<p>My daughters are horn players getting ready for college and I would like to get information about universities/ auditions/ college application process etc specifically relating to French Horn.
Is there any way I can narrow down the search by musical instrument?
Thanks</p>
<p>Hi Rammnam–</p>
<p>My daughter is a horn player too. She’s still a few years away from college, but I’d love to know about your “journey” and searches, if you’re willing to share.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>Azcatz</p>
<p>Hello Azcatz,
Its been an incredible journey so far. The girls have brought beautiful music into our lives.
My family has no history of Western Classical music and its quite an novel to our background. We had no idea what we were getting into when our daughters chose French horn. Since then, we have had a lot of highs and a few lows in our life. </p>
<p>The girls are utterly dedicated and put in hours of practice. We invested in decent horns( we thought at that time that they were way expensive horns) for them and they now tell us that they have outgrown the range of these horns and would like new ones. The girls used to play in community symphonies since eighth grade and have each year progressed to better and better youth symphonies. They now play in 3 YO’s between them. They also teach horn to middle school students. This pays them to take expensive private lessons with a Professional Horn player. Their teacher is a wonderful life coach and mentor and musically they have grown leaps and bounds. A good teacher is really very important. The girls have also taken part in All State orchestras and solo competitions and this has been very useful in boosting their self confidence.</p>
<p>So where do we fit into all this? A lot of chauffeuring, multitasking and check writing. One has been accepted into Aspen and one into Tanglewood so there goes all our savings!
I spend a lot of time combing this forum for advice from other parents now that we have come to the point where we need to start college apps. Both will start college in fall 2011 and want to pursue music. To spend upwards of 50K per child per year for a music degree has been a little difficult getting used to but the girls assure us that they have what it takes to succeed and they will be have jobs in what they are passionate about and will never have a “BAD day at work”!</p>
<p>The girls tell me that “master classes” before actually applying to each college are very helpful and these are best done in October- November time frame. They have a list of 10 colleges between them. My biggest worry is how to schedule and pay for the lessons and well as travel since we live on the west coast and most of the schools are in the Midwest and East Coast. The girls tell me that they will have to repeat this travel pattern for actual auditions in Feb-March of next year. </p>
<p>Music is a crazy major as there are no fixed openings in each program. I do hope they will be able to get some music scholarships but right now all I can think of is how will I pay for all this!</p>
<p>I’m so sorry for this lengthy e-mail but you asked about the “journey”.
Wish you the very best in your journey!</p>
<p>Twin horn players? That’s gotta be a hook for some school or another…how comfortable are they with the concept of competing against one another at auditions?</p>
<p>Very competitive. The lows in our life come from this. Its heart breaking and gut wrenching when one makes it and one does not. There comes my dilemma in applying to music programs in colleges! They will be competing with each other and are well aware of this… Is it best to apply to the same school or to mutually exclusive ones? It may be a very long stretch that colleges will take two horn players from the same family!</p>
<p>There are three brothers currently enrolled at Bard Conservatory - two on the same instrument! (Different years, though.)</p>
<p>As for a subforum for particular instrument - if you look through the Master List of Acceptances, after each poster’s name, the major, with instrument, is noted. As of now, just browsing through is the best way to find what you’re looking for. On the other hand, the path you’re about to embark on is, in general, the same for all the performance majors - only differing in which schools might be at the top of your list for strength in horn.</p>
<p>The Music Forum is full of wonderful and helpful info - it is worth it to search back over the years for various threads - and use Violadad’s suggestions for ways to narrow your search.</p>
<p>rammnam and azcatz, welcome to both of you. Some the other day was bemoaning the lack of brass players, and now there’s three more horns. (There’s a pun in there, but I’m not going to touch it).</p>
<p>There are no instrument specific subforums within the music major forum. People have said that if it’s here, I’ll find it, but there is no magic. Here’s a link to my search tips <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html</a>.</p>
<p>One horn titled thread that might be pertinent.<br>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/558621-best-horn-faculty-your-opinion.html?highlight=horn[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/558621-best-horn-faculty-your-opinion.html?highlight=horn</a></p>
<p>Search this forum/advanced/horn as keyword/search entire post/show posts will bring up 200 posts across a number of different threads.</p>
<p>I honestly cannot recall much specific horn detail here, although there are a few within the summer program threads.</p>
<p>Azcatz asked for some horn-related advice on another thread, where I posted a few links. If you didn’t see it, look here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/904832-any-suggestions-horn-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/904832-any-suggestions-horn-major.html</a></p>