<p>Here’s the lowdown on BoCo…arrive one hour before stated audition time. Get directed by the staff to go several browstones down to the Student Lounge (basement room, reminiscent of the 70’s). Get thrown out of Lounge by snippy D. Meet D 30 min later in first building. Gracioulsy allowed to carry D’s reed water to audition room. D auditions for maybe 12 min. We leave. There was a brief information session for parents upstairs</p>
<p>on 3rd floor (room actually quite charming, with carved dragon gargoyles overhead), asked many questions about finances. D likes this school quite a bit because she will get experience playing not only in an orchestra, but also in pit orchestra and opera. In addition, I learned in the Parent Info Session that student can cross-enroll in schools in The Consortium, which includes Emerson, the School of Fine Arts and several other schools with which I am not familiar but D is. Overall, I got a warm fuzzy feeling from BoCo. The students appear quite happy, the students D knows from Twood, Luzerne, etc. are very happy. I thought I wouldn’t like the fact that there is really no campus of which to speak, but “The City is Your campus” is actually kinda cool… and darnit! Why do I feel like everyone in Boston is staring at me because I’m old???</p>
<p>Anyone have any great advice on close and comfortable hotels to stay over at Curtis Institute?</p>
<p>Lol, Marjecat. I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets thrown out of warm-up rooms.</p>
<p>CIM. Not that it will be helpful to anyone this cycle because this was the last audition of the year. We arrived at Glidden House at 5 PM Sunday with a print-out of our reservation and having checked with their front desk over telephone a week before and assured all was fine. We were given a small room with one bed instead of the two double bed room we have reserved on December 5th. We were told they would give us a pull-out cot, but none were left because all have been assigned to other families with the same problem. I told them that 2 families I’d recommended the hotel to (this was the 8th or 9th time we have stayed there because another daughter goes to school in Cleveland) had experienced problems with their reservations, and I was given the manager’s card. So just to warn you.</p>
<p>During the first night the so-called “touch lamp” mysteriously turned on three times, scaring us half to death. The “touch lamp”, as they call it, is a large floor lamp with no switch or knob. You control it by touching anywhere on the base. The first time we stayed at Glidden we arrived very late and could not figure out how to turn it off. We even tried to crawl under the bed to unplug it. Finally we called the front desk at 2 AM saying, “This sounds like a weird question, but the floor lamp in our room–” and before I could get the sentence out, the desk clerk said, “It’s a touch lamp. You have to touch it.” (The next night the lamp behaved itself.)</p>
<p>Next morning we were to report at CIM at 8:30 along with everyone else auditioning. The hotel is spitting distance from the school so at 8 AM we went to the hotel breakfast room, which was not crowded, but there were several other CIM-hopefuls and their parents there. There was a nice spread of oatmeal and cold cereals, but no spoons or silverware. (This also happened when we were there in August). It took 15 minutes for them to produce some spoons and napkins whilst many of us stood around holding bowls of oatmeal. I asked them if they had plastic spoons or paper napkins, and the answer was “No,” and a look as if I had asked for chopsticks or a hookah. But eventually the napkins and spoons did arrive (very nice ones), and we were still on time for the 8:30 call. </p>
<p>Since everyone showed up around the same time, there was really no rush. The registration went very smoothly for my daughter and for everyone else that I saw. Her audition time was revealed to be 11:45, with an 11:15 warm up on a different floor.</p>
<p>We all went into a large hall where the admissions director gave a dry speech, all information that was available on the website. It is the only info session I’ve ever attended (and this is my 3rd kid) where no one asked questions. </p>
<p>Then my daughter went into the ear-training test (there are several timed tests throughout the day). She emerged saying it was actually fairly difficult and others seemed to concur. She went back to the hotel to practice a bit, then went to her warm-up space, then her audition. All the while I kept out of trouble chatting with the other parents. After the audition my daughter went almost directly into the written theory exam, which she was was also difficult (in comparison to the other one she took at IU.) Then we went to a free lunch provided for parents and students by a local women’s group. The women who had cooked the lunch were serving it. The food was quite good, I thought, and I was impressed by how extremely enthusiastic these volunteers were about the school (they are not parents, just local supporters.) Oh, and they were well-stocked with plastic silverware and paper napkins.</p>
<p>My daughter felt her audition went well. She said that the committee was extremely pleasant. The department chair ran the auditions and introduced each member of the committee to her. Unlike many auditions, everyone seemed smiling and friendly. After her audition the teacher whom she had listed first came out to say a few positive words to her and gave her a tip for future auditions, which she took to be a friendly gesture. </p>
<p>All of the violinists we talked to who auditioned in previous weeks were asked to play their Paganini. My daughter and the violinists she talked to on Monday were not asked to play Paganini. My guess is that the committee decided in advance that they had heard enough Paganini for the time being! She played a sizable chunk of her concerto; all of her first Bach movement; several pages of the next. Another girl we talked to played her entire concerto movement. </p>
<p>After the auditions I heard some instrumentalists from other departments stating that they had been “unofficially accepted” or that their auditions had been great and that the teacher/s had asked them to lunch, or to come back later for a lesson. I think that the faculty makes an effort to get to know the kids auditioning. My daughter has had lessons in the past with the teacher she listed first, so there was really no need for him to ask her to return later. She was not asked to lunch or given any sense of acceptance, but I do think it varies from department to department, so I am hopeful for her.</p>
<p>Singerquest,</p>
<p>We stayed at the Radisson across the street and just down the block from Curtis. Great rooms and I think we got a special that made it not terribly expensive for a hotel in one of the nicest sections of a major city. There were apparently a lot of people who were auditioning staying there, because you could walk up and down the halls and hear someone practicing in about every third room.</p>
<p>I don’t know if Curtis handles the singers’ auditions the same as the bass players, but the bass players all had to show up first thing Saturday morning to draw lots for audition times, then come back to an extremely hectic building to warm up half an hour before their scheduled auditions. In addition to the auditions, the Curtis orchestra was rehearsing for and performing a free concert that day in the little concert hall at the school. The place was a madhouse with orchestra members, the audience for their concert, the admissions staff and various proctors taking auditioners back and forth, applicants, parents, teachers (some of them rather famous performers) and one very frazzled security guard just packing the lobby. We requested a late checkout from the hotel and they let us stay until 2 PM at no extra charge. It was very handy to have a private room a 2-minute walk away, where daughter could get away from the crowd and either warm up or collect her thoughts without having to watch some of the other auditioners come down the main staircase and burst into tears (either from relief that it was over or out of frustration because they were convinced they screwed up their audition.) I waited for her in the lobby while she warmed up and auditioned, chatting with some of the people attending the concert and some of the other applicants. Believe me, sitting in that room for very long on audition day would be a major test of an applicant’s nerves, so you want a hotel that you can return to on Saturday morning.</p>
<p>Somebody who has already been there suggested Club Quarters which is also one that was suggested by CUrtis. Type “Curtis” in the promotion code box (or whatever it’s called) and you get a special rate. I thought it looked like a fairly good deal. UNfortunately for singers, you audition on MOnday and on Monday afternoon they tell you whether to come back on Tuesday or not. So you could be sightseeing on Tuesday, I guess. Don’t think it sounds like good planning to me.</p>
<p>Why D doesn’t travel alone to these things</p>
<p>Never mind the non-negotiable early morning audition time turning what could have been a day trip into a hotel stay.</p>
<p>Never mind the blizzard warnings that caused us to add an additional night to the stay. </p>
<p>Never mind that the blizzard never materialized and we felt ridiculous for staying over. D and I had a great time shopping and enjoying a “snow day.”</p>
<p>But the real reason she doesn’t travel alone…when your bow tip explodes in the warmup room minutes before your audition, that’s when Mom can go into super fixit mode while you go into the room with the good bow that you hope will make it through the next 12 minutes if you avoid playing at the tip too much and the lousy bow that you’ll pick up and play the rest of the audition with if you absolutely have to. And then Mom can scurry you off to our favorite luthier who happens to be six blocks away and who graciously understands that you are in a panic and that you’re leaving on a plane tomorrow morning for two more auditions and ohmygoodnessmybowisbroken and even more graciously fixes it same day for no rush fee because Reuning and Sons is amazing.</p>
<p>And then Mom buys you ice cream.</p>
<p>And you smile.</p>
<p>That’s why.</p>
<p>stradmom, Mom’s everywhere appreciate comment, works same for every audition even interviews.
Marjecat, thanks for BOCO info. My son will do comp. audition March 7th. He also liked warm fuzzy feel there. He liked that it had lots of theater folks there as they are lots of fun. I’m concerned about the liberal arts classes they offer as part of BM curricula. During our tour the classes were presented by student as not too difficult, and teachers are hired for BOCO students. As son had lots of AP classes not sure if I’d be wasting my money. Unless he could pass out of some of them, but then he’d probably take more music, always my concern, will his college education be well rounded in a conservatory. Any info on that?</p>
<p>stradmom- my bow tip completely fell out 2 days before my first audition! I luckily also had a very good NYC luthier rehair it in half an hour, just in time for my violin lesson which was also in the city. It was so scary; I’m glad my mom was there to make me breathe :)</p>
<p>Wow, stradmom and lastroseofsummer, I’m so glad it worked out with the bow tips.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for hotels within walking distance of Colburn?</p>
<p>Thanks, Glassharmonica, for such a dtailed description. It does help to have some of the concerns quelled. DoO you know if there will be piano accompaniment provided for string players? when do they practise together with the student?</p>
<p>Juilliard Teacher Preference
Glasshoarmonica, your thread seems to indicate your D has yet to meet teacher#2. could you not hav arranged a consultation lesson with teacher#2, and tell him/her about the audition date?
What i have always wondered is how to name more than one teacher in the preference list. As I see it, they are bound to know who has picked whom and even the order of preference! I cannot imagine this information would not be leaked out one way or another if some teacher wanted to find out. It would create some degree of embarrassment if one teacher has been led to think that the applicant wanted to study with him/her, when he/she is only her second choce. How do you think that should b handled?</p>
<p>Muimui, there’s some info on indicating preference here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/860359-can-requesting-teacher-app-mess-you-up.html?highlight=teacher[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/860359-can-requesting-teacher-app-mess-you-up.html?highlight=teacher</a></p>
<p>Hi 88,
We have watched D struggle mightily over the past few years, trying to balance AP classes, rehearsals, practice time, more rehearsal, and ocassionally some sleep. It finally dawned on us that if she has fought so hard to become a conservatory level musician, then perhaps a less-academic school (ie conservatory) is best for her to follow her dream. She is longing for the day when she can practice for four hours without having to worry that she has an English AP exam the next day, and will only be able to get a couple of hours sleep. For our D, we feel that it would be best to do what you love very well, than try to do everything half-assed, excuse the expression. Hence, BoCo, Peabody, CIM, etc. Her education will not be what many term “traditional”, but it will be excellent!</p>
<p>glassharmonica (post 132) the Omni Hotel is almost right next door to Colburn. It looks very nice but expensive.
[Downtown</a> Hotels & Dining | LA Phil](<a href=“http://www.laphil.com/visit/dining-and-hotels/downtown.cfm]Downtown”>http://www.laphil.com/visit/dining-and-hotels/downtown.cfm) this link should help too.
It would be easy to get a cab for the other hotels. Watch out for “walking distance” in downtown LA, it is actually very hilly!</p>
<p>Stradmom, that made me smile. A year ago, S2 had two pair of drumsticks explode, as well as the handle on one of his only pair of brushes) during warmups for auditions as well. NOT the same as a bow of course, but stressful nonetheless. Know music stores in more cities now! And I was glad I was there… I had completely forgotten about that. You go, 2010 moms & dads!!!</p>
<p>marjecat-
What you D went through is why more then a few serious music students go the homeschool route when it comes to schooling, especially in high school. Even the most flexible private school puts demands on the kids timewise that make it extremely difficult to do both the academics and such and have the time to practice, listen to music and attend to the various music related activities like youth orchestras, pre college programs, private lessons, etc. Even leaving out the bear of homework, there is also simply the time physically being in school, that takes the peak time of the day. schools start early, which already is not condusive to teenagers, and then you have a full day of classes, etc, and it takes it out of them. I do hear the stories about the superkids who are high level musicians, who are on the swim team, etc, but I also hear the very real stories of top level kids, the ones who are likely to go into music, into the high level music schools/conservatories, and they generally aren’t them (yes, there are superkids who go into music, who make it, and god bless em, but I would be willing to bet that very few of the super kids end up pursuing music in college). Also depends on the instrument/area as well, of course, it could be easy to be a superkid on certain instruments and be okay, but I would also say on others it is next to impossible, given the demands and competition. </p>
<p>When our S got serious about music on the violin (this was in middle school), he was going to a high level private school that also has a rep for being more flexible then most, and it was killing him to try and get through all the school related stuff and then have time to practice, and he found he had to make the decision about what to do. If he had stayed with school, he probably would be a decent violinist, get to a certain level, but odds are he would never have gotten into a position where he could seriously study it and go into it…</p>
<p>Stradmom, Laughed out loud when I read your post. Your description provided a great visual of the scene. Great job handling the crisis. Thanks for sharing the story and good luck with the rest of the auditions!</p>