great schools for vocal performance???

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>I am a high school senior deep into the whole application process. I definitely did not know that there would be this much work involved to apply as a Vocal Performance major!!! I also have an interest in Music Education and Musical Theatre as either minors, double-majors, or if something changed in substitution of my Vocal Performance.</p>

<p>I am a SOPRANO very aware of how competitive this whole thing is, and I would definitely like to be challenged.</p>

<p>ACT: 30
SAT: 1310
GPA (Unweighted): 3.88
Class rank: 49/488</p>

<p>Extra-Currics:
Four years of Theatre (musicals, plays, one-acts, Lead in Brigadoon)
Four years of Concert Choir (Soprano Section Leader for 2 years)
Three years of Show Choir
President of the Thespian Society this year
Secretary of the Thespian Society last year
National Honor Society
10 years of Girl Scouts
Three years of Church Choir
Two years of Church Cantoring (leading congregation in singing)
Voice lessons
Piano lessons
Many, many solos and ensemble performances
Conductor & coordinator of Student-Led Caroling Group
Member of Caroling Octet, 20 gigs on the MN Zephyr train
Future Educator's Association
Vacation Bible School teacher 3 years
Relay for Life team member 2 years</p>

<p>I'm enrolled in 2 AP classes (Macroeconomics and American Gov't) and 2 College In the Schools Honors Courses (College Composition and Intro to Lit), having had no AP's last year, and am currently receiving A's in all of them.</p>

<p>They say I'm the "best singer in the school," but will that mean anything next year??? My lower range is fading lately, but my upper range is really expanding.</p>

<p>I have a classical voice but a passion for Broadway.</p>

<p>Schools I am applying to:
Northwestern U
Oberlin C
Boston U
U of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Carnegie Mellon U
Amherst C
Saint Olaf C
Lawrence U
DePaul U
Ithaca C
Syracuse U
Luther C</p>

<p>Umm, is this too many schools??? I just REALLY want to get accepted into a fabulous program where I can grow leaps and bounds.</p>

<p>Opinions on my school choices, please??? Are they all good for my major, and if I must eliminate a few, which ones??? Any additional schools that would be good??? I am not interested in a conservatory-only school (Juilliard, Berklee, etc.). THANKS!!!!</p>

2

<p>The only school I know anything about is Oklahoma City University, so I would tell you to add them to your list. There are some there who are double majoring in MT and VP. Both majors study classically from the same voice faculty. And your ACT qualifies you for $10,000 a year merit scholarship automatically (unless they have changed this--check the web site). It is a bachelor of music degree in a liberal arts college. You remind me of my daughter when you say you have a classical voice with a passion for Broadway. She does also, and is very happy at OCU.</p>

3

<p>Thanks, I'll definitely look into OCU.</p>

4

<p>Welcome to CC, musikchik.</p>

<p>Unless you are at a Performing Arts High School, being the best in your school is not going to count for much at many of the schools on your list. Most of them are extremely competitve for voice and particularly so for sopranos. If you are among the top few sopranos in your state, then you may have a shot at the highly selective programs on your list. If you are not at that level or if you are uncertain whether you may be that good, then you will want to be sure your final list has some safety schools.</p>

<p>Are you planning on auditioning at the schools, at regional audition sites, or on tape? Due to practical limitations, it is really hard to schedule more than six to eight live auditions.</p>

<p>Amherst College offers a BA in Music, but no performance degree. The department there is very small and has limited variety in their course offerings. I am not all that familiar with the music departments at Syracuse and Luther. All of the others will be very to extremely competitive for admissions.</p>

<p>I do know a bit more about Oberlin than all the others because my daughter is a performance major on double bass there. Oberlin has an excellent voice department and a very good Music Ed program, but not all of the voice teachers there support the double degree or double major programs. You would have to talk to the individual teachers and find out which ones would accept someone also interested in Music Ed, for example. The Musical Theatre department is in the college, not the conservatory, and it does not get a lot of support from either. If you really have your heart set on doing Broadway musicals, Oberlin may not be a good match.</p>

5

<p>I would recommending not adding anything to your list!</p>

<p>Have you planned out the logistics for all those auditions?
Eleven auditions (plus a recording for Amherst I assume) is really a lot to take on, both logistically and artistically. If you have a plan that will work, go for it, but if I were you, I would eliminate a few of those schools.</p>

6

<p>I would agree with others that your list is probably not manageable in terms of auditions. As BD indicated, unless you are one of the top singers in your state, then the list may also include too many vocal "reaches" -- I would suggest using some criteria such as strength of music ed program and support for double major/degree options to narrow your list. For example, St. Olaf is a very good music school especially for vocal ensembles but they do not support double degrees or double majors. They have a strong culture that encourages completion a degree in 4 years. </p>

<p>Luther has a very solid vocal music program but I am not familiar with their approach to double majors.</p>

<p>There is information on this board about many of these programs and I would encourage you to do a search in order to help you narrow down your list to no more than 8 (and I think that may be a stretch). </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

7

<p>any suggestions?</p>

<p>looking at calstate fullerton, ucla, uci....or, i guess aamda....any suggestions, comments or ideas...looking for the best musical theatre program in cali... any insight is greatly appreciated</p>

8

<p>Thank you for all of your knowledge, it's definitely appreciated. I agree with the idea of narrowing this list to at least 8, and maybe a couple more safety schools instead of others. </p>

<p>Any suggestions for safety schools???? I just don't want to "settle for less" on a program.</p>

<p>My dream is to PERFORM for a living, as is so many others' dream. More than anything else, performance is my favorite thing. Broadway (but the more classical side of this....Gilbert & Sullivan, Lerner & Loewe, Willson, Bernstein, etc.etc.etc.) is my love! I appreciate opera and especially oratorio-types of things too, a classical nerd.</p>

<p>The music ed. is definitely a passion, but more of a survival-reality (to put it harshly) type of dream. My voice teacher has recommended some of these schools to me, so I hope she's not misleading me with which schools would be of my calibre...</p>

<p>If anyone can elaborate more, or even rank the selectivity of some of these programs, or tell of experience, it would be FABULOUS :)</p>

9

<p>Most schools do not make numbers available in enough detail to directly rank their selectivity. I can tell you a little about two young singers who have applied to some of these schools in the past two years, though.</p>

<p>The first is a soprano and the child of one of the best choral directors in the area. She was in All-State chorus three times (seniors are not eligible in NJ) and All-Eastern at least once and maybe twice. She had a professionally-recorded pre-audition tape that sounded fantastic. She did not get invited to Oberlin for a live audition. She was accepted at NCSA. She was waitlisted at St. Olaf and eventually got in there and loves it.</p>

<p>The second was a tenor and the son of one of the best voice teachers in the area. He had a similar All-State/All-Eastern history and also had a very good recording for the screening rounds. He got a live audition at Oberlin, but was not accepted there. He was accepted at Westminster Choir College and CMU. He attends CMU and loves it.</p>

<p>Note that this does not mean that Oberlin is necessarily more selective than CMU or St. Olaf. It is only two data points and the schools that accepted them may have been more in need of their specific voices in those particular years. Once you reach a certain level, it often comes down to what the school needs and the preferences of individual judges at the auditions.</p>

10

<p>Take a look at University of Cincinnati, Conservatory of Music. You might think ,"why Cincinnati?" It has one of the top ranked ( top 10) music and performace programs in the country especially for Opera, and other areas. IN musical theater, it is also very strong. My uncle, who was a Tony award winning composer, graduated from there.</p>

<p>My daughter attended a humanities magnet program in our country. Thus, we get some really talented kids. Our best singer in the past 7 years went to Cincinnati as did a few other top kids. Seriously, it is better rated than over half of the schools that you noted in your list. However, you really need to check it out to see if their performance strengths are what you are looking for.</p>

11

<p>I noted in post 10, "My daughter attended a humanities magnet program in our country." This is a typo. It should have said,"My daughter attended a humanities magnet program in our county." Damn, 20 minute edit time.</p>

12

<p>Cincinnati is extremely difficult to get into.<br>
Remember that you are competing against kids from arts high schools who may have been ARTS finalists. Don't be discouraged. Do as much with your music as you can in college, even if it is not as a vocal performance major. A number of professional vocalists chose their path in grad school.</p>

13

<p>LSU and Loyola New Orleans both have excellent vocal performance programs. There is a book by Peterson, I believe, that has LSU is in the top ten for vocal performance schools. They recently had several kids make the final rounds of regional competitions for Metropolitan Opera apprenticeships, and one girl went on to the Met this summer. That said, I think both schools emphasis is a little more to the classical opera style rather than musical theater or Broadway, but if you are looking for good quality vocal training, they are worth looking into.</p>

14

<p>Check out Mannes conservatory. It is part of the New School in NYC. Sister went there for vocal performance and had some great NYC teachers.</p>

15

<p>Keep in mind about Mannes that there are no dorms in any proximity...commute downtown...nor any food service at school. (They may provide Metropass, however.) As a parent, this was a great concern and negative.</p>

16

<p>I think I read somewhere that Mannes rents some space in the MSM dormitory for its students, so that might be a possibility And btw, my understanding is that MSM is quite strong in vocal performance--this is what I have heard. Perhaps Lorelei can comment more on this. I know one kid from my area, an extremely talented and accomplished young soprano, who is studying there.</p>

17

<p>I heard the same...it's a 20 minute train ride to get to your dorms at Mannes. However, it has a far better reputation for vocal performance than MSM from what I've heard.</p>

18

<p>In the profession MSM is the more highly esteemed, though of course comparing any one student to another will distort the viewpoint. I have recently heard two graduate students from MSM at auditions and they both sang beautifully, some of the best technical work I have heard from NYC aspiring young singers. One was a soprano and one was a tenor. Many teachers are available to students at all the conservatories, or at least more than one. Each student can chose the teacher they want from the roster (provided the teacher will accept them). Thus there are faculty members at Juilliard who also have students at MSM and/or Mannes. THe auditioning faculty as a whole has to accept the applicant, too. Look at the curriculum and facilities to get a better comparative picture.</p>

19

<p>As a St. Olaf student who is planning on taking 5 years to complete a BM in piano performance and a BA in math, I must take issue with musicmomic's statement in post #6 that St. Olaf does not support double degrees. While the college has no organized double-degree program, I am feeling a good deal of support from the music department. They seem to be beginning to articulate a clearer policy with regard to double-degreeing as more prospective students inquire about the possibility. In addition, the financial aid office has told me that, although my scholarships are technically only for four years, an extension of aid for a fifth year to pursue a double degree is likely. So I wouldn't rule out St. Olaf based on that consideration alone.</p>

<p>I should also note that, with careful planning, it is quite possible to double major/degree in 4 years, especially if you have AP credits. I should think that vocal performance and vocal music ed have enough overlap that it would be feasible to do both in 4 years - especially because you wouldn't have to worry about the full BA core requirements, which have provided the most difficulties for my attempt to double degree. And even I could do it in 4 years if it wasn't that I want to take some advanced music theory electives and possibly study abroad.</p>

<p>Finally, I'd like to say that, although we're often pegged as merely a choir school, St. Olaf can provide excellent training for the solo vocalist as well. Several of our graduates have gone on to successful solo careers. While we don't have a specific musical theatre major, we do have two voice teachers who specialize in MT/opera who seem to be very good, though I confess that I'm not an expert in voice. St. Olaf is not for everyone, but I think it merits your consideration.</p>

20

<p>Just my humble opinion (disclaimer...my kids are instrumentalists)...I do not think there really are any "safeties" for sopranos who want to major in vocal performance. EVERY school has many more sopranos audition than they could possibly seat in their ensembles and accommodate in their voice studios. In fact, many of the more competitive schools actually have preaudition screenings via audio tape to even determine if you will be invited for a live audition (as noted above with Oberlin). I would hone your application list down to 6 schools or less. DS did seven and had to do six of those auditions during the school year. With the added days out for his honors ensembles, and other music commitments, he missed about 20 days of school his senior year. His school understood the process and his absences were excused for auditions. BUT he still had a TON of classwork that he had to do for those days he was not in class. It was a wild year...and he was quite fortunate...none of his audition dates conflicted with other audition dates, concerts, festivals, etc. It was a miracle.</p>