My 20 year old daughter is a senior in college. She will graduate with a vocal performance bachelor degree and a German language minor in May. She has a 4.0 gpa. I am a professional musician-a pianist. I teach and accompany- I’ve done grad school. I know it’s hard to get master’s degree money. That’s the background info. Haha.
She has multiple auditions at really great universities that she doesn’t want to go to. She has decided that even if she has to sit out a year and reaudition for an assistantship next year- she’ll do that! She really wants to study with this one teacher. I think she should go to the remaining auditions. She seems willing to leave potential money on the table to wait for the one uni/teacher. What do you think? Am I being unreasonable? I would especially love for @“Mezzo’sMama” " to give me her opinion. Thanks so much for any thought or suggestions!
@compmom She has driven to coach/take lessons with this teacher at least a half dozen times already. The audition she has this next weekend will be at a brand new school with no previous interaction. She wants to go where she is not the best, but not the worst either. She wants to get some opera roles. The other schools she doesn’t want to go audition at she has taken lessons with people. She seems so set. Ugh. I’m not sure if I should encourage her to go anyway.
@musicmom9- Your daughter will be 20 when she graduates? If that’s the case then taking a year, or even several, off, could be helpful since other students auditioning for grad school will be substantially older. Voices take time to mature and honestly, a 20 year old doesn’t sound like a 25 year old and very few kids go right on from a BM to an MM anyway (auditioning during senior year can be very stressfull because of preparing for senior recital and the opera that’s usually in February or March). The only kind of female voice that could be really competative would be a very light lyric soprano that’s just not going to develop a lot more weight until age 40, if ever.
It would be important for your daughter to live where there is a good teacher for her voice type and she will need to study before she takes the language/music theory/music history for grad school, but it sounds like she’s a great student so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Money for grad school is tight, no question about that, but know that first year grad students (especially female voice types) very seldom get assistantships. Of course that depends upon the school and what the jobs entail, so you and she should consider each school’s policies.
@“Mezzo’sMama” , you’ve listed just about every issue we’ve been discussing! Thank you for easing my mind about the possibility of her waiting a year or so. We knew her age would be a factor. She considered musicology a couple of years ago, but really wants to teach voice and pedagogy at the collegiate level. Part of me still wants her to do her remaining auditions, but like you said, she is pressed for time because of the recital and an opera role. Thanks so much for responding!
Agree with @mezzo’sMama 100%. And drop auditions for programs she doesn’t want to do at this point. finding the right teacher and city with some workshops will be the best in the interim before MM.
Academia is now as precarious as performance as a career! Schools aren’t hiring- because those who have the positions aren’t retiring. Adjuncts don’t get paid what they’re worth and don’t get benefits but more and more schools are filling positions that way. Also, now schools want voice faculty with good performance résumés, so keep that in mind too.