<p>My daughter is a sophmore in high school and is starting to explore colleges for vocal performance. Several of the top vocal music schools seem very focused on their graduate students. I wonder how much attention she would get as an undergrad. Is it best to go to a small undergraduate focused school and go on to these big name schools as a graduate student? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on great undergraduate colleges and universities for vocal performance? Thanks!</p>
<p>The amount of attention you get depends largely on your individual teacher and their studio size. My best recommendation as someone who just went through auditions is to get a feel for teachers by going to summer programs and taking private lessons before you decide where to apply.
Also, many school's opera programs will be relatively inaccessible to undergrads simply because their voices haven't matured enough to tackle a good portion of the repertoire...
As for specific recommendations, I'd encourage your daughter to consider the North Carolina School of the Arts for undergrad, as it is a great value (the Fletcher Graduate Opera is free!) Even better, consider applying to NCSA for her junior or senior year of high school. That way, she'd be exposed to the nuances of the voice and opera fields and have excellent audition preperations.
Keep in mind, however, that I'm slighlty biased as a senior at NCSA :-)</p>
<p>She might also consider Oberlin, a school that has only a handful of grad students in a couple of programs like early music and music ed.</p>