I agree with @Calliene . Seems every year someone is disappointed as they thought the summer program was their “in” and it wasn’t . I mean if you are going to the schools summer program for the audition prep etc they provide then that could be beneficial of course. If they offer song choice selection and working on your package…but not just because you think you can “get to know” the faculty and will have better odds at your eventual audition.
In fact sometimes when the faculty work with kids in a summer program, they see their weaknesses, too. Or discover something they DON’T like about them, or the kid forgets to set their alarm that ONE TIME and is late for class, etc. All those things they wouldn’t know if all they saw was their crackerjack audition. Also I think faculty sometimes don’t want to appear biased toward kids they know. So it is kind of a wash: could help, could hurt, could not matter at all.
@Calliene I remember having a near heart attack when my D called me in tears when she missed her first voice lesson for her NYU summer intensive because she wrote down the wrong time. That call was later followed up by her needing to choose totally new songs for the final showcase because they didn’t like the composers she had selected. I had to grab a train into the city and deliver sheet music to help my distraught daughter out.
But in the end, I was approached by the head of the VP program at Steinhardt after the summer showcase because he wanted to tell me how really hard-working and really smart my daughter was. He said he knew how hard it was to start from scratch with her songs and it was great to see her tackle pieces from scratch in such a short time frame and then perform them so well.
So yes, it can be a bumpy ride when the faculty gets to know you, but in my D’s case, it got her a spot without auditioning further.
I agree completely with @Calliene . We purposely chose a summer program with excellent training (Rutgers) that wasn’t at the top of her BFA MT list. We wanted her to have the opportunity to take risks, potentially fail, learn as much as she could, and not worry about impressing the faculty. It worked for her. The Rutgers program is grueling but it was a summer she will never forget. She loved every minute of it-- made lasting friendships, considered acting vs. MT, considered BA vs. BFA, saw lots of shows in NYC, and improved her acting skills tremendously. She also knows a few kids who attended MPulse and then were accepted into Michigan MT so it can go both ways. For us, it seemed like way too much pressure to put on her --the stakes were too high. In the end, you have to go with your gut and do what feels most comfortable to you.
Thanks for the comments. Since we only live 2 hours outside of NYC, the NYU program might be one to look at. That said, not sure my wife will go for spending $9,000 for a summer program, even if it does grant credit.
My daughter went to Stagedoor last summer. She had a really good time and made some friends there, but because she is young for her grade, she was rooming with kids her grade level that were 15/16 years old, but ended up in a show for 11-14 year old kids.I think she might have been better served in a college program or in a camp that went longer than a short 3 weeks or doing an extra show at a local theater. (She was local the year before at the Hartt School summer program, but that was only 2 weeks and went from 8:30 to 5:00 each day.)
@uskoolfish thanks for that story. I can see that happening with my daughter - the prof throws out her song choices and my sobbing daughter calling me for new songs/sheet music and me driving down from CT to deliver some.
For audition songs, she often picks quirky offbeat songs that are may be good for her vocal range, but I personally feel just aren’t great songs. She was big on the song “Lost in the Brass” last year from Band Geeks and sung by Lindsey Mendez. However, if I look at comments about Band Geeks, the musical kind of bombed and never made it to Broadway. So, I’m not sure picking a song from a poorly reviewed musical is a good choice. I’m no expert with music or musical theater, though, so I’m not sure of opinions on those sorts of things - I also don’t like the song all that much when I hear Lindsey Mendez sing it, either. (she’s a great singer otherwise, just didn’t love the song) She has real trouble connecting with older MT songs as well, so that limits her as well.
Lost in the Brass has also become super overdone. There’s great songs from crap musicals, and there’s nothing wrong with singing them. When my D did Lost in the Brass two years ago, we thought it was a unique choice, and girls were starting to sing it then. In fact, the girl before her auditioning for the school my D wound up going to sang it LOL. She was freaking out about singing the same song as the person just in the room, but figured she had no choice but to stick with her plan and hopefully knock it out of the park.
Just had to chime in because hearing about Lost in the Brass makes me smile. That was one of D1’s songs her audition year (she just graduated in May). Hardly anyone had heard of it in 2012/13! Over the last few years it has become very popular - the show is about high school kids, so the exact right age range for auditioning kids - and therefore, overdone. No help at all about summer intensives, but happy memories!
I definitely agree with @CTDramaMom. Both of my D’s ‘go to’ audition songs for college are from shows that did not do well. One has a highly regarded praised score (but a bad book). She has yet to find anyone she knows that has done either song (I know there’s thousands of kids out there, so I’m not assuming she’s the only one out there). I know auditioners don’t want to hear the overdone songs, which are usually from super-successful musicals. So yeah, it is tough to find rare, yet age-appropriate songs.
Thanks for the information - that was helpful.