How to Book a Recital

Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall is the primary venue for YSM degree recitals. It is available for School use seven days a week during term.

Sudler Recital Hall in William L Harkness Hall is available to the School of Music for recitals on Monday and Thursday evenings, and Saturday afternoons and evenings.

Marquand Chapel at the Divinity School is used primarily for ISM vocal and conducting recitals.

Organ and choral conducting recitals may take place in Woolsey Hall, Dwight and Battell Chapels, and other campus and community sites.

Sprague and Sudler halls are booked through Tara Deming, Operations Manager. The other venues are scheduled directly by students or their major teachers.

View Concert Hall Schedule

Required Recitals
Recitals may not take place in the evenings, or from April 1 to the end of the year (April 30, 2010). Because of the opera production schedule, opera students may schedule required recitals afternoons until April 29, 2010 in Sudler Hall.

Informal Recitals
The guidelines for scheduling these recitals are the same as those governing required recitals; however, required and degree recitals have scheduling priority over informal recitals. The concert office reserves the right to deny booking an informal recital until most or all degree and required recitals have been scheduled, and may further limit informal recitals depending on the availability of concert staff and the congestion of the concert calendar.

Changing the status of a recital (for example, from Degree to Required) must be requested in writing, and requires the approval of the student’s teacher and the director of the concert office. If a recital is no longer a degree recital, it may be cancelled or rescheduled to comply with the scheduling policies stated above.

Often, students would like the opportunity to perform a recital program he or she is preparing for a competition or an out-of-town venue. This can be booked under the following conditions:

1. It shall be closed event, not open to the public. In Sprague, the front doors to the building and the hall shall remain locked. The audience of friends, colleagues, and faculty will enter from the performers’ entrance on Wall Street.
2. There will not be staff assigned to the run-through.
3. The student’s teacher must be in attendance.
4. No rehearsal time will be provided.

Piano accompanists are made available to YSM students for degree recitals and, when possible, for non-degree recitals performed at Yale. Because the number of accompanists is limited, it is important to make arrangements as early as possible, and to limit the amount of time each accompanist spends on individual recitals.

All requests for piano accompanists for degree recitals must be submitted to Elizabeth Parisot by October 1. If you have already made arrangements with a YSM pianist, Ms. Parisot must still be notified so that your pianist can be officially assigned to your recital. If you have no preference, you must notify Ms. Parisot so that she may assign an appropriate accompanist. If notification is not received by October 1, it will be assumed that you have already made other arrangements. Assignments for non-degree recitals will be made after October 1.

The accompanist’s duties are listed below. Remember that these are the maximum limits expected of the accompanist and that most recitals should require fewer hours. All music should be given to the accompanist at the earliest possible opportunity.

• 15 hours of rehearsal
• 1 or 2 master classes
• 3 or 4 lessons
• Any time required to learn the music

1. To determine your recital date, visit the Concert Hall Schedule to find availability for Sudler, Sprague, and Woolsey Halls and other venues. Note events scheduled in all halls to prevent conflicts.
2. After selecting the date, you must complete a Recital Contract.
   
   Download Recital Contract  
   
3. Print the contract, obtain signatures, and submit it to the Operations Office. You will receive a copy after it has been processed and approved. Your major teacher and accompanist may email their confirmation to vincent.oneppo [at] yale.edu. They should include the date and time of the recital in the subject line.
4. Recitals will not appear on the school’s concert calendar until a contract is approved. If the recital is to take place off campus, in one of the residential colleges, or in any other non-YSM or ISM venue (except for organists using Dwight or Battell Chapels), the recital form must be signed by an administrator of that facility.

You must indicate on the contract if your program requires any of the following:

• A harpsichord
• A sound system
• An ensemble larger than seven
• Additional equipment besides pianos

If you do not have this information at the time you submit the contract, you must notify the Operations Office within three weeks of your recital date.

Rehearsals: A maximum of three hours of rehearsal time may be scheduled with the operations office, preferably when the recital is booked. Rehearsals must end by 11:00 pm.

Keys: Keys for Sudler and Sprague Halls may be obtained from the operations office (or the concert office if no one is available in operations). You must sign them out no later than 4:30 p.m. for evening rehearsals. NOTE that there is no key sign-out on the weekends, so please plan ahead—get your keys by 4:30 the previous Friday. For the performance, a concert office-appointed stage manager will have whatever keys are necessary to run the concert.

Equipment: There are 30 chairs and 30 stands in Sprague; 5 chairs and 5 stands in Sudler. If you need more than this for a rehearsal, you must use wire stands; for the concert, alert the operations office at least a week in advance.

Audio and Video: If your program requires audio playback, sound reinforcement, or image or video projection, contact Jason Robins as soon as you know what you will need. Jason will advise you if we have the equipment and personnel to provide the services you require. If you know you will need these services at the time you submit your recital contract, please note in the space provided.

Pianos and Harpsichord: There are two Steinway D pianos in Sprague, and a harpsichord. The harpsichord is stored in a practice room in the basement. To use it, sign out a key, and arrange with the operations office to have the instrument moved to the stage. There is one piano in Sudler Hall, and no harpsichord.

1. You are responsible for the hall during their rehearsals. No food or beverages will be allowed on the Sprague Stage at any time, with the exception of water in a container with a screw-on cap.
2. You are responsible for arranging performers’ access to the buildings for rehearsals. This is especially important for performers who do not have a YSM ID card. We do not have staff working in the evenings who can let them in.
3. For Sprague Hall rehearsals, all performers and guests must enter and exit from the stage entrance and NOT the doors to Sprague Hall on College Street. During rehearsals, do not enter and exit the hall using the lobby doors.
4. After rehearsals, chairs and stands must be returned to the backstage area of Sudler, and the backstage area must be locked. In Sprague, the stands and chairs should go backstage; Piano(s) and harpsichord must be covered, locked, and returned to their original places; Lights must be turned off.

The hall is reserved for you one hour before your start time for rehearsal, warm-up, and recording sound check. You are expected to clear the stage 15 minutes prior to start time.

One stage manager will be provided for recitals in Sprague and Sudler. If you have an ensemble larger than 7 players, you must provide at least one assistant stage manager, depending on the size of the ensemble. The stage manager has been authorized by the Concerts and Media Office to run all technical aspects of the concert including start time, clearing the stage of performers before the opening of the hall, etc. Arranging for ushers, if desired, is the responsibility of the recitalist. Do not ask stage managers to serve as page-turners.

Degree and required recital programs are official documents that have formatting standards that must be followed. Therefore, the Concerts & Media Office must produce or at least approve the finished program before it is printed in quantity.

We recommend that you submit your program to the Concert Office one month before your recital date. Please use the online Recital Program Form.

The Concert Office does not accept hand-written program submissions. We will not research for you, so please provide the complete information requested on the form and be sure to edit and spell check your information before submitting.

Late submissions are subject to the following policies:

10 business days before recital: no penalty
6-9 business days before recital: $50 fine
1-5 business days before recital: $100 fine

Students should return to the Concert Office to proofread their programs at least one week in advance of the recital. The Concert Office will not accept responsibility for proofreading errors on your part. 50 programs will be printed.

Texts for voice and choral conducting degree recitals must be submitted in hardcopy to be photocopied no later than two weeks in advance.

All degree recitals will be evaluated by the student's primary teacher and one other faculty member of the School of Music.

Note: It is the responsibility of the student's primary teacher to arrange for the evaluation committee, and to ensure its presence at the recital. The members of the evaluation committee must submit written evaluations of the recital. A recital will not be considered successfully completed until all evaluations have been received.

The Registrar’s Office keeps recital reports on file for the academic year, after which they are added to the student's permanent files. Students may read and copy their recital reports.

The School’s recording studio will record all degree recitals in Sprague and Sudler Halls. The recitalist receives one copy of the CD; additional copies are $10 each. A student may use a compact system, such as a minidisc recorder or portable cassette recorder to record an informal or required recital.

No outside recording engineers may record in Sprague, but a student may use a compact system to make audition recordings. Due to the heavy use of Sprague Hall, students may book no more than one of these sessions each semester. The sessions are limited to three hours, may not be booked earlier than a week in advance, and may be preempted by rehearsals for degree or faculty concerts, at the discretion of the director of the concert office.

Receptions for Sudler Hall recitals will be permitted in the side room (beyond the glass doors, on the College Street side of the building). Recitalists will be responsible for cleaning the room afterwards, and removing all trash from the building. There are no receptions in Sprague Hall, but the Lounge at 320 Temple Street is available for receptions, and may be scheduled with the operations office.