Happy birthday to the triplets @tripletmama . That really is a reason to celebrate. You raised strong independent kids. It’s wonderful!
@tripletmama Happiest of birthday to your three kids. Celebrate this milestone! Your de-stress plans sound great. @akapiratequeen good luck to S - how fun to have a real band vs. recorded…great energy.
@trimpletmama Happy birthday to your children!
I had a quick question…Julliard gave out its pre-screening decisions recently, and I learned that I was invited to audition. I learned about this reading the email on my phone at the airport as I was traveling for a major international piano competition, so was not particularly focused on the details… anyways, Julliard said that all audition requests must be entered by the 21st… I completely forgot about that deadline/missed it when I read it on the phone. Dumb Mistake. Anyhow, when I tried to schedule the audition today, the option to schedule it disappeared…I plan to call admissions on Monday to see if they will still let me audition, but that’s 2 days of waiting 
… I was hoping if anyone here could provide input on how flexible Julliard is with deadlines of this sort? In other words, do you think they will still let me audition?
@Lyoder2051 I have no inside info, but if you call and explain you were out of the country I very much doubt they will refuse to schedule your audition. Good luck and keep us posted!
Explain you were out of the country and at a major international piano competition. Can you email today to get it on record?
Congrats @MeritHopeful on UNC. We loved Chapel Hill and the general area went we were there (not for music but grad school)
@akapiratequeen Haha-you can tell I’ve lived in Buffalo all my life (with the exception of being in Oswego for 3 years which has even worse weather! Lol) so my paradise doesn’t quite match up with most definitions. To be honest, we’ve only been there in the Spring, Summer & Fall. We tried “glamping” there one summer and did some hiking at one of the national parks. Incredible. We also loved their farmer’s market where my daughter met some of the local artists and bought some artwork. My daughter fell in love with it during our glamping experience when she was about 15 and told me “I’m such a city girl but I wouldn’t mind going to college here.” She was so impressed with the beauty and artsy vibe. We did check out Ithaca but it was when she thought she was doing musical theatre. She knew right away it wasn’t for her. It mainly had to do with a lack of diversity and for some reason it bothered her that many musical theatre rooms were in the basement with no windows. Funny the things your kids pick up on during the tour. She has some friends who go there (one for musical theatre and one for creative writing) and they both love it. It’s like any college-really clicks with some kids but not others. Can’t wait to hear about the audition and what you think of the area! Good luck!
Ithaca audition is in the books! It’s a cold, bright, clear day — you can see the lake from the window of the music building. Enough snow to be scenic but streets and walkways are clear. We’re staying in town, which is charming. We’ve been bombarded with restaurant recommendations— seems like everyone’s a foodie.
The morning started with registration and coffee followed by introductions by the dean (via video as he apparently needed to be away from campus that day— a bit odd but didn’t bother S) and admissions director. Both speeches were excellent: funny, kind, and inspiring. There were short performances by a few faculty and a very good student wind ensemble. Then q&a with program heads — S enjoyed the jazz studies group. Small program but growing and the students seemed motivated,talented but not (according to S) a-holes.
He went off after this to warm up and audition while I sought out more coffee. I chatted with the admissions director and found three parents I knew from NJ in the waiting area. It is a small world, for sure!
S’s audition lasted 25 minutes. He told me he played three full pieces with the student group, then one etude and a movement from another classical piece. He really liked playing with the group and said one of the guys said he hoped to play with him next year, which made him feel great. He said he made a couple of mistakes but he felt like he recovered well.
The head of the program came out after the audition, shook my hand, and we chatted. I was impressed by that personal touch.
The sight singing audition, in a different part of the building, was very short…about five minutes. S was called in, asked to sight read some notes on the piano and then by singing them back. As he left, a passing voice student told him she recognized the piece (he did not) and that he’d gotten it right. Again, I was struck by how warm and supportive the other students were.
S was really pleased and insisted we buy a t-shirt at the campus store. We also tried lunch in the campus cafeteria. I admit to being underwhelmed but he enjoyed it. All in all, a great experience.
@akapiratequeen - Sounds like a great day! I love when the program heads make you feel welcome…it makes a parent feel a lot better and that they will really give our kids personal attention. Enjoy your dinner tonight.
@akapiratequeen Seems like it was a good experience all around! I’ll let my son know how the sight singing is set up since he’ll be there next weekend and he’s probably more worried about that than the actual audition. (This boy does not have a good singing voice snd is acutely aware of this).
So, was the audition program pretty much done after the sight singing? Son is debating trying to get back to VA for a winter formal!
Thanks @Lendlees and @eh1234! You can tell your S that they aren’t testing singing voices, they are interested in the ability to hear the notes and also read them. (Also it’s super short, which leads me to believe it’s more of a placement test.) Re: auditions, if he has an early audition time he’ll be done right after the sight singing. Some kids had sightsinging first and auditions later in the day.
Thank you-we certainly will call!
My son’s first audition is in the books. (Confession: he had a panic attack/severe anxiety last week and bailed on an audition to another school; fortunately, they allowed him to send a video audition)
Just getting one out of the way will help him get through the rest of them, hopefully. Apparently, it went well (hubby drove him up), which is no surprise. The cello professor already wanted him but I’m pretty sure it will be unaffordable even if he’s admitted into the school and BM program since it’s a private that doesn’t meet need. It’s his favorite school (Chapman University) because of the cello teacher.
I’ll hear the details later (maybe, ha-ha).
@sbjdorlo - don’t discount Chapman coming through with some serious scholarships. I’ve had a couple of friends with kids there who received $$ (and they weren’t music majors where there’s even more $$). The tuition for them ended up being equivalent to our flagship state school. Glad it went well (and so sorry for the anxiety/panic attack last week).
Rice audition in the books. This is her second audition and she was the first horn of the season to audition. We arrived and they told us where to go and where the warm up rooms were. My d knew some other students there that she went to BUTI with so they met us and talked a bit. She warmed up and I waited in a lounge area where many other students ate before playing in the Orchestra. I overheard… where were you before… NEC, Juillard, Curtis, and a few others. I could faintly hear her playing. I can honestly say that her trills were awesome … she played all of her 2 concertos, some excerpts, and 2 sight readings. After, she told me that he said 70 tried out and 15 made it to the live audition. He had remembered her from a lesson we had with him last year. I highly encourage to do this… she did her best and I am so proud of her courage…under pressure… Next on to Eastman…
S auditioned last Friday at UMich. Parking was available next to the building for $5. Space is limited though so I would plan on arriving early. The day started at 8:30 A.M. with a Voice Information Session led by the Voice Dept. Chair, an Admissions rep, two professors and two students. It was very informative and lasted until about 9:15.
S did not audition until 11:20 so this left a pretty big gap of time. Those auditioning had the option of observing classes but S decided to go find the practice rooms. Practice rooms are available on a first come first served basis but S had no problem finding a room. He even located one with a piano which he found helpful. He had time to relax and run through scales and music. After that he took a break to walk around the school. They had tea, coffee and snacks available in the lobby.
There was an undergrad admissions information session at 11:00 that I was able to attend while S headed off to audition. This session was also very informative with lots of time for questions. S was able to catch the end after his audition was over.
His audition lasted about 10 minutes. He thought it went really well. It was his first so it was great to get one under his belt. He had taken a lesson from one of the professors on the panel and she greeted him warmly so that kind of put him at ease.
After we went into Downtown Ann Arbor and had lunch which was a nice end to the day.
@sbjdorlo : @lendlees is right about chapman scholarships. My S sent in a video recording (and applied early action), and was accepted with a 50% scholarship which made it about the same as the UC system. This was last year (2018). Don’t lose hope on that.
Thank you for the information, @gram22 and @Lendlees. Our EFC is fairly low (around 8K), and I’m not sure they’ll even come close, but who knows. Sac State would probably be about 15K after Cal Grant. We are going to appeal National Merit to reinstate his 6K a year corporate scholarship that he had to give up when he withdrew from Penn as a freshman. That could make a huge difference! We shall see!
Sounds like great auditions! @mperrine we will be at Eastman Friday as well, see you there!
@Lyoder2051 - I would hope that Julliard would give you an audition date - esp. since you don’t have a hovering parent (like us) helping you in the wings! (very admirable). Just say that you were at an overseas competition - just the mystique of that should get you a date. 
Good luck and let us know!
@akapiratequeen - glad that the audition at Ithaca went well! Keep up the energy! Beautiful spot and such a big college town (and food - I remember having a fabulous dinner there - can’t remember the name of the restaurant but downtown).
@sbjdorlo - glad that Chapman went well - it’s a popular place of late! I know a very talented film major who will likely end up there. I hope they surprise you with scholarships. My daughter gets stressed, too - when she auditioned at Colburn two years ago she had to take a beta blocker. She said she barely remembers the audition.
@mperrine - sounds like the Rice audition went well! Bravo! What a great place. I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. I hope you get good news. How amazing that you could hear the trills! Good luck at Eastman.
@new2music - Glad it went well at UMich. Isn’t it amazing that the audition is over in 10 minutes? So much work for such a short time to play.
Our daughter’s first audition is next Sunday in Boston (NEC). She has many friends at Berklee and NEC so I’m sure she will have a great weekend. I keep bugging her to set up a practice lesson but she doesn’t want to. (ughhh). I don’t expect this audition to result in much (I’ve heard that NEC is not known for their scholarships - but you never know! They just might need a jazz bassist next year
Then she has two weeks until Berklee, then SFCM and the New School. Glad to be getting the ball rolling!
And in the middle of all this lucky me gets to fly to North Dakota with her triplet sister. She just got a golf scholarship to UND (which also happens to be a great aviation school). Can’t say that I’m excited to be going to North Dakota in the middle of the winter but it will be a good distraction to our musician daughter’s auditions. (who is actually feeling better about things right now).
Here’s a funny thing - she has another PE class credit to graduate. She saw her class playing volleyball on Friday and left school - she said “mom - I just couldn’t muster the energy to play volleyball with a bunch of freshmen” so I went home and practiced. Can’t say I blame her I couldn’t argue that one…