Music Performance vs Musical Theatre or Crossover? Opinions Please!

College Majors Music Major
1

Hoping to get more wonderful advice from all of you! DS has done some evolving these last few months, as predicted.

To overview his background and hopefully not to repeat with those of you who have read my posts before:

He has been classically trained in voice (baritone, district and state 1’s and perfect score once, love that judge) for the past four years, as well as being active in the musical and theatre arts in school and community music and music theatre productions, and has been entrusted with leading and supporting roles. He has found through those experiences that he has a passion for musical theatre in addition to classical voice. Though this is what he can most envision himself studying over the next four years, he would like some insight as to if it might be a better idea for him to continue the classical path in voice for his education as a vocal performance major, or to pursue a musical theatre degree. We have also been advised that there is some cross over these days between the two.

He is also successful academically and in leadership, having been class president the last three years and now Exec Student Body President and NHS President. He maintains a 4.46 GPA, AP courses, high ACT and SATs,and has led community outreach in the arts and charities.

So, he has two loves-arts and leadership. In hoping to combine the two in some way, whether in undergraduate studies, minors, or grad school; we are looking at the following schools:

(In no particular order)

Carnegie Mellon
CCM
U Mich
U Indy
Belmont
Vanderbilt

Outliers are

UNT
SMU
Baylor
UNC

A lot of these are schools that are being recommended because of his academics and possibilities for scholarships. Our feeling now is that he should go after his heart while he is young, still having a view to a backup plan with leadership and arts management. We are just not sure which path to pursue and which school would be best? Any and all opinions are welcome. I do trust this forum.

Please, if any of you have knowledge or advice about these schools or others, we would love it. We are aware that these schools are all different in the degrees they offer so any help navigating would be awesome. So not sure what path to take at this point and need to get there!

I’m going to post this in both Music Major and Musical Theatre Major Forums. Thanks in advance everyone!

2

CMU though it is an academic school it is more like a conservatory for drama. It will be more about the audition than his grades. Has he done musical theatre or theater outside of the school setting and does he have dance experience? That might be a deciding factor. Are finances a consideration? Is he thinking BFA or BA? How important really are the academics? Other considerations would be has he considered an urban campus vs suburban or rural campus. Also your colleges are focused in the Midwest and south. A lot of the MT schools are located in the Northeast. Is that an area of the country he’d consider. Perhaps Penn States honors college with a musical theater degree. I’m not sure if you have a sense of the competitive nature of the field so forgive me ahead of time. Although your sons stats are impressive artistically and academically there are going to be at least 2000 other kids who are equally talented vying for very few spots in musical theater. So vocal performance and my applications would be a good idea. If musical theater is where he’s feeling called you should go to the top off the musical theater page and look at all the schools. Good luck in his journey? What year in school is he?

3

This is a problem near and dear to my heart as my D went through the same issues. You have some good comments above to a complex issue…but I will give a few more comments more focused on mt vs vp.

In a nutshell, we did vp and mt auditions and let the journey (and offers) decide her fate. You can worry about mt or vp (and we did) but the auditions should be clarifying. My D got good offers for both. There was more excitement in general for vp (however one mt program gave a very good offer and called so we did seriously consider it). I think in the end for my D she just couldn’t give up classical study. I think her decision surprised even her (since it was always mt or bust in the fall and I had to struggle to get a few vp schools on the list). I think it was due in part to what she learned and how she felt during auditions. Many will tell you there can big changes in attitudes from fall (when it’s all a dream) to spring (when it’s reality). It’s true. So keep that in mind and keep his list broad if possible.

I think you have a good list. I can only really comment on one school. My D did IU for undergrad and did the BSOF degree in the Jacobs school which allowed her to continue to study theater and mt during the day (in the evenings it was all opera so be aware crossing over is not easy or always possible for shows). You can research that degree. I would also suggest trying to find semester class schedules for both vp and mt for him to consider. How does he want to spend his day?

My D did not have to audition for the mt program as part of that degree but I believe that it is necessary now. She did however audition for Jacobs vp and then the bfa in mt at IU the same weekend. So we did target a few schools that allowed her to audition for both on the same weekend. I would suggest this if possible. Looking at your list I would assume you could do that IU, Michigan and CCM.

Although my D continues in vp grad studies she has had several acting gigs and this summer was part of a (paid) festival which included opera and mt. She was a cover for opera but was also in the ensemble of two mt shows. I saw her dance on stage for the first time in years - she made a dance line - so those skills all come back. In undergrad she was only on stage in operas but is glad she took classes in mt and particularly acting. More and more operas are doing classical mt shows. Jacobs at IU now does one annually in the “opera” theater. So looking for programs that may offer some ability to do course work or extra curricular outside classical voice might be worthwhile (but note it is not easy and can be discouraged by vp teachers including my D’s teacher - still she was able to dabble and that is what you should look for).

I can certainly be wrong about this but a general opinion I have heard is: you can do mt after classical studies (it’s where most kids start and spend years prior to vp studies) but doing opera after mt studies is far less common. Still…he should follow his true passion. If he loves the mt curriculum and wants to head to Broadway right after graduation that’s mt. If he doesn’t mind a longer, more varied path, vp may be a good choice.

4

Both fields are highly competitive now and there is little crossover, if any, at the top schools (and yes @bridgenail , the MT program at IU is now by audition!). You don’t get into top MT programs without a strong voice and dance skills (although there are at least two schools that I know of that have MT dance-based based majors as well as voice-based ones) because you’ve got 4 years and then a showcase where you are presented to casting agents as ready-to-go as a performer. In fact, some kids get hired while in school, do a few months on tour or in NYC and then go back and finish their degree and thankfully there are schools that are skewed to allow that. VP is equally competitive in its own way, with everyone looking ahead to getting into graduate school, and believe me when I say that not everyone does- those undergrad numbers are winnowed down considerably by the time graduation rolls around anyway and the ones that gain admission to grad school are even fewer.

The advent of shows like Glee on TV and Wicked on Broadway got thousands of kids interested in MT and the numbers applying to colleges exploded so the number of programs to accommodate them proliferated. Not all are good- and a great number of them do nothing but encourage kids in vain. The classical voice programs saw an opportunity and expanded right along with the musical theatre ones because they were taking the overflow- the singers who couldn’t belt or who had the “churchy-type” voices. And no, they are no more honest than their MT compatriots. There aren’t enough stages in the world to employ all of the graduates being handed BMs in VP and BFAs in MT in this country alone much less the rest of the world!

He needs to follow his heart and his passion. There are good threads about the schools at the top of this forum and the MT forum that will help you!

5

You are ALWAYS so helpful bridgenail!

6

Thanks. And Mezzo’sMama is also very correct. I always try to hedge my comments a bit…bc I don’t know your son nor the future. And there are always the story about that guy who entered a MM vp program at 25 after doing an engineering degree and now he is all the rage. Remember that is extremely rare!

Both fields are highly competitive. The vast majority of kids who “make it” in either field are serious and working hard from freshman year in college on (and most for at least a few years prior - boys however can be slightly different and take a bit more time). To get to the point of performing on Broadway or going on to a MM, you have to be working diligently…and be lucky. Of course someone can “catch up” but you will be at a disadvantage.

From my D’s undergrad vp program, I would guess about 30% did not go for an MM for various reasons. And I was surprised at the number that got no additional offers besides staying a IU for an MM. A few of my D’s friends were quite shocked bc it is a selective school and they got into ALL programs for vp for undergrad. An MM after 4 years of vp study is NOT a guarantee. So after 4 years in a mt program…again no guarantee.

But this takes me back to the first point. You just can’t control and know everything. He should follow his passion and get a Bachelors degree at a school that has the breadth of programming he desires. You can worry about grad school later if it feels right. Just be aware that a mt program usually leads to mt and a vp programs usually leads to vp. Cross-over programs, tend in my opinion, to mt…but I could be wrong…so I would ask how many kids end up going on to an MM in vp (remember not all do from vp programs either but it should be a number that you are comfortable with if vp is a serious interest). I would just ask a lot of questions at each school and go audition and see what offers he gets. It will be informative.

7

My D is a VP major at Michigan. Although her voice definitely lends itself to opera more than MT, my D still loves musical theatre. She had not been in a MT show since high school, though. Her professor knows how much she still loves MT, and actually encouraged her to audition for the student-run musical this fall because the lead is a soprano. She’s very lucky to have a teacher who actually encourages her to do both - I believe that’s very rare at the college level.

8

Everyone has gone above and beyond to give us advice. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. So our feeling is that we are going to go forward in the audition process, for both VP and MT, and as some have said, see where the offers are; since finances are a consideration. But mostly hoping the pieces will fall into place since he is wanting the best fit for him naturally and every day falls more in love with MT with an affinity and talent for VP. Aaargh. It will all work out. So now we go forward to Unified? Or road trips all year?

9

Unifieds will only work for MT. For VP, check the music dept websites for each school. Most require an at school audition. We picked a few schools where we could do both on one weekend. The VP audition can be about 10 minutes. For MT an audition can be 15 minutes or half a day. It’s a lot of work to prepare for both.

I’m assuming you understand many require pre-screens for both mt or vp which are due prior to dec 1 sometimes. Then you are INVITED to audition. So be sure to be checking websites for all audition requirements. Unified info can be found on the mt thread. There are some walk ins allowed for mt.

10

While I understand your DS’s desire to do both, @bridgenail is quite right about the time commitment (and travel expenses) to audition for two different programs. In addition, my D finds it very hard to switch her voice from MT to VP --the muscles do different things, and she could not be on her top game with her art songs and arias when concurrently singing MT. Maybe it’s different for the male voice, but as one of a million sopranos, she needed to focus on one style to be competitive.

11

He should look at Northwestern, which I believe allows VP majors to also pursue a certificate in MT along with Theatre majors.