We started making a list of the materials S19 will need for his auditions – with eight schools it’s really scary. There’s some crossover, but there’s a great deal to learn. It’s also daunting to see the classical requirements, even for a kid with a jazz emphasis. How did you and your students handle all of this?
Consulted with his private teacher. Entered local and online competitions to try out repetoire and get feedback. And practice, practice, practice…
My D19 is at Tanglewood BUTI and they revise and listen to her solo pieces that are required for 10 of the school’s prescreens. She has done lessons with her teacher, the camp teacher, the horn director, a theory teacher, a friend of her teacher… basically anyone who would listen and give feedback. While at BUTI, she has isolated some of the weaknesses and is working on those. She has been working on the excerpts and the other concerto piece as well. We tired to pick places that accept the same repertoire so that it isn’t soooo exhausting. She began a list of the needed pieces and we are going to buy some better copies for the auditions. We have located a place to record(with good aucoustics) and an accompanist if needed. We plan to record over the period of a month to give time to re record. My child is going the classical route so we don’t need the Jazz part. That’s pretty much it so far… she gets back Monday so that may change…
My D worked exclusively with her voice teacher. She sought limited-to-no input from us (or anyone else) which was probably wise. That way our anxiety didn’t increase hers. However, I will add she had a close relationship with her voice teacher and trusted her guidance.
We (well, I) made a spreadsheet of audition requirements for potential schools many months ago and he’s been working towards preparing a suitable repertoire that covered all the bases for a while now with his private teachers. It’s harder given he’s auditioning on two separate instruments but the final list has mostly common requirements and between schools so it’s not looking too terrible. He was going over his options today, He also made phone calls today to determine how to apply and audition on two instruments at each of his schools. It looks like he’s submitting two applications to the music school at each university. Yikes.
S has been working hard on composing new works since the beginning of his summer holiday. His next task after polishing up the scores would be to record his pre-screen/ video audition pieces, both classical and jazz, for those schools requiring primary instrument auditions. Any thoughts about whether it is good to send in on-stage performance recordings?
We also have a spreadsheet, and his teacher is focusing on the pieces on it. He only has one prescreen, and his teacher will handle the recording (he does this for all his students). The rest are all live auditions. S is most worried about the classical pieces, which, as an education-jazz double major, he’ll have to do along with the jazz auditions. There’s some overlap, but I counted (in addition to the various scales, sight reading, ear testing and a full solo transcription) six different classical pieces and about ten jazz numbers. Some are with play along tracks, some are unaccompanied, two schools provide backing tracks and two provide live accompaniment. I’m completely overwhelmed, and so, I think, is he!
A couple of schools are pretty flexible, including Rutgers and Berklee. The Syracuse audition is jazz-focused and well within his wheelhouse. Eastman scares me the most…prescreen, classical, jazz, and a whole separate set of criteria for music ed, including improvising on piano. Ithaca includes singing, luckily a strong point for S.
I guess my question is, how perfect does this all need to be? And how long are the auditions…this stuff would take an hour if he played it all!
Also: i’m wondering if it would be simplest for him to apply on his strongest genre/instrument and just go in as a jazz performance major? He can change to or add education later, right? Or is this unwise?
I don’t know about jazz auditions, but classical auditions are usually under ten minutes. They generally ask for parts of the program, not the whole program.
I’m sure a jazz parent will chime in soon. For classical voice, you typical prepare 3 pieces. You get to choose your first piece. The panel chooses the second. In most case my D sang the full piece…but the pieces for young voices aren’t very long. So auditions were about 10 min at most. Still you needed to have everything prepared since you don’t know what they’ll ask.
I’m no expert on education degrees either but my D’s peers who pursued education had a lot of sequential coursework. So if you move to it later it could extend the time in college. Hopefully others will respond but you could look at the degree requirements for performance and then music education to get a sense of that.
And how perfect does it need to be? It should be to a point where your kid is comfortable presenting it. He needs to make the call along with his teacher. There is a natural “culling process” that while frustrating (and scary) is usually very necessary. Over the next few months you’ll start to figure out what is truly important to your kid as “time” becomes an issue. My D was going to do a VP audition in Dec. it was a lower interest school. She barely got everything done for pre-screens by dec 1. We just looked at the calendar and she felt it could be messy and not show her in her best light. So we canceled. Just as the pre-screen results were to come in, we were down one school (and another was dropped in Nov since she didn’t have time to do the app). But those were her choices … and in the end they didn’t matter.
Make sure he sees what he needs to accomplish and let him make the calls (of course with a little nudging from you).
We’ve looked a lot at course requirements for music education. They start first semester and never let up. Gen eds are scattered here and there. The requirements overlap a bunch with performance though so maybe switching later wouldn’t be completely crazy, as long as it was the same instrument.
@akapiratequeen - truly want to know - what is the advantage of getting both of these degrees, rather than just the music education degree? Is it that your son is undecided if he wants to be a performer or a school teacher?
Or, is the music ed a “backup plan” in case performance isn’t practical in terms of a job? Is her passionate about teaching in a public school? There are many ways to teach and an argument could be made for doing things in sequence (performance undergrad, music ed for grad) rather than at the same time.
Simple: he really loves jazz but wants to be a teacher, not a performer. And it seems that most Music ed programs have a classical focus. So he is trying to figure out a way to do music ed with a jazz concentration.
@akapiratequeen is he applying to Loyola New Orleans?
My nephew is a jazz percussionist doing a music ed degree at a state college. It wasn’t hard for him to find a program that focused on jazz, but because it’s music ed he is certainly learning about western classical music, as well.
@akapiratequeen your S sounds really interesting. My S auditioned in jazz guitar at Eastman and it was also his only audition that required a classical component. I think it’s changed somewhat but maybe an important point is that the Eastman jazz program has (had?) a pretty big foundation in classical. Anyway, the Eastman audition ended up being my S’s favorite audition day - just a great vibe the entire (long!) day.
Good to know!
@mperrine looks like a great program but he wants to stay closer to home…
@drummergirl my son just returned from Eastman and loved it! Is your son there? Does he do performance?