Carnegie Mellon University

School of Music

Where artistry and innovation share center stage

Undergraduate Electronic Music Portfolio Requirements 

Pre-screening & Interview Information

All Electronic Music applicants must upload a portfolio containing samples of their creative work by December 1. Portfolio and pre-screening requirements are the same.The members of the Electronic Music faculty will review your portfolio electronically. You may be contacted by a member of the panel should they have additional questions.

Applicants who pass pre-screening will be invited to interview with Electronic Music faculty. Invitations will be distributed January 10-15. The School of Music Admission office will reach out in January to find a time to schedule your interview, if applicable.

The Electronic Music faculty will submit the results of the portfolio review and interview to the Office of Undergraduate Admission. If your portfolio review is critiqued favorably, you will be recommended for admission to the Office of Undergraduate Admission, and the Office of Undergraduate Admission will respond by reviewing your academic credentials. 

Portfolio Requirements

Applicants to the program should provide documentation of their electronic music making in the form of high quality sound and video recordings. Sound recordings can be submitted as WAV files or links to online work (e.g. Soundcloud). Video recordings can be submitted as high quality MP4 or MOV files or as links to online work (e.g. Youtube, Vimeo). If the applicant is submitting multichannel/spatial audio work multichannel WAV files can be accepted. The music application and portfolio are due December 1.

In the Acceptd music application, please provide a document with links to components of your portfolio. The document can be .doc or .pdf, but will need to include usable links following these instructions:
For the documentation of projects we suggest providing links to Youtube (can be an "unlisted" video if you don't want to make a public video), Vimeo (can be password protected, but if so make sure to provide password), or Soundcloud (can provide a "secret link" to unlisted recordings, if desired). For the project files we suggest providing links to directories hosted in Google Drive, Box, or similar. We ask for exactly three projects for review, no more no less.

Portfolio contents may include:

  • Videos that demonstrate the applicant's music making process (e.g. a video of a live performance or of their studio production methodology). 
  • Videos with visuals that express the applicant's musical and artistic ideals
  • Source materials that demonstrate the creation of the work 
    • Project files from a studio production (Ableton, Pro Tools, ect.) 
    • Code from creative coding projects (Max, PD, Supercollider, Sonic Pi, Tidal Cycles)
    • Scores (if applicable)

All electronic music candidates are required to complete a pre-screen portfolio and interview.