S is starting his auditions on Friday and I just this morning started reading over the audition requirements at each of the 3 schools on his first trip to make sure he has everything he needs. I just noticed a major problem with UCLA — when he filled out the music supplement, he identified 3 songs that he planned to play at the audition. Upon further review, NONE of the songs he selected were on the audition repertoire list UCLA provided for Global Jazz Studies. This is likely the result of submitting the UCLA music supplement a couple of hours before the deadline. A major oversight! His audition is on Saturday. I have not yet broken this news to him but I do think he knows a few of the songs on the approved list — he just hasn’t been practicing them. How should we handle at this point?
No advice, just solidarity! S just saw that he can’t reuse songs from his prescreen for this Friday’s (!) audition. He’s scrambling to get new ones in shape.
Might be worth emailing or calling and asking if he can substitute one or two of the ones he’s prepared. Then practice ?
My “advice”: call the school and explain your situation. If you know his repertoire well enough, you may be able to discuss alternatives…or ask if your son could email the alternative music to see if it is worth attending the audition. Be perfectly honest that you/he messed up due to the high number of auditions and apologize for the inconvenience…then be “assumptive” that there has to be a solution…and you and he will do whatever it takes. Teachers do have a heart…but you’ll have to see how willing they are to bend the rules.
Edit: just noted that you says he does “know” a few of the songs…better yet bc that is a solution (but not optimal)…still I would call and ask about their flexibility in hearing other music due to an oversight on your/his part. Then he needs to decide what to play.
He needs to be the one calling the school not you as the parent. The parent calling to rescue the child’s mistake doesn’t build confidence in the student.
Thanks @akapiratequeen for your support and @bridgenail for your advice. And agreed, @deborahb, my son will have to be the one to call if we go that route. I broke the news to S by text when he was at school. He wrote back “That’s fine it’s not bad at all. I know a few of these tunes.” So, it’s not as bad as I thought. But, he did list 3 different songs when he submitted his application. I wonder if he should contact the school now to let them know of the change, or to show up ready to play the 3 he listed plus the 2 he will start working on now.
Glad to hear it. If he’s not that concerned, I would leave the music choices up to him. You could suggest that he contact the school prior with an updated list. And if he isn’t as well-prepared for this one…that’s just life. And you never know, they may see the talent regardless.
If he knew NONE of the music that would be a time to intervene bc you, as a parent, would need to decide if the trip was worth it from a financial stand-point. That was my first assumption from reading (too quickly) your question. If my D didn’t know a classical song at all one week prior…I would be trying to figure out if I simply pull the plug on the flight. But since he KNOWS some of the music, I would let him handle it…and just say if he has concerns about doing the audition to let you know and you can “brain-storm” the next step. I think he may handle it just fine.
This! Speaking for myself, sometimes I add levels of stress bec I don’t know how much S knows. Like I had a fit when I saw (3 days before the audition) that one school requires him to sing each song from memory as well as play it, but he said, “So what? Of course I know them all!” If your S feels comfortable either way I think he’s good to go. Mine is pulling two additional numbers out of a hat for the Eastman audition THIS Friday, but doesn’t seem especially worried about it. I guess maybe he’s a good musician or something…
Yes @akapiratequeen, I (obviously) do the same! I will miss my son like crazy when he goes off to school, but I am looking forward to a degree of blissful ignorance about things that he is doing, or not doing, as I do tend to take on his stresses as my own.
@akapiratequeen - a parent adding stress to the process…I’ve never heard of that! None of us have to be perfect. It’s OK to lose it on occasion. Your kid will survive.
@lkbux64 - you shouldn’t “rescue your son” (although I don’t think that is what you were trying to do). However I give any parent permission to “rescue their bank account”. NO ONE (even precious scooter) gets between me and my bank acct. If my kid screwed up and it was going to cost me big bucks, I get to make a phone call. Not to rescue her but to stop the bleeding from my acct. I called one school when the pre-screen results where getting so close to the audition date with a flight, it hurt. I couldn’t wait another 500 bucks. That was bx me and the school…and if that damaged scooter, she was just going to have to get over it. Also my H is Japanese, where being a helicopter parent is the ultimate! They all seem to survive…but when I talk with my sister-in-law, I do cringe…but my niece and nephew are certainly well-adjusted, fully employed adults right now…despite my sister-in-laws endless meddling (my opinion there). Considering she and her H had an “arranged marriage” (and that’s socially acceptable), what do you expect. One culture’s meddling is another culture’s love.
UCLA is pretty chill (as the kids says!). Call I think Zoe Ashmead? Explain the situation. Have him practice the other pieces like crazy between now and then. They usually only ask to hear two.
I would call even if he does know the songs on the list, because he has practiced the others. He can tell them he is fine with sticking with the list since it was his mistake, but just wanted to check in case it was okay to play 1, 2 or 3 of the songs he practiced.
Yes he should make the call but I sometimes did, explaining that between school and play practice or band rehearsal or whatever, my kid didn’t have a time when he or she could call. Of course, that was before cell phones were allowed in school 
I made calls for my four kids related to financial aid (like bridgenail, looking to my bank account. For other stuff, I had my kids call or email unless they couldn’t because, as others have noted, high school seniors often can’t make calls during business hours. All email, except financial emails, came from the kids–the glory of asynchronous communication. My kids all developed into independent adults–but without me helping them through all this college paperwork and bureaucracy it would have been a slower process getting there.