Awesome!!! We tried to get to do as many Flute studio tours and Master classes with the professors and started too late!
Honestly, this is another aspect of this thing that is unspoken. His flute tutor suggested it at the end of Junior year and by the time we got around, Summer came and a lot of them were off and we missed a bunch of sessions!
He did email all of them so at least they saw his name on paper before applying. lol
Only got to do a Master class with the Peabody Flute instructor who was super excellent and very transparent!!
Visited but decided it wasn’t a fit so didn’t apply but he has one more master coming up but I imagine, this is another very expensive aspect to Music school audition process unspoken.
I should switch to an anon profile now. lol
ETA: UMD School of Music has a FREE Audition/AllState Master Class Session FYI. First one this year. Went to that one. I think it will be annual
JayJay, you are right. I went to the video that you probably saw, and I had to squint too. Good representation from white and Asian students, others not so much. So I have to eat my words. USC uses a rotation system, so there are there are other students of color in the classical music program and in the orchestra, but still not a good look.
You are not saying anything not known JayJay. Classical music excellence is a bit of a “privilege sport” and it is quite clear that the “elders” need to do more… not an easy thing especially when they are fighting a “relevance problem” with a shrinking and aging audience and changing demographics of the incoming performer funnel. So, in this context, colleges should absolutely go above and beyond to find students with a chip on their shoulder about representation and give them all the support for ambassadorship. You are not going to “expand representation” without having representation. Kudos to you and your son for keeping this front-and-center!
My son has a bit of a chip on his own shoulder - he is also looking around in piano competitions for people that look like him (Indian American) and using that under-representation as a bit of a motivator to try and rise up. There are lot of Indian Americans in orchestral classical music and so I am not trying to conflate with what JayJay is battling… just as another anecdote for how kids that have an extra motivation to improve the spread of classical music need to be encouraged… and actively seeked.
Same question… we haven’t so far heard. The schools we have heard from are (some yays and some nays):
Bienen
Shepherd
Michigan and
USC
Wisconsin
Other than Wisc, all these were Regular.
Has anyone thought about virtual vs in-person? I am curious if anyone has experience if submitting recordings would be disadvantageous compared to going in-person.
Edit - just saw the earlier posts about the virtual vs in-person. Looks like the few that responded aren’t sure yet whether there is a disadvantage.
I’m curious about that, too. A few of ours will be virtual, and I wonder how panelists get the same feel for a musician on the screen, and what we can do on our end to make that possible. We’re buying a new mic, choosing a space carefully, and my kid has recruited talented friends to accompany him on drums and bass. It will be up to the reviewers at that point.
My daughter heard from IU Jacobs this morning (and UT Austin yesterday). BM VP soprano. She has a yes from them and Miami and USC but hasn’t heard from Bienen or Michigan. All but Miami were RD.
Doesn’t it somewhat depend upon the applicant? I know my son does better when he has live bodies in front of him; he lives for an audience. If I had a child who got super nervous and hated playing solo, I’d probably do virtual where it was permitted.
For sure if you are at either end of the spectrum it would make sense to pick one over the other. I meant for kids in the middle that can do fine in either form, do the faculty give more weight to live f2f over virtual, is kinda where I’m going…
This is a great thread.
Any experienced Oberlin’er out there - do they typically have 50X, 10X, 5X, etc. as many final auditioners as spots? NO experience with conservatory auditions.
Also - any tips on how long auditions last at Oberlin for wind players? I understand that for many auditions there is some interactive time…really don’t know what to expect.
Things just got real…
My guess is with Covid concerns and costs associated with travel, if your student is equally comfortable with either a live or virtual audition, then the faculty will assess them equivalently.
It really wouldn’t be ethical for the faculty to give less weight to virtual auditions, given health and cost concerns. But, if your student presents much better in one modality vs the other, then it’s nice when you can choose!
