@akapiratequeen - your post could not be more timely. I feel your pain. I woke up in a panic at 4:00 this morning worrying about all of the upcoming audtions. When the prescreening results came in, auditions were many weeks away. Now they are starting this Friday and I my stress level is going through the roof. It takes all the self control I have to try to keep my stress to myself and away from my son, and I often fail even at that. I take comfort in hearing from all the parents that have been through this before and who lived to talk about it!
S had 5 auditions scheduled during his time. One was audio-only with no on-site audition (William Paterson). Three were visited in person (U-Mich, Frost, UNT). The fifth and final one (SUNY Purchase) was called to ask if the video pre-screen could stand in for the audition. That was plenty for us.
That relates to why I am not thrilled to see the formula of so many safeties, matches, and reaches. I think 5 matches, with one dropped from exhaustion is pretty good.
@goforth I am with you. S originally had 7 – we’ve dropped one so far and I wouldn’t mind if he drops a second. If he had his druthers he would drop three of the four remaining right now, but I think it’s important to keep options open. Glad he’s having extra lessons (his teacher provides moral support as well as guidance) and that he’s keeping a good attitude so far. Now I need to do the same!
OMG I am right there too… in the trenches. Of course we are in CA and the only college in state was her only no… 7/8 isn’t bad, but that means flights and hotels and hitting up all of our relatives that live in those respective cities… I wonder if they will speak to us after this. We sent one video audition in and are attempting the other six… 2 are done.
Plus she is Principal horn at her Youth Symphony and the only horn on her level. So if she misses( which she has missed) then they omit the whole horn part which cues in other parts. To top it all off they have a concert 2/10 which made us have to change plans and have 2 auditions in one weekend so she could attend that.
She smartly decided not to apply for District and All State Honor band which would have been smack dab right in the middle of all this. Still don’t know why they schedule so poorly if the goal is to support students advancing into Music… they have to know it is audition season.
Oh and she is having a lesson tonight in both Theory and Horn. Horn she will go over the extra 2 required etudes for Eastman that NO OTHER COLLEGE required!
@akapiratequeen I’ll buy you a Bourbon @Eastman LOL… or maybe 2
@mperrine I’ll take you up on that…I guess 9 am is too early? Looking forward to having coffee at least while we pull each other back from the ledge.
@akapiratequeen it is 5PM somewhere
I know. this process is SOOO long!! With SO many components! It feels kind of like the last month of pregnancy, except if once you finally have the baby you have to wait another 6 weeks to find out if it’s a boy or a girl, and then you have to wait another month after that to see what it looks like.
@akapiratequeen : O M G ! Never knew it was that crazy in the jazz world. 12 pieces ?!! and varying accompaniment ?!! What are they thinking ? Auditioning for classical music (strings specifically) in comparison is a lot less complicated 4/5 pieces depending on the school. And either 1 or 2 of the five are accompanied.
@gram22 it’s 4-5 in jazz too…just not necessarily the same 4-5. Most schools give you a list to choose from and in a perfect world they overlap. Our world has not been perfect, unfortunately.
@akapiratequeen : Ah, I see. For classical music, they usually say “1st or last movement of a standard concerto, 2 contrasting movements of Bach, Etude / Paganini caprice, and a piece of your choice” (or something like that). And with something like this it just works out. So at the most you’re doing 6 pieces, usually 5. With that generality, there’s a ton of overlap across schools.
(((Hugs))), @akapiratequeen. So sorry it’s so rough right now. I can’t imagine doing all that with a full-time job and in that insanely cold weather. I feel for you… I hope you can hang in just a few more weeks.
Our drama: As I stated elsewhere, my son has severe anxieties/panic attacks. In order to transfer to the Cal States, he has to take the required Oral Communication class. Well, he lost it Sunday night (classes started today) when he realized he’d have to speak in public, give speeches, etc. He went down a dark hole and didn’t sleep and didn’t go to class.
So we figured we’d need to take the Cal States off the list because, after calling one of them and the disability office at the CC, there’s no budging on this req. He tried to attend a different Communication class tonight, but couldn’t make it through the first 1/2 hour and left.
So, we said, it’s fine. You still have other schools on the list; we’ll figure out how to pay for them (not sure how, but…)
Then I remembered that there’s a website that has online comm college classes in California so I looked for Communication class and I found one that starts in 2 weeks that was still open! So we’re in the process of having him apply to that college to try that class. There’s still hope that the Cal States can stay on the list (though his favorite school is Chapman). Just in case the class doesn’t work, we added one more school which means he’s back up to 6 more auditions! 
Fortunately, they’re all in So Cal just a few hours away each.
So, that was our past 24 hours…
Hugs back at you, @sbjdorlo — much appreciated! How does your S handle auditions? I’m awed by the courage of all of these kids, but putting yourself out there when you suffer from anxiety is incredible. Kudos to you for supporting his dream through thick and thin.
A friend in town mentioned to me that her daughter, a MT/theatre hopeful, is applying to sixteen schools. I almost fell over. However, she says that rather than going to each school, her D attends centralized auditions for five or more schools at the same time. There are even walk on auditions where you can try out for lesser known programs while you are there. In some ways, that seems easier, although admit statistics in MT seem even tougher than music.
And as for jazz—yeah, it’s weird. I think that the programs aren’t as established in many cases so everyone is reinventing the wheel. Some are just strange — S dropped one school that didn’t offer any flexibility on his classical pieces, which just seemed over the top as many jazz programs don’t even require them. Requirements have ranged from “show up and play us one song you like” to “play scales and one each blues, bebop and ballad” to four-song prescreens including specific songs followed by five-piece auditions using different songs. S overlaps if possible but just tries to work on one requirement after another.
Yes, the MT auditions are grouped! I can’t remember what they call that… Unifieds!
I wish the classical instruments would do that- all the professors sit in the audience at Carnegie Hall, one instrument per day, and then they fight over which kid they want. We show up in the morning and have our answer by midnight!
By the time we got to February last year S18 was also exhausted, and we had 3 more auditions in three different parts of the country and his spring HS musical to contend with. Once he got two acceptances that were financially affordable, he canceled the remaining auditions as they were not high on his list to begin with. Eventually he had 5 acceptances at affordable schools, focused on two of them and traveled back to one to determine teacher placement. It looks bad to y’all right now, but the travel will get whittled down.
Love it!!! This would make life so much easier for all involved including the professors / schools.
And if I may add, this should be sometime at the end of summer, shortly after schools reopen and certainly before the winter storms come in.
Love this for jazz as well! They put an ensemble onstage…each kid comes out and plays with it…teachers choose their students.
@akapiratequeen so apparently there will be a polar vortex as we enter Rochester. Please be careful driving… Yikes your running out of steam has turned into an iced toboggan… :)) 
@mperrine yeah good times. On the up side, I am relieved to see that the snow forecast is pushed back. As long as we don’t lose power it should be fine.
+1 for a unified-type audition. For a percussionist there’s never an option of a regional audition as they have to play on multiple, large instruments.
Good luck with polar vortex…and everyone in the midwest, stay warm!!!
My D did unifieds for MT. The problem is the number of students able to audition for a school increases dramatically. So now instead of preparing for 6 schools, you are preparing for 16. Pick your poison.