<p>I've thought about my future for some time now, and it suddenly struck me that I'd really much rather be directing a chorus than an orchestra for many reasons. I'm an avid singer - I can sing decently - but I've never took singing lessons or anything of that sort. Plus, more importantly, would it be plausible to double-major in both Music Performance on violin/viola and Choral Education at the same time? Would it be a feasible endeavour, or should I just stick to Music Education (with a strings concentration)? Do Choral Education majors have to audition on voice? (It wouldn't be a problem, but I just want to know.)</p>
<p>You can audition for both viola and voice but then most schools will want you to chose one or the other. Talk to the schools some might be more flexible than others. Sometimes you can add the second major once you are there. Son had a teacher who started out as a band instrument major but do to a repetitive stress injury had to switch to choral education. Outside NY, some of the states such as Ohio and Ct require that you learn all the instruments taught in that state for the music ed major not just the instruments in your Orchestra, Band or Choral Track. Check out the Hartt school in Ct they have a 5 yr choral/instrumental music ed program. You could always do your undergrad on viola, take voice lessons and apply to grad school for choral education.</p>
<p>Just going through something similar with my son who is a viola/voice musician and will be entering college in September. Most schools let him audition on both (except Keene State). Most will let you major in one and take lessons and perform in ensembles in a second. Some will let you double major, but many say it is very difficult (especially if one of the majors is Ed) and they don’t recommend it for most. One of the interesting pieces of info we got from one of the schools (I wish now I could remember which one) was that if you are thinking of teaching, do the Ed major as your undergrad and you can do a performance major as a Grad. Many have taken this route. They do not recommend you do it the other way around. And yes, Choral Ed majors sing at their auditions, in all but one, he had to do the same audition as a Voice Performance major would have.</p>
<p>My son’s college offers a performance certificate, which is just a piece of paper that says he can perform on a professional level. But he is a music ed major. You could check into schools that offer performance certificates in addition to non performance majors.</p>
<p>Averageviolist, keep in mind that wherever you go or regardless of which music ed track you take, you’ll be licensed to teach any public school music classes in the appropriate states for which state your school is in. Thus, if you can only make it to instrumental on viola, it’s still entirely possible that you could end up teaching choir, although I don’t know how easy it’d be to get that job or if you’d be fully prepared that way. You could look for schools that a) allow you to follow both tracks like Momofbassist said or b) find a school that offers a general track, which although is intended for teaching (mostly elementary) general music and music theory, is probably the best all-around music teaching track and I’d think the only one where they’ll let you in regardless of instrument. Keep in mind though that the majority of general tracks are choral/general tracks, which are designed for singers but I know a harpist who I believe is taking that track at UW right now so it all depends. Consider yourself lucky to play an instrument that has a clear music ed path, though! I’m still wondering just what it is I’m going to do with piano for music ed but I’ve got a pretty good idea.</p>