This is great; what good practice! The best thing for her to do is to play her pieces as well as she can and to make use of the instructor’s expertise. Think of it as a lesson in which she can ask about anything she would like to work on in the pieces (she shouldn’t be shy).
It is all about the interaction and whether she enjoys learning from this professor, but most are genuinely interested in helping musicians improve and do well generally. They may give her some good tips to sound good, no matter who she plays for next!
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Hi, @futuremusicedmajor. Great that you have a list already. I hope you have some financial safeties in addition to reaches and matches. It can be a relief to know you have a place to attend that you can afford, if that is of concern. Florida itself appears to have lots of great programs (FSU seems great in music ed).
In the pre-pandemic world, my D did only a couple of pre-screens, I believe, but she was fine. No special recording equipment needed (there are some tips here on CC regarding recordings). This past year, though, she did do a couple of recordings for summer festivals. But the in-person auditions have been especially great–it paid off for her to go.
12 is a good start - prioritize them in some order - dream school, safe school, cost, etc. Once you start filing out the applications you may decide to cut out some schools as almost all have extra essays and they can be a pain to fill out. My voice major did 9 applications for undergrad. Probably looking initially at same number for grad school
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I’m so glad to see this thread started for this year!! I’ll be happy to follow along yet again.
@futuremusicedmajor I agree with the comment above. 12 is a great start. I believe that my D had around 12 initially too…but also dropped to 9 programs in the end. DO prioritize them and work on your top interests (and a saftety or two) first. Twelve schools will be a lot of work so you may drop one or two along the way.
As for your comment about video auditions (I’m assuming some could be remote, live auditions too?), they should be treated equally. Even 10 years ago when my D applied, video submissions were treated equally and she got acceptances from video. Now, however, I would think that you would have the opportunity to do a remote, live audition and have some “live” interaction with faculty which would be better for them and you. Due to Covid and a push for more equity, my understanding is schools are very open to remote auditions (understanding not everyone can travel to all the schools).
STILL, be sure to be looking at the faculty and reaching out to select teachers for virtual, sample lessons (not all will reply) to learn more about the faculty/program (and show your sincere interest). My D was sure to communicate her interest to these schools so they knew she was serious. It sounds like you are already using tools to interact with the school. Just keep that up and be sure to be corresponding respectfully with the music admissions and faculty too. You’ll learn more about the school/program and they’ll learn more about you.
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I encourage any parents or students who are new to this forum, to read the “Double Degree Dilemma” essay in the Read Me thread here on the music forum. It really is about all the different ways to study music, using hypothetical individuals.
double degree BA/BM or BA/MM
BM (2/3-3/4 classes in music)
BA in music (1/4-1/3 classes in music)
BA with double major
BA with major/minor (either could be music)
BA or BS in something else with continued music lessons and extracurricular performance
There is flexibility in the sense that a BA student might then do grad work at a conservatory and a conservatory student might study something else academically for grad school. Or go to med or law school or teach or whatever!
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Hello,
I’ve been lurking amongst the music posts since 2018. My son, HS class of 23, decided to decline an opportunity to attend a private boarding school back then and decided to audition for a Minority Arts Training program for classical musicians. It’s been a wild ride ever since and now here I am finally making an introduction post and beginning this college/conservatory journey.
My son is an oboist and has dedicated himself to preparing for this moment. He attended Interlochen for three years finally making it into WYSO last summer. He won several international competitions and a few International and local concerto competitions. This summer was to be the highlight and the fun before the application/audition process began. He went on a European tour with his youth orchestra, soloed at Carnegie Hall, was named a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award winner and was accepted into NYO2 and Tanglewood. However, upon returning from Europe he was hospitalized and had to forgo NYO2 and Tanglewood. He will be fine but what seemed like a study progression forward with lots of momentum has now seemingly turned into an uphill climb. His quality of playing has not been affected but he is definitely feeling the loss of not participating in a rigorous summer music program prior to college auditions.
He has now compiled his list and has narrowed it down from 13 to 6 or 7 schools. He has taken trial lessons with teachers at 3 of the schools and will be taking trial lessons with the others who actually offer that option in the coming months. He is now preparing his YoungArts/college audition repertoire and scheduling recording dates. I’m hoping we can get our momentum back so that we can actually enjoy this process a bit more.
I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with this community.
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Welcome to a fellow oboe parent! Mine is a few years older and I remember the crazy start of audition season well. Sounds like you and your son have this well organized, but feel free to reach out if you have questions.
By the way, mine also narrowed down to 6-7 schools. Especially if traveling to live auditions, that is a manageable (albeit very busy) schedule.
Hope he is feeling 100 percent soon!
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Dear @1OboeMom,
Your son sounds like he is doing well on his instrument, and the audition process alone probably has helped him a lot. He seems ready for the next step with all he has achieved, although your summer sounds stressful for you this year—hope he’ll be fine.
Sometimes I feel that my D will not do well because of her health or other interests—that these will take away from her focus. However, she is a human being first, with all the messiness and peculiarities that being a person entails. Illness, tragedy, or luck/unluck happen to her also—nothing I can shield her from. I’ve found she still achieves (and maybe best achieves) when her music and the rest of life are in balance.
I hope your son will find some wonderful human beings in the new university/conservatory he’ll land in, and an awesome teacher!
How did your son like the sample lessons?
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It is always disconcerting the first time “the steady progression” gets interrupted. The second, third, fourth time, it’s worrisome. Then it simply becomes a drag, then an annoyance and finally a shoulder shrug.
There really is no “steady progression” as musician go higher and higher up. There are peaks, valleys, the dreaded plateaus and finally some significant spurts forward. It only appears to be clear sailing from the outside. Truly, everyone struggles in music at different times. I’m sure he’ll be fine in the end.
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@10boeMom as the parent of a musician and dancer who both have health conditions, I understand your concerns about momentum. But I feel pretty confident in saying that looking back, this health challenge and its consequences will be a “blip.” It is difficult timing and wishing him and you the best in regaining that momentum for the coming audition season! (ps kid with heatlh issues just got doctorate in music, lots of blips, but happy journey… think long term!)
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Maybe it’s time for a check-in, even though in my family, I’ve tried to stay out of it while my D gets her school year started. I’m hoping to hear more about her plans soon. Anyone else have kids who are talking more about what they want?
Applications can be a stressful time!
Is it OK for professor to ask about other schools student is applying to during the trial lesson? I know during alumni and campus interviews it is not OK to ask that question. Concerned that it might have negative consequences somehow. My daughter named several colleges she will be applying to and said it was no big deal. Am I overthinking things? Hmm.
Quite common for professors to ask about other schools to which student is applying. My kid (several years ago) was instructed by his private teacher to answer honestly and succinctly. In my opinion, teachers have a good idea of level and many potential students are looking at the same handful of schools. So not really a big deal.
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Yes, this is common as said above.
Prospective students should be ready for the question and answer it honestly. My D was asked it a few times. IMO teachers are checking the thoughtfulness of the school list and the “competition” so to speak. One teacher replied to my D that she was doing all small LACs except one big U…and talked to her about the differences bx a big school vs small school. She said it was a good conversation.
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How is everyone doing? D23 is working on prescreening recordings and applications, fall orchestra concerts are kicking off starting next week. We cancelled a couple of campus visit trips (to CA and to Chicago) in favor of travelling there later if she gets in or if she gets an audition invitation. Couple of schools came off the list after more careful consideration and research - flute professor’s personality and location were main reasons. Hope everyone is safe in FL and Carolinas!
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Good strategy @RussianMom! Highly recommend that campus trips wait until either sample lessons or auditions. My son auditioned in 2020 (literally finished his final audition the weekend before the CoVid shut downs) and while “only” applying to a handful of schools, he ended up with a very busy travel schedule with a couple of trial lessons in December and auditions all through January/February. A different state every other weekend! So save those frequent flyer miles!
Assuming they are live next spring, auditions are a fabulous way to tour the school, meet current students, attend a concert and sometimes get a feel for the teacher/teachers on your specific instrument.
Hoping preparations are going smoothly thus far for all those amazing musicians out there!
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Wishing all of you the best! S24 is not sure he will be applying for audition based programs but preparing this year for YoungArts has been exhausting and that is just a tiny part of the application process! S21 did drama BFA and this is so much more involved.
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Hi all - my applicant got covid last week which is so annoying! She wasn’t very sick (only a few days of cold symptoms), but I’m concerned about her being ready to record prescreens in a couple weeks because she hasn’t been singing much and has been in isolation in our house. On the upside, we hadn’t gotten her a booster so timing should be good before auditions I hope!?
Anyway - trucking along on common app stuff, may be able to push go on a couple simpler apps very soon. She just got her main essay done, she’s super happy with it.
Take care everyone, good luck with the paper pushing! 
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Hi Everyone,
I thought I would join the group now that things are really moving along. This is my second D to go through the audition process and it feels so much better the 2nd time around. I am way more relaxed and comfortable with everything My older D is a college Junior studying violin performance. My younger D23 is a violist. I love the viola world. It just seems smaller and friendlier. Anyways, my D23 wants conservatories only. She is ‘done’ with academics. I am just fine with this and I love that the applications are much simpler with fewer essays. She can just knock them out. We are planning to record prescreens in early November. We have sort of mapped out audition travel assuming she passes her prescreens and it all seems to be in the month of February. My older D had them really spread out over the 3 winter months. I am here, happy to just cheer other folks along or share words of experience. There are definitely some ups and downs to this process but it’s truly memorable.
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