In addition, during your pre-college years, try to take part in our community's terrific array of opportunities, such as MYS and GTCYS, and paticipate in competitions such as Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, and YPSCA. Attending summer music camps such as Madeline Island Music Camp, Tanglewood, or Interlochen is both a lot of fun and a great way to meet other musicians from around the world.
Although you may start with the Suzuki books, your pre-college musical education should take you through the full tour of materials for auditions, technique, and musical development, from such great works as the Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky violin concertos to invaluable technical exercises for development of dexterity and tone.
Perhaps most importantly, devote time, practice, and activity towards pursuing violin at the highest level. Take private lessons, go to concerts, listen to recordings, play chamber music, and, then, find your own unique voice. And perform perform perform! Learning to perform is vital; while you may initially exprience "stage fright," the best way to overcome this is to put yourself out there as often as possible.
Performing solo with orchestra is especially rewarding, and you might consider playing a concerto with a local community orchestra or your high school orchestra. The local youth symphonies also have solo competitions. If your teacher offers recitals, make sure you play in them. Volunteering your time performing in nursing homes can be very rewarding -- they really love to hear you play!
Conservatories usually require auditions. Sometimes these are in person, and other times you may send a tape. There are schools that make the rounds to major cities for auditions, but for other schools you may have to travel. In planning for your audition, make sure you have at least two pieces in contrasting styles, such as two selections from the romantic and Baroque eras, or choose contrasting tempos such as adagio and allegro. Make sure you know your major and minor scales in three octaves and can play in every key. Many schools list audition "requirements" but you are also sometimes given a blank slate. In this case, I suggest going with the music that you think shows you at your best, rather than choosing difficult material aimed at impressing your listeners.
Also, be prepared to offer a recording of yourself, preferably analogue and "no-dolby / unedited," of audition selections. Try to have the recording made in a studio (such as Studio "M" at MPR), or use high quality equipment.
In addition -- find yourself a professional level piano accompanist. He or she is an absolute necessity for auditions and competitions. You may want to work with a few before settling on one that you use repeatedly. I keep a list of trusted, experienced accompanists for my students.
You might also want to consider schools such as Oberlin or Yale, which offer academic programs that confer double degrees such as the BA/BM or BA/MM. This pursuit ensures that, should you choose a path other than a career in music, you also have the college experience to back up your candidacy for opportunities in other fields. Yale was my choice, from which I earned both a B.A. in music theory and history as well as an M.M. in violin performance.
