<p>Hello to all! I just introduced myself on the sticky introduction thread if you need some background info. In short, my daughter is looking at Vocal Performance programs on the east coast. She's a rising junior. Over the past few months we have visited NYU Steinhardt, Eastman, Peabody, and Ithaca (she attended the summer music program there this summer and last). She had lessons at NYU and Eastman and loved both programs, as well as multiple lessons with faculty at Ithaca. Of course it's very hard to judge talent level, especially as a parent, but her private teacher and the teachers she has had lessons with so far seem to be impressed with her voice and have certainly been encouraging (at least not discouraging) about her auditioning for top level schools. She can see herself adjusting to either small campus or city life -- for example, she loves everything about the atmosphere of Ithaca's campus, yet absolutely loved the vibe at NYU.</p>
<p>She is leaning toward a university/conservatory combo for undergraduate, and stand alone conservatories for MM programs, but does not want to rule out stand alone conservatories yet. Therefore we are taking a day trip to NYC next week for tours of both Julliard and MSM. Neither school is at the top of her list - but we thought she should at least visit to see if they spark her interest for a B.M. program.</p>
<p>Any thoughts / tips / experiences with visiting either school? Should we try to fit in Mannes as well? In order to make this all happen in one day, we have not scheduled private lessons, but I was thinking about possibly (I know it's a bit last minute) trying to see if a teacher at Mannes was available for a late afternoon lesson. Any recs for teachers at any of the 3 schools?</p>
<p>Only tip for Juilliard - they don’t usualy include a dorm room on their tour, so S2 contacted a friend who is a student there and she showed him around the dorm. MSM did include a tour of the dorms. </p>
<p>My only comment is don’t rule out anything until you check out the school and see how good the teachers are. Someone more familiar like Mezzo’s Mom can tell you more about voice programs, but for example, from what I know of voice a couple of the schools on your list may be so-so (and I am not mentioning names, simply because I don’t claim to be an expert and I don’t want you using my perception as reality). The school may have a great environment, but if the teachers in the program aren’t that good, it probably won’t be worth going there, or if the school has one ‘great’ teacher and a lot of okay ones, you may not want to go there if the great teacher isn’t accepting new students…</p>
<p>You could potentially see Juilliard, MSM and Mannes in the same day (might be a bit tired), you could start at MSM or Juilliard, and work your way down/up to the other end, almost a linear line up Broadway (Mannes in the 60’s, a couple of blocks East of Broadway, MSM is one block off of Broadway at 122nd street). </p>
<p>Schools are not in regular session now, so it’s hard to know what you will sense/see. New York City, however, is always in session…
I second the emphasis musicprnt noted on specific music teachers and their studios.</p>
<p>Thanks!! Mannes does not have any tours on Thursdays over the summer, so we will have to wait on that one.<br>
Totally hear you both about the importance of good teachers. That’s why we are definitely trying to arrange lessons when we can. I’ve also been lurking about on the New Forum for Classical Singers - their recommendations/warnings sub-forum, for that purpose. </p>
<p>Just to put this out there in case anyone wants to comment, because we are definitely open to suggestions for schools to consider, her list (so far) is this:
Eastman
Carnegie Mellon
Oberlin
NYU Steinhardt
Peabody
Ithaca
Boston University
Thinking about Maryland and Temple for “safe” schools - if there is such a thing for music/V.P!?</p>
<pre><code> She also wants to look at, but so far is not as interested due to lack of university connection:
Juilliard
MSM
NEC
</code></pre>
<p>We plan to visit Oberlin and CMU in one trip in the fall. I’ve heard really great things about both Cinn CCM and Cleveland Institute of Music for vocal performance. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Anywhere else she should consider?</p>
<p>And my apologies for the typo on Juilliard in my original post!!</p>
<p>One last thing – my husband and I are both CMU grads, but not in music. His degree was in Architecture and mine in Computer Science, although I was a music kid in high school. We both absolutely loved the school ove</p>
<p>Oh my goodness I just had a complete keyboard spastic attack. My apologies - what I was trying to say is that we both loved and would get a kick out of her attending CMU - and I have heard some really good things about their school of music. Looking for more information on people’s experience with the vocal performance program there. I know they have had some faculty turnover in recent years. Again - sorry for the multiple posts and the typos…tried to hit shift and ended up hitting enter…twice!! Definitely doing too much at one time ;-)</p>
<p>I have a question, is your D looking at university settings because she would prefer to be able to take the core courses and other liberal arts courses and/or doesn’t want to be isolated, or is she looking at a university in the hope of double degrees, so she will have something practical when she gets out? This has been talked about a lot, but I don’t want her or any student to limit themselves for something that may be a non issue. I think that there are kids who will be happier where there is anything but music students, where there are more liberal arts classes and such, and I can understand that, hence my question. </p>
<p>Good question!! Not to double degree, but more to be able to be around some non-music majors occasionally, have the social benefits of a traditional campus environment, and also to be able to have more choice of high quality liberal arts courses for that one humanities spot per semester. I do realize, from looking at the curriculum and course sequence for several of the Vocal Performance B.M.s, that some programs “fill” that humanities elective with a foreign language requirement. For example, at Eastman, the VP program includes diction courses in Italian, German, and French, but they also have to take actual language courses in all those languages for the degree. So for some programs she may have very few spots for true electives.</p>
<p>As her parents, even though we don’t say this out loud, we also hope for her to be in a diverse enough environment that if she changes her mind or things don’t work out as planned, she would have other resources and options available to her. She’s given us no reason to think that she may have a change or heart, and she has incredible drive and a great work ethic, but you know how competitive it is out there for sopranos.</p>
<p>@rk-
That makes sense, the conservatory environment is not for everyone, my S has said that in some ways he would like to have more liberal arts classes and such, but he also said he wouldn’t be sure in a university environment if he would have the time, either:). </p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for your input. Seems that there are many parents here who’s kids went or go to Oberlin. I’m hearing more and more great things about it. @musicprnt - which conservatory does your S attend?</p>