I have been so pleased with the zoom, it is cheap and easy to use, was suggested by the BUTI office and it is a total gem!
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Which zoom do you have?
I have the Zoom H4n. It is audio only. what we do is record with the video camera and the audio simultaneously and put them together with imovie, works great
Thanks. A family member lent me the Zoom H5 and I had a difficult time with figuring it out (and I’m pretty good with technology). Also really didn’t want the stress of stitching the video and audio together. We then got the Q2n with video to make it easier. However for the final auditions I want to make sure we do all we can do within reason. I will play around with them both in the next few weeks to see what works best.
Do you know if the zoom audio recorders will work for the live remote auditions via zoom as the external mic or do we need to look at something different for that purpose?
it looks like you can do a live stream with them but I have not tried
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Thanks for posting! I will test it out.
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@zafacon this is roughly my memory of Jacobs as well. We visited the year before auditions for a lesson (with one of the three teachers on D’s instrument), info. session, and music school tour. The teacher my D had the lesson with during our first visit reached out to invite her for a lesson/ coaching (?) the night before her audition. (I should add that this was the only school where this happened) She played her audition material for him, and he provided feedback. She implement his suggestions during her audition the next day, and could see him nodding his approval. Not sure how common this is, but it definitely helped her to feel at ease, and seemed to provide a little boost. She also learned a lot by being able to warm up in a room with others on her instrument as well as current students in the studio. Valuable time. Afterwards, the teacher invited her to stay for an informal gathering with the other teachers/ students/ hopefuls, but sadly we had a flight to catch, and could not. This was the weekend before the world shut down for Covid in 2020, so we considered ourselves lucky to have gotten to go at all!
Jacobs has plenty of practice space, so we felt that it would be okay for her to get some practice time in during our visit. She also asked about sitting in on a class, and was given the option of several she could attend. We sat in on a band rehearsal during our previous visit, and were greeted warmly by the conductor. Very positive experience. I hesitated to ask for too many extras like this during audition weekends, though, as things are so busy. Doesn’t hurt to ask, though. If they can accommodate you, I imagine they will.
Other than Eastman, I don’t recall that any of the other schools where she auditioned had much (anything) on offer for parents. Eastman had a morning welcome session for students and parents, then offered a number of other sessions and tours for parents while kids auditioned, interviewed, etc. Extremely thorough and helpful!
Best wishes on your journey!
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Lol on the magical packet! So nice that your daughter heard from the dept. chair and was invited to a class and a rehearsal. I went ahead and booked a regular IU campus tour shortly after my son read his audition email, and looked at the listing of performances but my son didn’t see anything there he wanted to attend. Closer to the date I’ll have him look again. Hoping we can do a Jacobs specific tour/info session. Maybe the packet will offer a few options for students to choose from.
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@mom2clarinetobsessedkid, @bridgenail and @songbirdmama, thank you for sharing tips and your experiences with Jacobs and the audition experience in general! It didn’t occur to me that some schools would have activities/events for the parents beyond a tour/info session. How cool that some schools do. I don’t think my son applied to any that do, though, and I’m sure there’s even less going on because of covid. I signed us up for a regular IU campus tour a while ago; thought it would be good to try to do. I think closer to his audition date my son will reach out to the teacher he’s already had a trial lesson with, and go from there. As so many have said, he takes the lead ~ it’s part of the learning and growing process!
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Is anyone applying to the NEC/Harvard dual degree program? I saw @grahamcracker6 said that February auditions at NEC will be recorded but I have not received any emails about that. I wonder if they are still continuing in-person auditions for the dual degree applicants.
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My son applied for the NEC/Harvard dual degree program. I just checked with him and his audition email stated that all programs would move to recorded auditions. His assumption is that “all programs” means, BM, MM, NEC/ Harvard, NEC/Tufts, etc.
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My son’s email about the auditions moving to a recorded format ended up in his gmail “promotions” folder. I would check Spam or other folders in your email.
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Thank you for the information. It’s weird I haven’t got anything from them yet. I might email them to confirm it.
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Thank you! I just checked but unfortunately it was not there.
Boston University just sent an email that they have gone to remote auditions. Not surprised.
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I finally got the email from nec today. It seems like they just didn’t send all the emails at once.
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Finally got word from NYU that I passed prescreening for viola!
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S passed CMU prescreen for voice-- 3 for 3! Now, the hard part… the actual auditions!
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Anyone auditioning at Jacobs in voice this weekend, look out for my D, who will be registering and welcoming students at the desk (part of her AI teaching duties). She is excited to know you and answer your questions!
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My son passed his viola prescreening at Bard! Looks like they still plan to have in-person auditions (with remote and virtual options.)
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