now is the time to prep - you have to send in the pre-audition recordings anyhow (most by Dec 15) then wait for live auditions. If your kid’s list is large you may have to record many pieces to cover all the schools they want to apply to for music. I would say this is around the time you start scouting places to record - we used a church. It took many hours to record a decent submission of 5 pieces. We had 2 dates at church just in case video quality listening at home was subpar. The live audition pieces were essentially the same pieces - there might have been one dropped and one added.
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Yes - prepping for Berklee because it will be live and he will do it in the Fall. The harder part is all the prescreens - right now 7 of them - most due by Dec 1 and each one different. If you advance after prescreen in most schools you then have a live audition in Jan/Feb.
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It sounds like you had an amazing tour of some great colleges. Since your son is interested in Jazz Studies, be sure to look at the University of North Texas in Denton. They are well known for their jazz program and their 1 o’clock lab band has received 7 grammy nominations throughout the years. Denton has an amazing music scene that allows many students to perform in the community.
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Thank you for the suggestion! I have heard wonderful things about UNT but the state of Texas is a no.
Not sure if anyone is reading this thread but wanted to report we looked at SF Conservatory earlier in the Fall and it was very impressive. They have a new facility and offer classical, jazz as well as a music production focus which I think is rare for a Conservatory. There are a number of recording studios available for students to work in. They are very connected to the SF music scence and located near where symphony plays, opera house and SF Jazz. Right now Yuja Wang is an artist in residence for two weeks. I know everyone is getting down to the wire with applications but if this one was on your list and you didn’t get a chance to visit thought it might help to hear notes from someone who toured.
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So, my son and I toured Boston Conservatory, Eastman, Peabody, UMich School of Music and JMU. He was fortunate to be accepted to all and got amazing scholarships. We decided to go with Eastman because for many reasons but mostly because the professor there is fantastic. Boston Conservatory was up there in the running but they only guarantee housing for freshman students so that seems like a nightmare in the Boston area. JMU was also high on the list because he basically received full tuition. Eastman won because he wants to be a professional musician and we figured that a conservatory/music focused institution would most likely challenge him more.
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