A family friend will be visiting several campuses in June, and they wanted to know if it would be advisable, and possible, for her son to meet with music faculty. Is it best to wait for auditions, or is it ok to connect with faculty as early as possible?
My take it is never hurts to get an early idea of the faculty, if for anything to see if the kid feels it is a match…the advantage of doing a sample lesson at an audition is it is fresh in the teachers mind, so it may be valuable to see a teacher now, get an idea of who the kid wants to study with, then at audition time see the ones they may really want to study with.
One warning, June may be difficult, depending on when in June you will be there. Colleges tend to finish in mid to late may, and then faculty may be off traveling, going to summer music festivals and the like, so if you are planning to visit you may want to check first and see who will be there.
I agree with musicprnt. Why not wait until September/October when the school is in full swing and you can gauge the students and the level of playing as well? Many schools will allow you to sit in one of the music classes as an observer.
Even better is to schedule the visit on a day when the ororchestra, chorus, jazz band are rehearsing and listen in. You will know immediately if the school is a good fit musIcally. We listened to many different rehearsals and S1 was smiling happily during the rehearsal of the school he eventually attended!
Thanks for all the good advice. I will be sure to forward it to the student and his parents.
We waited for auditions, but that was composition.