<p>Hey there! Sorry if there’s already a thread on this, I’m sort of a noob here.</p>
<p>SO I auditioned for Tisch MT in February and I’m waiting (more like freaking out!) for admissions decisions to go live (or however they do it). While I’m fretting away, one thing I’ve been worrying the most about is my singing.</p>
<p>I’m classically trained (as in, mezzo-soprano opera), and I think my voice really lends itself to the more canonical, Sondheim/Bernstein/Rogers kind of musical theater, so that’s the kind of stuff I sang at my audition. I left extremely discouraged, because, while the auditors expressed that they were impressed by my voice and training, they also said some sort of aside that I wouldn’t fit in with all the belters at Tisch, and then tried to teach me to belt in the audition room (which didn’t go too well, I’d say – I’m no belter).</p>
<p>Since that traumatizing experience, I’ve been really worried. Can you get into the New Studio with a more classical soprano sound? Are there any legit sopranos in the New Studio, or is it just belt-a-palooza in there? I was hoping that classical training could have helped me because not everyone has had that, and I thought it could give me kind of a unique edge.</p>
<p>On an unrelated note, my acting audition went very well – I told them that I would accept being placed in an acting studio. Does applying MT decrease my chances of getting into an acting studio vs all the acting auditioners?</p>
<p>wow i havent been on this website in forever, but I’m SO glad I stumbled across this.</p>
<p>I came into NSB literally knowing NOTHING except classical singing and opera. I sang classical repetoire for my audition, and that’s all I knew how to do. Freshman year was very discouraging for me, because there is indeed a great emphasis on belting and pop/rock singing in NSB. It seemed like more classically trained styles were not appreciated, and honestly, I felt like i had picked the wrong program. </p>
<p>HOWEVER, I must say looking back that NSB was probably the best thing that could have happened to my voice. The studio encourages everyone to work on what they’re not good at–all my belter friends work on opera in their lessons, and I work on pop/rock material. The goal of new studio is to turn out VERSATILE singers. In this industry you really do have to be able to do everything; though I wish I could make a career out of just singing r&h, bernstein, etc., it’s not likely the way music theater is nowadays. After much hard work, I now feel comfortable in contemporary, belt singing. And I’ve still been able to keep up work on my classical soprano! That will probably always be my strongest point.</p>
<p>The bottom line is, it can be difficult to be a classical singer in this program. But if you persevere, you will turn out infinitely stronger in both classical AND contemporary singing. I think all the classical training I had has made learning belting and other styles much easier, and it’s an asset and an advantage to have that, not the other way around!</p>
<p>Best of luck to you and everyone else wondering about this:)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for sharing your experience 
I’m not too confident that I was placed into NSB (fingers crossed!) but I do feel a lot better about it. I would be open to learning different styles, but things they said at the audition really had me worrying, because it was almost implied that they didn’t have room for classical singers like me.</p>
<p>I had a simular experence at my audition as well! I’m a legit legit soprano and while the the auditor was extremely positive she did make the comment of “so you’re not a belter” which I didn’t know how to take. While I can sing the lower range of a belter, I won’t be Evita anytime in my life, the comment did seem strange to me as well. However there are several high vocal part in the MT rep so I wouldn’t worry…:-)</p>