First you play (or sing) informally. This can be done as of the age of eight. You can apply even if you have doubts and want to know a little more about potential options. Playing informally is not an exam. A small committee will be listening comprising one or two main subject teachers and the coordinator of the School for Young Talent who will assess whether there is sufficient musical and technical potential to pass the entrance examination. Immediately after the informal session you will be given advice as to the best path to follow in preparing for the entrance exam.

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The entrance examination for the School for Young Talent Classical and for the School for Young Jazz comprises an instrumental part and a theoretical part. The exam will test your musical ear, your musical imagination and your theoretical knowledge. The criteria used are adapted to your age. The older you are the more demanding they will be.

Subjects in the test are:

• musical memory (playing/singing melodies by hear, transposing, converting from major to minor and vice versa
• sense of metre and rhythm, walking/tapping to the right time, distinction between binary/tertiary, clapping to various rhythms)
• musical ear (major/minor, naming scales, intervals, triads, seventh chords by ear, repetition with relative solmisation),
• singing from score (melodic and rhythmically, with or without relative solmisation)
• knowledge of general music theory (note names, keys, key signatures, intervals, triads/common chords, seventh chords, etc.).

If you want to prepare for the test the best thing is to practice what you can already do. There’s no point in trying to cram in everything you might need to know shortly beforehand.

Musical memory and musical ear will be part of the test for everyone.

If you have already had classes in solfège or music theory it might be handy to bring with you the material that you used in the classes.

The instrumental part of the entrance examination will take place end of march, beginning of april. You will play a varied programme so that the committee can hear what you can offer musically and how far you are in your technical development. Of course the admission criteria differ for each main subject. If you want more information it would be best to get in touch with the School of Young Talent education coordinator.

If you have been granted admission to the programme on the basis of the music entrance examination the next step is an invitation to an intake test for your regular school subjects. After the test we will get in touch with your present school. A final decision will then be taken on admission to the Music department of the School for Young Talent.

If you have been granted admission you will have an interview with the head of School for Young Talent about placement in the school. The head will discuss with you and your parents the transfer to the school. The emphasis in this meeting will be on your regular school syllabus.

By way of preparing your transfer to the School for Young Talent you will spend for a few days in the class which you will be joining in the new school year. You will take part in the normal school programme and in the classes in the music department.