Violin repertoire
Orchestral violin excerpts, bowings, style, and what panels listen for
The excerpts that recur on violin audition lists, annotated with the bow style, the failure modes, and the stylistic decisions that decide how they land.
- Excerpts
- 12
- Composers
- 8
- Audition excerpts
- 12
- Eras
- 4
Violin excerpts test different things from violin concertos. A panel is hiring a section player, so the questions are whether your rhythm is exact, whether your intonation locks with fourteen other people, and whether your sound blends rather than projects. Brilliance matters far less than reliability.
The standard list is small and stable, Don Juan, the Mozart symphonies, the Mendelssohn and Schumann scherzos, the Beethoven slow movements. Because it barely changes, preparing it is a long-term project rather than something assembled per audition.
Preparing an audition?
12 of these excerpts appear on standard violin audition lists, ordered by difficulty and annotated with what panels listen for.
The violin audition listBrowse by era
Browse by composer
Every violin excerpt
Strauss, Don Juan, opening
Mozart, Symphony No. 39, II, Andante
Mozart, Haffner Symphony, IV, Presto
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, III, Adagio
Beethoven, Eroica, III, Scherzo
Mendelssohn, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Scherzo
Schumann, Symphony No. 2, II, Scherzo
Brahms, Symphony No. 4, I, opening
Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, violin solo
Prokofiev, Classical Symphony, I
Brahms, Symphony No. 1, IV, big tune
Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra, fast string writing
Excerpts test the technique underneath
Arco's violin curriculum builds the bow strokes, positions, and clef reading these passages assume.