<p>Congrats, -Allmusic- (and all you other parents), on surviving the process! I found this board right around the time you started to post all of your questions, so I really hope your son finds success.</p>
<p>While the enormous logistical planning process may be over, I agree that the worry and angst continue. Every year the summer program application process is a mini-version of this. But we continue to have lots of fun and build more memories by planning our summer vacations around what D decides to do.</p>
<p>I, too, am suffering a little of the PAD. For just awhile I was needed, an integral part of the support system. </p>
<p>NYU was such a blast, with both D's auditioning for something that day simultaneously (youngest D auditioned for School of American Ballet's summer program - did not get in but a great experience). You cannot replace the excitement of NYC and adding the excitement, tension of auditioning just made such a memorable trip.</p>
<p>I doubt that oldest D and I will ever have so much time spent alone together again. The memories of our other trips are so nice, I will hold them forever.</p>
<p>And yes, the daily mail is like an event. Even though she has had acceptances from 3 of her 5 schools we wait now, for financial packages and on the holy grails of acceptance, the 2 toughest schools Eastman and NYU. NYU we know won't let us know til April 1st at the earliest and Eastman we are hoping to hear from any day. </p>
<p>S auditioned in jazz piano at Eastman. I thought they said late March, early April. You expect to hear sooner!! That would be great! I know the waiting is harder on me than DS. He also applied to UR as Dual Degree so I guess we have to wait for them too.</p>
<p>This is my question, and it probably showcases my extreme neurotic obsessive approach to this process. Do your kids come out of auditions feeling confident or not--probably a combination of the two? Commitment-like comments from auditioners, such as, "you'd do great here" or "I'd love to see what you could do here"--are those to be trusted? How about the neutral auditioners? The two top conservatories my S applied to had that kind of neutral response after he auditioned, toe-tapping while he played aside! --though he came out of the auditons feeling he had done well. What have been your experiences with the actual auditions? Maybe some parents whose kids have gone through the process and gotten into schools could comment on how the student feels about the audition and whether or not it has correlated with acceptances. Or is this too much random speculation that will make us all more nervous than we need to be at this point?? </p>
<p>I'm sure there are some kids who worry that they weren't perfect no matter what. It would be interesting to hear about that aspect of it from others of you.</p>
<p>From son's experiences at summer programs, undergrad and regional pro auditions, he seems to find no way to read the panel. Friendliness or neutrality of the panel seems to not have had a bearing on his outcomes, albeit he has been prepared enough or "lucky" enough to gain more acceptances than rejections, at least in undergrad and festival programs.</p>
<p>He relies on his own post audition assessment to rate his chances, and is usually accurate about predicting the outcome. If he's played his best, he's happy with the audition, regardless of the outcome. His first regional pro audition he made the final round, yet had a brain f*rt during the final elmination. He knew it, and it cost him the chair and he ended up as an alternate. This is the only time I've seen him disappointed with his audition results.</p>
<p>Very limited experience here, but my son's first audition: he played really well, knew it and one of the professors said "very nice" at the end. He was accepted in about 8 days. He's only had one other that he felt that good about (without the comment at the end) - just last weekend, so he hasn't heard yet. The only other audition where he got comments was at Rice where only one teacher hears the violin audition. She said he had done "very well", but went on to talk about how competitive the numbers are, etc. etc. leaving us with little hope that he'll get in. Every other audition has been commentless and affectless - a couple of encouraging smiles is the most he's had. I think we all just have to take a deep breath and wait. It's painful!</p>
<p>My daughter was pretty sure that her videotaped audition was going to be a non-starter and she was correct. She did not express much feeling one way or the other on her five live auditions. I asked how things went after each one and the response was always the same: "OK...I think." She wound up with three acceptances and two rejections. There were no commitment-like comments made at any of her auditions, but at least two of the schools wanted her enough to come up with decent merit scholarship money.</p>
<p>Auditions are never going to be perfect. Learn what you can from the inevitable (and hopefully small) mistakes so that the next audition will be better. Obsessing and second guessing over what is already done is generally just a waste of perfectly good practice time. Waiting is hard, but trying to read the potential admissions implications of every nuance of conversation is only going to make March seem a lot longer.</p>
<p>My D's auditions are done also. She had 7 in total. Her first one she was nervous and said she did ok but didn't play her best. There was no interaction with the panel. Since it had a rolling admission we know she was accepted already. The next five she felt good about and came out smiling. She received positive comments. Her last one was Sunday at Juilliard. She was told they do not interact with you. She felt she did good for most of it but had a brain fart on an excerpt and came out saying "well I know I didn't get in here." Overall a busy two months and now the wait begins. Nancy</p>
<p>I can only imagine how tough this is on kids--and people doing pro auditions, violadad! My son is a bit of a sphinx, and perversely seemed to love each audition. I say perversely with great irony because of course that's a wonderful quality to have--to enjoy the process and not sweat the outcome. Not sure that is really what is going with him exactly, but I am glad he didn't eat himself up over any audition. </p>
<p>So, let's all say a collective: "OMMM" for the next few weeks!</p>
<p>Son felt all of his auditions went well overall, although he had some complaint with a few ("the sight reading could have gone better", ) but they were minor.</p>
<p>Very little feedback from anyone. Friendly adjudicators who mostly held their cards close to their chest. They made conversation, some of them at least, but it would be impossible to read too much into their reactions.</p>
<p>Things seem to be a bit different for vocalists sometimes because they see so many at the auditions that I think they tend to just mark their sheets and smile. At one school, the Director of Opera and Music Theater told her after she sang that she had beautiful colors in her voice. She was ready to sign up right then and there. I think the kids are a little starved for feedback so any little thing that is done or communicated goes a long way. She felt really good about each audition though - the lack of feedback didn't inform the way she felt about her performance and it didn't impact acceptances.</p>
<p>Judges can be very creative in their language of remarks, i.e "What a memorable performance!","I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed your singing"."Wow!" Do take it to heart if a judge goes out of his/her way to say "be careful about.....", it is a sign they were listening, thinking about what they heard, and that they think fixing something is worthwhile! </p>
<p>This is the time of much second guessing and replaying of the audition memory reels. Remember that schools are selecting musicians who can be successful in their programs, and they are basing that judgement on what they hear now. If you do not gain acceptance where you think you belong, take it to heart....work harder and/or consider all your options. Good luck!</p>
<p>In our experience, the more prestigious the school the less interactive during the audition. At Eastman, it was a very neutral audition except for the one comment "that was a very strong finish". Unfortunately this really put my D off attending there.</p>
<p>At all of our other auditions the faculty were SOOOOO friendly and wonderful it has given my D fits of anxiety over having to choose. At one school we were told that she would not hear back until all the other Horns had been auditioned only to get an acceptance letter within 2 weeks (this was an early audition). Another we were told "I hope to see you in the fall", which is nice and friendly but I believe non-committal so we were happy to get an acceptance there. Still yet at the other 2 auditions my D was told point-blank that they loved her, wanted her, and then they proceeded to try and sell the school to her (not even a need to try and sell at this point, she loves both places) and one school even asked her why in the heck she is not a performance major. We did receive the acceptance for one but are waiting on the other (academic acceptance at this school is rigorous). </p>
<p>All in all the audition process has been somewhat empowering for my D. We have learned a lot. She has never been to a summer program nor has she had extensive private lessons or played with a youth orchestra. At the auditions she was actually lauded for this!!! One professor was astounded that she had completely prepared for auditions all on her own. At more than one school they commented on her excellent singing ability and at yet another were IMPRESSED by her NYSSMA record (which various people have told us no one would care about). We found that the excellent recommendations from her JH and HS band teachers really got the adjucators attention before she even went in (these recs were mentioned at every audition except Eastman). </p>
<p>Overall, I can say this whole audition process has so wonderful. Going into it we felt at a distinct disadvantage and would have considered ourselves lucky if she squeaked into one school but she has been so warmly treated pretty much everywhere that it really makes her feel like all of her hard work has paid off. I think no matter where she goes she will not feel like she has been second choice or just squeaked in and will feel valued. That is worth all of the miles logged for sure.</p>
<p>I should mention that she felt she made minor mistakes at all of the auditions on various things. For the most part the adjucators were extremely helpful and understanding. One came out before the audition and spoke to me privately and asked me how D was feeling that day. I thought that was a nice gesture.</p>
<p>Oh, and I don't expect to hear from Eastman soon. I am hoping but whoever posted the mid-March to Early April is probably right on. I just never asked when we would hear.</p>
<p>Eastman said mid-March. I'm glad your D had such a great experience. I think my son has also grown tremendously. The praise he has received has been more from individual teachers before the auditions, but this has made him approach the whole process with greater confidence. He is exhausted though!</p>
<p>I suspect everyone's experience is unique and dependent on where they auditioned, for whom they auditioned, for what program they auditioned, who else was auditioning, etc. I don't think there's a real possibility of averaging out the answer to the questions "how did I do - what does it all mean?" based on what happened to others! But, wouldn't it be nice to be able to figure that out without having to wait...</p>
<p>There's been such a great crowd this year of singers, jazz musicians, wind, string, and composition students that what I've really learned is how different things are for students in different circumstances - even those auditioning at the same schools. Best of luck to all!</p>
<p>My son is seldom happy with his auditions. He seems to find and remember only the parts that go poorly...and doesn't seem to care about the parts that went well. As he says...he knows what needs work.</p>
<p>I would say the universal to S's auditions was people noticing that he had perfect pitch. During sight singing or aural training, most of the adjudicators did comment on it. I don't know if PP is all that rare, but perhaps it is something they will remember!</p>
<p>Aside from that, not much more overlap. He definitely did not get any gushing, like Momof3Stars' D did, but felt that everyone was solicitous and professional.</p>
<p>I want to share my son's audition experience for grad school last year. He was auditioning at Juillard for cello performance. They asked him to start with a movement of Bach. They then asked for a movement that he could play quite well, but had not memorized particularly well. He said he had at least a dozen memory slips. At the end of that movement, one of the judges (he has no idea who - there were about 10 people there) told him "Don't worry about it." So he took a deep breath and proceeded on with the rest of his audition. He thought that other than the one movement of Bach, it was his best audition all year. He was accepted but chose to go elsewhere to study with the teacher he wanted.</p>
<p>My point is that, even at the graduate level, your audition does not have to be perfect. The judges have all been on the other side of the table many times and know how nerve-wracking it can be. If you do mess up, showing poise and professionalism can go a long way towards still creating a good impression.</p>
<p>Binx - I had to smile when you mentioned a ways back about the good days / bad day / good days / bad days. When son has had a bad audition or lesson I usually get the "law school" call. When he calls and talks about applying to law school I know he is in one of his low spells. However, in the 4 years since he started talking law school as an alternative, he hasn't sent in a single application! When he starts studying for the LSAT, then I will get worried :)</p>
<p>That is encouraging. So do you think there are schools where a "perfect" audition is required? If anywhere, I would have thought Juilliard! So what quality is it that overcomes that kind of lapse? Would love to know what you think!</p>