of Music enrolls about 500 students, supported by about 85 faculty and professional staff. The School is situated on a beautiful rural/village campus setting in eastern upstate New York, 30 minutes from the Canadian border. The School enjoys recently renovated and expanded facilities following a two-year, $29 million project completed in 2022. Crane is one of the three schools that make up SUNY Potsdam, a 2,500-student college offering a wide variety of degrees. SUNY Potsdam is part of the State University of New York system, the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, spanning 64 campuses throughout the state.The Crane School of Music requires prospective students who wish to major in any music degree program to both complete an audition and complete an academic application through SUNY Potsdam’s College admissions process. You can complete these in any order.
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THE CRANE SCHOOL OF MUSIC AUDITION INFORMATION
The Crane School offers in-person on-campus auditions, limited off-campus in-person auditions, and video auditions. There is no pre-screening.
For detailed information about auditions, please refer to our webpages:
In-Person Audition Dates:
- On Campus Auditions (directions)
- Saturday, December 9, 2023 (last day to register: Sunday, November 26)
- Saturday, February 3, 2024 (last day to register: Sunday, January 21)
- Saturday, March 2, 2024 (last day to register: Sunday, February 18)
- We know that traveling to campus can be a significant expense for some students and their families. To help offset travel costs, we are happy to announce that we are able to provide free hotel rooms for a limited number of students auditioning on-campus. You will be able to request a room during the audition registration process.
- For more on activities you can take advantage of during on-campus auditions, see our Auditions Day Schedule.
- Off Campus Auditions
- Long Island - Mineola High School (Garden City, NY), Thursday, February 22, 2024 (directions) – all instruments/voice except harp, percussion, & piano
- New York City - Grand Street High School (Brooklyn, NY), Friday, February 23, 2024 (directions) – all instruments/voice except harp & percussion
- The last day to register for either off-campus audition site is Sunday, February 11, 2024.
- There is an additional $50 fee for off-campus auditions to help us offset the costs of conducting these.
Video Auditions: Please refer to the Video Auditions section of our auditions webpage for details.
- For spring 2024 admission, the last day to submit your video links is Sunday, November 26, 2023
- For fall 2024 admission:
- The regular deadline to submit your videos links is Thursday, February 15, 2024. Students submitting video links by this date will be fully considered for music scholarships.
- The last day to register and submit your video links is Thursday, February 29, 2024.
Please note that composition major applicants need to both audition on an instrument or voice and also submit a portfolio of works. Please refer to the Composition section of our auditions webpage for details about submitting your composition portfolio.
For all in-person auditions, Crane will provide an accompanist for all vocal auditions. There is a $30 non-refundable fee charged for this service. Students must use the accompanist Crane provides.
All students must complete an academic application to SUNY Potsdam. As noted above, this can be before or after registering for an audition. While we prefer students to have a complete college application prior to their audition date, students may audition even if their college application is still in-process. Audition results, however, will only be sent to students who have completed their college application.
Questions about the academic application to SUNY Potsdam can be addressed to the College's Office of Admissions directly at admissions@potsdam.edu or 1-877-POTSDAM.
If you have any questions about the audition process, the Crane School, or SUNY Potsdam, please contact us at auditions@potsdam.edu.
For technical questions, please visit the Acceptd Helpdesk.