<p>Hey there! It's been a real long time since I've been to this board. Now that summer program deadlines are coming up, I was wondering if I could ask a couple questions about some I'm applying to?</p>
<p>1) I hear BUTI's sort of iffy on financial aid? Is that true? I expect most of any scholarship I get from anywhere will be comprised of financial aid (household of 3, about $25,000 per annum, yada yada yada) and I really would need to go on something like a full ride.</p>
<p>2) What is the level of the players at BUTI? Specifically, viola players? I do realise there's a range, and that it varies from year to year, but perhaps worded differently: compared to other summer programs, how hard is it to get into BUTI?</p>
<p>3) Where exactly do the BUTI kids stay?</p>
<p>4) I noticed the NSO summer institute has about 70 people a year, so they say - they don't have specific quotas to fill for specific areas of the US, right?</p>
<p>5) How much "financial aid" (using quotes here because it's a free program) do they give for travelling? I did note on the website you can apply for financial aid for travel in case getting there to Washington D.C. and back is a barrier.</p>
<p>6) What is the level there? Similar to no. 2</p>
<p>7) For Sarasota, how often do they take high school students as opposed to the normal college fare that comes? Will they hold me to a higher standard than even the college kids?</p>
<p>8) Finally, again, what is the level there?</p>
<p>BUTI is an interesting program and from what I know of it, it is pretty high level, they are pretty discriminating with admissions. I can’t speak directly of Viola, but based on ensembles in general violas tend to be more wide ranging in terms of ability IME, I suspect because there are a lot less kids playing viola so you don’t have what you have on violin, where so many play that it is possible to pull all really high level player. Still, the conductors BUTI gets are top notch, people like Paul Haas and Ryan McAdams are demanding conductors. My S applied and was accepted there, but decided not to go, not because it wasn’t high level, but because he has a lot of experience with equally high level orchestras and felt the time was better spent on another type of program.</p>
<p>They have sleeping arrangements at BUTI, they have dorms of a sort, I have heard complaints about them (and the food is supposedly crappy). </p>
<p>The plus side of BUTI is being able to go and see the Boston Symphony performances.</p>
<p>In terms of aid, I have heard likewise BUTI is not that great, but I have also heard that for kids with truly limited means they will give a lot of aid (take that fwiw, it is what I know of it).</p>
<p>My daughter loved Tanglewood and went three times (the first two times, it was only for the two-week worshops).</p>
<p>My daughter got almost a 100% scholarship–we paid for the deposit–based on merit. We don’t qualify for financial aid. But she was the #1 player on her instrument. Many of her friends received scholarships of $4,000 and up. She’s known students over the past several years that received 100% need scholarships.</p>
<p>The level of playing is very high.</p>
<p>The NSO institute does have a quota system with states. In general, one player per state. Based on the students I know who attended the NSO and BUTI, i would say it’s harder to get into the NSO Institute for a wind player, but easier for a string player.</p>
<p>BUTI kids stay in the “dorms”. These are living quarters roughly half-way between a college dormitory, and living in tents outside. The windows are always open. Big difference between BUTI and Interlochen is that BUTI bathrooms are regular, indoor bathrooms, and students do not clean the toilets. My daughter had no issues with the BUTI living arrangements.</p>
<p>The food was a bit better last year. They have salads available at lunch every day.</p>
<p>D3 enjoyed her time at BUTI several years ago, especially the opportunity to attend all the BSO concerts with great seats. For her, it was an important summer in terms of solidifying her decision to pursue a music major in college - being surrounded by really high-level performers was very motivating. The dorms were fine (much better than at some other summer programs), the food was mediocre, the people were friendly.</p>
<p>She played violin while there so I can’t speak to the level of the violists specifically, but I can say that we know several string students who were considered excellent players locally who were not admitted.</p>
<p>I attended BUTI last summer, though for composition.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on financial aid; it’s not a topic that ever came up in discussion.</p>
<p>As far as I could discern, the level of playing was very high among people that I heard. The orchestra itself sounds extremely good, especially for an orchestra of that age group. However, the string chamber music is rather mediocre (IMO). A recording of the orchestra from this summer is (probably illegally) online at [BUTI</a> 2012 Young Artist Orchestra - Mahler Symphony 6 - YouTube](<a href=“BUTI 2012 Young Artist Orchestra - Mahler Symphony 6 - YouTube”>BUTI 2012 Young Artist Orchestra - Mahler Symphony 6 - YouTube). The camera did not cope very well with Ozawa Hall’s reverb, though; it sounded a little less muddy in person.</p>
<p>There are dorms on campus. They are not of the best condition and are extremely hot. My room was cramped, irregularly-shaped, had no air conditioning (no AC exists on the campus as far as I can recall), and had (probably lead) paint flaking off all of the walls. My floor’s shower was often crawling with insects, though the downstairs one never was. Food ranged from edible to unbearably bad, depending on the day, but the town of Lenox was only a 5 minute walk away and has quite a few good restaurants, at least two of which were reasonably priced.</p>
<p>That said, the access to Tanglewood proper is enough to justify the residential suffering. I can’t make any orchestra-specific comments, but having free access to essentially all BSO/TMC events is really, really cool.</p>
<p>Dear woodwinds and stradmom:
What exactly did they think of their teachers? Who were their chamber coaches? Did they talk to any violists about their impression of the program?
Sorry if that’s a few too many questions. Just interested in the musical aspect of BUTI now!</p>
<p>I believe that the experience with teachers really depends upon who is teaching. My daughter attended on two different instruments, but woodwinds. She preferred one instrument’s teachers over the other, in terms of how the instructors taught, and how fun they made it or didn’t make it. However, the quality of instruction on both was very high.</p>
<p>I’m sure you are aware that BUTI has several kinds of programs. Winds and strings can do both the two-week workshop, followed by either the Wind Ensemble or the orchestra. In terms of instruction, the instruction level was higher/more intense during the two week-workshops. The major instructors were there, whereas during the wind ensemble/orchestra phase there were mainly lesser-known instructors. The difference is that during the two-week workshop, solo and chamber repertoire is the emphasis. In the large ensemble phase, the ensemble is the emphasis.</p>
<p>D attended the orchestra program so primarily spoke about the conductors, all of whom were amazing. I got to hear their performances and I have to say that the group put together a high level performance of difficult music in a very short time and did so consistently over the six weeks. I don’t remember who her chamber coach or private instructor was, so I guess that means the person neither particularly clicked with her nor irritated her. :)</p>