LACs with great vocal teachers including MT techniques

College Majors Music Major
1

Hello, I’m returning to this forum after having received feedback for D1 a few years ago. I’m cross-posting this in the MT forum as well, hope that’s OK.

D2 is HS junior embarking on college search, high achiever in academics, athletics, and music/drama. Her passion, like so many, is MT. She is classically trained for many years on voice and piano, and has been participating in drama and MT as leads and otherwise.

She has been thinking (maybe should say agonizing) about whether to focus entirely on MT and apply/audition for that universe, but is leaning strongly towards attending a LAC with strong academics and significant opportunity to both continue vocal development and to participate in MT throughout her undergrad years.

We have a tentative long list, and a couple fairly specific questions we’d appreciate insight on. She is digging around web sites but clear answers are hard to come by. She’s starting to email departments too, but would love feedback from those with specific and current knowledge.

First questions is whether these colleges could provide D with a vocal prof/teacher for lessons who is experienced in teaching both classical and MT vocal techniques. My D knows very well the importance of a good teacher, and her current vocal teacher is one of the more important adults in her life. She very much hopes to develop a similar relationship at college, but those teachers can be rare.

Second question is how many musicals are actually produced at these colleges on an annual/semester basis, by dept and by students. This situation changes over time, so current info would be much appreciated if available. There are a great many LACs with great drama programs, and great music programs, and both, but it’s tougher to get a good handle the consistency and quality of MT opportunity.

Thx in advance for all feedback! suggestions for other schools are welcome, if you can address the specific questions above. And note, she is also considering private universities such as NU and Brown, though that is a different universe.

Vassar
Skidmore
Denison
Lawrence U
Barnard
Sarah Lawrence
St Olaf
Oberlin
Kenyon
Knox
Bennington
Muhlenberg
Luther
Connecticut C

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Do you have any budget limits?

3

You do have a big, complicated question. Note my D auditioned for VP, MT and one acting program…so she had multiple interests.

I will start with this…does her voice teacher have an opinion on her voice? MT now tends toward more of a “pop” voice. VP is a very different sound. If you heard my D sing a pop song…you’d wonder how she every got a masters in voice and gets hired professionally…lol. That is not uncommon. Some people can do a seemless cross-over but as my D says…it’s pretty hard to fit a size 10 foot into a size 7 shoe…when talking about the voice. If you have the loud powerful sound of an opera singer naturally…you probably don’t have a pop sound. If you have a beautiful pop sound…it may be difficult to get the power of a classical vocalist who doesn’t need a microphone to fill a theater.

Your instrument is your body in voice. What is that instrument saying? It’s hard to tell sometimes when a singer is young. Good teachers often have opinions. My D auditioned for both to see the reaction. It was toward VP for my D…which didn’t surprise me. I remember telling my D during one point of auditions when everything was so positive towards VP and not as easy with MT (she did get a number of acceptances anyway): You are like the star basketball player who also wants to be the quarterback. That may work in high school…but NOT as you go higher up. My D still wanted it all…lol. She is mainly hired in classical now…but does get into ensembles for more classic MT…not the pop/rock ones.

Once the voice type is determined (VP, MT, or both possibly) it may be easier to decide. Lawrence and Oberlin are VP primarily…leaning classical. Luther and St. Olaf will teach classical but allow MT (at least they did). I’m in Mpls so St. Olaf has a lot of very well trained MT singers in the market. Very good vocal preparation and a flexible program. Most of these students do not want to do opera but do want classical music training with strong academics in an LAC.

If you want heavy MT with multiple shows…that’s an MT BFA. People on the MT thread can help with that.

I hope that this helps.

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My son applied to Luther last year. They have a nice opera program and outstanding choirs but I don’t recall any mention of musical theatre at all from the music department. It does appear from their theatre website that they do one musical a year. I would assume, based on our visit and what goes on at liberal arts colleges in general that a voice major would be able to participate in musicals… I’d guess the voice training is more classical,

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My impression was always that the best school for people who wanted both classical and MT training was Oklahoma City University, but that’s a BM program I believe.

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Thanks for the helpful comments.

DadTwoGirls, yes she/we will need significant financial aid. Most of the schools on the list are full or nearly full meet-need schools. Some that are not provide merit aid.

Bridgenail yes, good points, she’s had this conversation many times with many people, including her principal voice teacher. In fact main voice teacher (a highly trained classical singer and college choir conductor) referred her to a colleague MT voice teacher for some “supplemental” coaching for mixing last summer, which went pretty well, but her voice is still evolving and it’s tough to know!

Luther and St Olaf each do at least one musical a year, and are tremendously vocal-oriented schools (though yes, more classical focus) with well over 100 music majors, so she’s confident she could find quality teachers there. Many of the other schools on the list don’t have nearly the similar scale music dept, let alone focus on vocal, so she’s worried she’d have trouble finding a teacher that could help her down this road.

I suppose there is always private teacher option, but I assume colleges would rarely if ever pay for that?

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I also bring up the voice bc the music schools like Lawrence and Oberlin attract and like a certain voice style. So when I see Lawrence alumni vs St Olaf alumni…Lawrence will also lean toward classical voice. St Olaf will have the lighter musical theater voices. There are exceptions of course. Still Lawrence would not be a school in general for MT whereas St Olaf would be (assuming you want the more traditional classical training). I would assume that Oberlin is more like Lawrence. Luther would be closer to St Olaf. Note that there may be student groups doing MT or cabarets at these schools too. Parents often overlook student groups that do shows…so again like minded students with similar interests (determined by vocal style) will “produce” shows.

I don’t know the non music schools on your list. You may want to simply call a few to ask about music/performance opportunities at their school. Be sure to ask about student groups too.

As for lessons they are generally only free within a music degree curriculum or a “scholarship”. My D had a friend at Lawrence that got free voice lessons as a non music major but you had to audition for it and be willing to do some choir work. It was competitive. But again you could ask the schools.

Finally if any of the schools are near an urban area you may be able to find voice teachers or other performance opportunities. I know kids from Macalester who do that in Mpls. But in a rural area you may need to check carefully with the school about availability through the school or in the area.