Has anyone here had recent experience of the music department at Kenyon, and especially of its resources in voice/vocal performance? Our daughter is passionate about English and writing (which we know are wonderful at Kenyon!), and equally passionate about studying voice - she is a classical soprano who loves singing art songs and opera, and she wants to find an LAC that has good resources in both English and voice. How would it be at Kenyon for a student who wanted to pursue study in both those fields?
As with some other colleges of its type, Kenyon offers voice lessons, for credit, that could progess through your daughter’s four years there on an increasingly advancing level. This would complement her other music courses and musical EC pursuits. For the dual interests of literature and music, Kenyon appears to be among the best choices available.
Thanks, @merc81!
As with any small school and highly specific interests, I would recommend looking at the specific faculty and course offerings. Where did the voice prof(s) train, are there more than one so that, if a prof takes leave, there is still someone to work with for a semester or year, etc.? Music departments often bring in adjuncts who are working artists professionals in their field – which can be a wonderful opportunity for students, so having adjunct faculty is not the “negative” that excessive reliance on adjuncts might be in other fields.
Arts departments are often very responsive to individual student inquiries because those departments tend not to have a lot of majors – the Chair/administrator are often happy to share details about the opportunities available with prospective students. My own kid was very interested in continuing with a specific fine arts medium, and emailed departments for information about requirements, courses etc., and most schools were very happy to respond and schedule separate tours, faculty meetings etc when we were on campus.