| Yes and no. Usually you can play what you like and project a certain impression (e.g. last movement of Sea Eagle [1] if wanting to show brilliance, a Mozart concerto [2] if wanting to play it safe). This is similar to showing your open source work or the solution of a take home assignment. They will then ask you to sight read or play through famous repertoire (e.g. Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony 2nd movement horn solo [3]). This is true whiteboarding in the sense that in theory, you might not have seen it before, but a professional (or a well prepared student) will know most of the things that can be asked, just as inverting a binary tree is one of many probable whiteboard problems an engineer who knows the game will pick up in Gayle McDowell's book or whatever. And that's part of the game, one that older engineers don't need to play anymore, which is why they have problems at the US border, whereas older musicians must continue proving themselves as their work has a physical component that unfortunately must be demonstrated throughout their professional life. Edit: this captures the spirit of the thing quite well, spot the parallels with an engineering interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdAnogOKR0I [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu2kIVSP5yw&t=8m [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELNRsN3Jx8 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEbO80q66ak&t=1m12s |