It looks to me that U Texas Austin has an admirable selection of professional trumpeters noted as “Visiting Artists”. I am not a brass player - we are a string family. It isn’t unusual at all for extremely high level string profs and performers to be teaching at multiple conservatories. I wouldn’t write off U Texas Austin based on their list of trumpet profs.
It happens that I’ve known the oldest “visiting artist” for over 40 years. He is excellent. Bringing in instructors of his caliber as “visiting artists” is a good sign for U Texas Austin in my mind. If UTA was of interest for other reasons, I wouldn’t write it off without contacting Admissions and asking about the trumpet teaching situation. And, of course, more important, checking with your son’s private teacher!
@parentologist My kid was similar to yours (although his grades didn’t actually put him in the top 10%, but his ACT scores sure did) and he opted for Temple which academically wasn’t quite as rigorous as McGill (his second choice - he spent some agonizing weeks deciding).
He’s now super glad he’s not at a rigorous university as he’s spending way more time practicing and focusing on the music. But, like @vistajay mentioned for their son, Temple also has a large honors cohort and three of Boyer’s trumpet instructors are Philadelphia Orchestra musicians. (not to mention Terence Stafford as their chair/Jazz leader). In addition, merit aid is a great thing for bringing down tuition. 
@parentologist - It just occurred to me that “visiting” prof can mean different things different places. The “visiting artists and instructors” may well be on campus most days, or they may be on campus only part of the week. They may have a short term, one year contract or it may be 2 years or even more with that title. Something else to check on - “visiting” doesn’t have to be a negative.
Remember also, profs and instructors are not guaranteed to remain in place for the 4 years of your student’s college career. My primary teacher transferred before my year senior (ancient history now! but quite upsetting at the time), one of my step kids had a prof retire unexpectedly before junior year and a nephew had a studio prof die. So much for well laid 4-year plans!
Thank you to everyone for all the suggestions! Kid and I will again look into all places suggested. For everyone who sees this thread in the future, the trumpet teacher at Hartt, Phil Snedecor, is fantastic. My son has taken some lessons with him, and says he’s really great. I saw that from the very first lesson, Phil was able to get him past a brick wall the kid had hit, in terms of high range. Kid says Phil has incredible ears. All I know is that every lesson the kid has ever taken with him (mostly coaching sessions for auditions and competitions), the kid sounds way better when he comes out of the lesson. The entire Hartt music school seems wonderful, also has a great music ed program. The issue for my kid is that he’s looking for a larger and higher level general academic university, in addition to the music school. Also, he’s spent his entire life living under 3 miles from U Hartford, is ready for a bigger city, or at least a change of scenery.
Have you taken a look at CIM? The academics are at Case Western. We know grads with double majors from CIM and Case - in 4 years. Physics, philosophy, economics and a few more fields if a double degree option is something your S wants to consider. Also know of some good professional outcomes for trumpet majors.
DS is progressing with his list - while I encourage him to keep an open mind to considering a gap year next year. So much is up in the air and I can’t fathom doing online auditions or trying to choose a school he hasn’t set foot on or had an in-person lesson with the professor! He really doesn’t want a gap year, but I don’t want him to “settle” on the local university. While it’s a fantastic program, he’s been a part of it for two or three years already through concurrent enrollment.
He’s had a couple Zoom/online lessons with prospective professors this summer & he’s attended several virtual tours/admissions QAs/etc, but it’s just not the same.
It’s good to pop on here and see others are moving ahead with their lists and plans. I’m just utterly discouraged (DSs oldest sister’s senior year of college was cut short in March, his next sister is supposed to start her freshman year this August out of state… so there’s just so much to keep track of right now! Adding his plans into everything else just sends me over the edge. Just stay home a bonus year, kid! Make it easy on your mama’s poor brain! lol)
Hi all, DD wants to major in flute performance and creative writing. Our list is fairly short. Thankfully. Would love to have this ride together with everyone. It seems that the prescreening and audition may happen in an unconventional way. Wind instruments have a challenge that the players cannot wear a mask. So, in-person audition might not be possible I guess.
Nice to meet you @hopeqing ! This is certainly shaping up to be an interesting experience.
Those of you with high schoolers … how is the senior year shaping up in your area? Especially for music. We are in North Carolina and this week Governor Cooper announced that the public schools may open up hybrid (combination of remote and in-person) - or completely remote if a given district felt hybrid wouldn’t work for it.
Our district has released some information about its hybrid model but it seems like now that parents can see the details, the appetite for returning the kids to the classroom is changing. I am beginning to wonder whether our district will change its mind and decide to go all-remote. And, while that might indeed be the best choice, especially for our high schoolers, I think it is a real problem for music. Last year’s remote orchestra experience was not good. I hesitate to say this, but if we go all-remote, I’m questioning whether orchestra would be worth my daughter’s time. Which seems totally backwards!
Even if we do end up with the hybrid model, I can’t find anything about the arts in the information the district has released. Not one word. Further, our district has highlighted some anticipated teacher shortages. I can’t help but wonder if they are looking at arts, PE, etc teachers and thinking about repurposing them. I’ve heard that is happening in other districts. Last but not least, while it seems like orchestra could be possible in theory, it would be very difficult to pull off in the available spaces. As for band or chorus… I just don’t know how they would do it. So then there would be a question of fairness.
So overall, I just don’t have a great feeling about music for this year - not through the school. Wondering what others are seeing.
Our list is narrowed down to seven schools, though there is one that we might possibly drop before all is said and done. One is a musical reach, one is basically a gimme, and five are places where her teacher thinks she would be competitive but not a guaranteed admit. And if things really go south… there are a couple choices where she could enter as a BA candidate and then potentially try to switch at semester or for her sophomore year, if she’s so inclined.
About half the schools state that they will not be holding in-person auditions, which means we will have to continue to rely on word of mouth, online information, etc to ascertain the characters of the schools. I don’t feel that visiting the outdoor spaces of empty campuses is really going to tell us much more about the choices than the online stuff. (And, I’m not super comfortable traveling right now, even for this.) One somewhat bright spot is that more schools are starting to offer online “student panels” where you can chat with students and ask them questions. My daughter is signed up for a couple of those over the next few weeks. Those, plus online sample lessons, are at least getting us closer to what we’re wanting at this stage.
As for the schools that claim they will hold in-person auditions… well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that pans out. Fingers crossed that things are better by January/February. And if not by then, please let things be better by spring.
My daughter has filled in Common App and drafted her essay with a goal of finalizing it for review by someone besides me by the time school starts. Here, that’s in two weeks, but it’s plenty of time. When that essay is done she will be most of the way done with the written part of the application process.
I am glad that you and your daughter can retain some optimism, which I believe is well-placed, even if the coming year is tough. It sounds like she has a really wise list to cover all possibilities. Good luck!
Thanks for the well wishes. I hope we can all keep offering each other a little encouragement and support in here - but most importantly, I hope we can all find strength and focus to help our kids keep moving forward. They need and deserve our best this year.
This thread is so quiet.
An update on high school: our district ended up going all-remote for the first quarter, with no decision made for subsequent quarters. Orchestra is indeed turning out to be a not-very-useful class, but my daughter wanted to stick with it just to “see” her friends if nothing else.
The bright side of remote is… we now have a window in which to visit a few schools. Remote is remote from anywhere. And as luck would have it, we may also have been handed a way to do it safely - a relative is offering us use of a house that would be a good base for a Midwest tour and that will have been empty for a good week or two by the time we arrive. My remaining question is whether we can get in meaningful visits. We’re still working out the details and nothing is for sure. The three we’re looking at are:
- St. Olaf: only doing car tours right now. I'm not driving to Minnesota for a car tour - it's the farthest school from the base of operations and we would likely have to lodge somewhere for a night to visit it - which I am nervous about - so we will skip if they stick with this limitation.
- Lawrence: "outdoor walking tour with limited access to some facilities". I can live with that. All things considered, I can even be happy with that.
- Oberlin: they say they are doing in person conservatory tours but no details and their calendar isn't bookable, so I'm reaching out to them.
This is such a moment-by-moment year. Anyway, fingers crossed!
Glad you can do visits in whatever form is possible. This is hard for music students and musicians at all levels. Great schools. Good luck!
@stringbird - if I can be of any assistance with midwest schools, let me know.
I grew up in Appleton and was probs the worst person ever to play piano there. I took piano from a grad student there when I was kid. The only reason I stayed was he was cute…but I was awful…so super embarassing! My D did apply to Lawrence (VP) was accepted. It was on her short list. She has many friends who went there. Many working professionally in the twin cities and beyond.
My D spent time for honors choirs at St. Olaf. I have been on that campus many times too (initially for my D’s AAU basketball!). She did not apply…partly bc many kids from her high school went there (or what she thought was many). Again my D knows many kids who went there. And…many now work professionally in the twin cities…I’m sure elsewhere too.
There are better people on here for Oberlin. My D did not apply there. It wasn’t really on her radar for some reason.
And…btw…not sure that you are aware but St. Olaf suspended some students about a week ago for parties (hit our local newspaper). Some off-campus students were not following the rules. So they may be extra strict right now as they try not to be the next school to go remote.
Thanks @bridgenail . “The only reason I stayed was he was cute” - hahaha, that’s great! I’ll PM you about Lawrence (but likely it won’t be today). I really like the look of it but my daugher is only lukewarm. It’s one of the remaining schools on her list where she still has not scheduled a sample lesson. I’ll be curious to get her thoughts on the viola professor.
She really likes the look of Oberlin. We had actually crossed it off the list pretty early on because administrative involvement in the Gibson’s Bakery situation rubbed us both the wrong way. It went back on after we got bored and did a virtual tour sometime in April - and it went up high after she had a sample lesson with the professor. I’d really like to know more about the student environment at Oberlin. But I have to say, I’ve been impressed with their thoughtful and measured approach to bringing the conservatory kids back, to the audition process, etc.
St. Olaf has interested her from the start. All of my daughter’s interactions with the school have been positive. She was so disappointed when we couldn’t visit in April. She especially liked the students in her virtual student chat - felt like those were her people. That said, we sat down together and mapped out the drive times, and she is completely on board with skipping the visit if it’s a road tour. We understand why they might be strict (and we even agree) but we have to take our own time and risk into account too.
It’s so funny to hear you talk about how your daughter didn’t want to go to college with other kids she went to high school with. Up until June my daughter was saying she didn’t care … now all of the sudden she’s poo-pooing some of our best state choices because “everyone I know goes there”. What?? I guess I just need to buckle in and admit the school list we have isn’t really THE list. It’s just today’s list.
@stringbird , I presently have an incoming senior daughter majoring in voice at the Conservatory who is taking a leave for the fall semester. Feel free to ask me any questions regarding Oberlin.
Thanks @coloraturadad ! I’ll PM you (but likely not today).
Hey everyone! I was a frequent lurker/poster on this forum last year during my college search, and am now a happy freshman at UNT 
Just wanted to say good luck to the talented kids looking for a place to call home.
Hi everyone. I received an email about a “virtual performing arts college fair” so I’m passing the info along in case it is helpful to anyone.
https://www.musicadmissionsroundtable.org/student-information
There are five scheduled dates, with the first being 9/21. You can click on “meet our exhibitors” to get a list of the schools that will have representatives available. Looks like they’ll have general info sessions on the application and audition process.
It’s not just music programs - though that’s all the stringbird family cares about. There are also dance, musical theater, and theater programs.
We might “go” but if we do, it wouldn’t be until October. If anyone goes to the September one, please come and post about how it goes!
We visited Oberlin for a conservatory information session and tour. The information session was in an indoor performance space (the Birenbaum), but the tour was outside-only (as we knew it would be). My daughter had already been through the available virtual visits and online information, which are helpful and of good quality. Given the current circumstances and accessibility constraints, I would recommend any prospective visitors on this forum do the same.
We’d visited several large public universities and one local LAC prior to the shutdown, but this was the first conservatory information session. It was intimate and much more useful than the huge, crowded, generic information sessions we’d been to last winter. The admission officer was friendly and knowledgeable, and there was a music student - a viola student, even! - there to give the student perspective.
Oberlin is the only music school we’ve seen whose website says they consider the music theory placement test in the application process. My daughter has been nervous about that. She had scheduling issues every single year that prevented her from taking music theory formally, and she doesn’t feel confident with what she’s learned through independent study. So she was relieved when the admissions officer volunteered the following information: the test is considered, but it is mostly for placement and it is not very important. They have a special music theory class for kids who are accepted but not at parity with their classmates in terms of theory. So perhaps my daughter’s situation is not as unusual as we feared.
Overall my daughter’s impressions were positive. It was hard to form a detailed impression of the students - they were all wearing masks and gave us a wide berth - but they looked relaxed and comfortable and happy to be there. The students associated with the information session and tour were great. She liked the town of Oberlin. She liked the fact that she could (but did not have to) double-degree if she wanted.