<p>I have to admit, Jazzzmomm, that I know next to nothing about jazz schools and am only repeating my S's comments, but he seems to have a radar for things like that. He came home from Juilliard on Saturday, and on Sunday, I introduced him to a friend of my D's at church who has just been admitted to UNT for voice (jazz). He went on and on about what a fabulous school it was, and the gigging opportunities in the area because it is such a jazz hotbed, and how he knows several people who would love to go there or who have gone there, and so on. He is extremely serious about all things music, and would not make these kinds of comments lightly or to make someone feel good.</p>
<p>U of North Texas comes up in conversations with other kids looking for outstanding jazz programs. We went through the New School tour with a HS
senior jazz vocalist doing her auditon, and she and her father were talking about the program there and its national reputation. I believe these things are always worth a look if one can afford the airfare, and you never know where your child will eventually land. For any jazz parent just starting to look at programs, this one seems to be on the top of the list of universities with great jazz. I am glad to hear there might be gigging opportunities, because that was probably the one thing my son was concerned about.</p>
<p>just had a conversation with S's friend,who was recruited to Vanderbilt's trumpet studio and just finished freshman year.I can't talk about the quality of the program overall (Blair school of Music)
He has an extensive jazz background through MSM pre college and various summer programs,as well as classical training.He has been gigging extensively and says there are more opportunities than time.Everything from wedding bands to big bands.</p>
<p>Sorry to jump in on this. Im new to the site. I think that this was a good idea. My name is Madii. Im a freshman in high school, therefore i dont have a major. As of now, I play six instruments:Piano(main instrument), Saxophone, Flute, Trumpet, Trombone, and Guitar. Im a little confused as to what I should do for scheduling in the next few years. I wanted to be a musician however, Im preparing to be a music teacher. This year as a freshman I did not take a study hall, I took all eight credits. It was a bit tough, so next year I have signed up for a half year of music theory and half year of a study hall. I am also enrolled in marching band and symphony band. Does this sound about right? or should i consider a different schedule?</p>
<p>Madii - first, welcome! Good for you for beginning to think about college early.</p>
<p>As far as your schedule, the most important thing you can do is make sure you are taking whatever classes your high school requires to meet graduation requirements. That is different from school board to school board, so we can't advise you about that! (My D can only take 6 courses per year, and study hall was never an option!)</p>
<p>Secondly, once you have an idea of a college or two you'd like to consider, check their website for their "recommended" high school courses. Most colleges are looking for, for example, 4 years of English, 4 years of math, 3 years of science, 3 years of social studies, 2 or 3 years of foreign language, and so on. </p>
<p>Since you are thinking of music ed right now, both your grades and your audition will be important. There are a few threads on this forum that discuss music education. You can search for them by clicking on the search function at the top of this page. (If you do an advanced search, you can limit the search to the music forum.)</p>
<p>Greetings! I've been lurking on CC for a few months now, but feel it's time for an introduction. I'm the parent of 3 young performers. My oldest will be starting his senior year of HS in the fall and he is a classical vocalist, but enjoys singing all styles of music. He has attended MSM's pre college program and went to Tanglewood last summer. This summer he is off to the Bel Canto opera program in Florence. My middle son is a is a guitarist who is preparing for his Carnegie Recital debut, but in addition to Classical he also plays jazz, blues and tours across the country with the School of Rock.
My 9 year old daughter is into musical theater and loves performing. We are new to the college search process and it's a bit overwhelming. My oldest son competed this weekend in The Classical Singer HS Competition in San Francisco and made the finals and ended up with an honorable mention and several scholarship offers so I'm no longer panicking about his SAT scores, although I hope he does well taking them this Saturday!
I'm looking forward to learning a lot here! </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Ivy</p>
<p>Welcome Autmlvs615,</p>
<p>Sounds like you've got a busy, albeit organized plan for all involved. You appear to be calmly grounded in your knowlege of what's around and what's ahead. That's impressive. Great idea to keep your ears and eyes open. It helps to learn from those that have navigated these waters. </p>
<p>Congrats on your family's successes and your oldest son's performance and offers. It will help him alot during the year knowing he has those under his belt. He sounds like NFAA material. If he has not, he should consider applying ASAP. If he wins, those offers should double and come from the very best conservatories.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, don't diminish the value of those SATs. My D, a performance major, who absolutely knew that her top conservatory choices didn't care, figured she didn't care as well about her SATs. Much to her chagrin, I DID! During her senior year, after an extensive conservatory search, she bumped Shepherd School at Rice up above the top conservatories on her list- where if you make it through the auditions, you then have to be accepted at Rice. She was finally glad that I had made her study for her SATs. It enabled her to get her 1st choice in conservatories. You just never know!</p>
<p>Enjoy your kids summer programs. My 3 performers are in 3 different states at summer music festivals for the entire summer. We'll be on the road, traveling from one to the other, trying to catch at least 1 performance of each. Will you be able to catch a performance in Florence? Wouldn't that be terrific.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Hi,
I'm the mother of a 9th grader, DD, and singing is her alpha and omega. I know I'm here a bit early in her school career, but I'm getting an early start on researching college/summer options, so I can be sure my DD is comfortable as those options are suggested and/or acted upon.
At this stage, it is looking as though we will be interested in a vocal performance program, probably in opera, that can be combined with a degree in music ed.
This website has been so great to lurk on. Even though a lot of the info is nothing we can act on right this second, it's all being filed away in my head!
Thanks!</p>
<p>Wanted to welcome the new posters! </p>
<p>Also, to VicAria -- on the rest of CC you see parents of 9th graders talking about "starting early" - That might be true for most high schoolers, but the music route is a completely different story, and I don't believe 9th grade is too early if your student is already certain of a musical future. There are a lot of opportunities for high school students to gain experience and develop their abilities. Senior year is too late! You will find lots of advice here on summer programs, visiting schools, changing teachers, competitions and performance opportunities, and so on. </p>
<p>Experience at these different areas will help your kid narrow and define his college search when the time comes. "I don't want that school; I studied with that teacher at camp and didn't like him." or "The teacher at that school was one of the judges for the competition I won - She said she really liked my tone and expression. I bet I have a good chance there!" or "When I had the trial lesson with this teacher, he actually suggested that my sound might fit better with this other school."</p>
<p>I'm speaking from experience! We started early with my S2, and it paid off! (And it was only by accident, since we didn't know what we were doing back then.) Once you get into it, the music world is really fairly small, and the degrees of separation become close. I suspect Autmlvs615 has already discovered this, too!</p>
<p>VicAria-
Welcome. I'll echo binx's sentiments and put particular emphasis on doing whatever is feasible within your specific limitations taking advantage of as many summer opportunities as possible. Early research makes selections for the next summer that much easier. It will allow you to look at timing, costs, faculty, audition repetoire, etc. with enough time to prepare for auditions.</p>
<p>From experience, I know that application and audition timeframes (at least for string players) run from as early as October to as late as June for summer programs. By all means try and avoid the scramble of making last minute audition travel arrangements or recordings.</p>
<p>He,he,he Ivy...now where did you hear about NFAA before, lolol.</p>
<p>Hi all,
I thought it was about time I introduced myself now that I've been visiting CC for almost a year!</p>
<p>My son is a serious pianist not planning to major in music. He is going to be a freshman at Wesleyan University in the fall, having applied mainly to small liberal arts colleges with decent music programs. Some of the other schools he was considering had stronger music departments, but Wesleyan had the best academics, which became his top priority in the end. He's confident that he will be matched with an excellent piano teacher and will be able to continue playing chamber music there.</p>
<p>We are quite sure his piano-playing helped in his admission to Wesleyan. He submitted a very strong CD, has won competitions, and spent summers at Interlochen, Sewanee, and the Eastern Music Festival. </p>
<p>I am on the music faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill. (Sorry to say that our son was determined to leave Chapel Hill for college.) I think we have a wonderful program, though, and would be happy to answer any questions anyone has, and to meet with anybody who plans to visit. (PM me for quickest response.)</p>
<p>I'm also glad to share the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of our college search. I so appreciate all the great advice given here and wish everyone all the best of luck through this arduous process!</p>
<p>Jazzzmomm, </p>
<p>Please note that the following colleges also have great Jazz programs and should be added to your list:
University of Florida
The Juilliard School (Yes, they do have jazz now)
The Hartt School's Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz</p>
<p>I am an admissions director for Hartt. Please feel encouraged to contact me with any questions at 860.768.4148.</p>
<p>Thanks, Hartt admissions! I actually do know about the school, and have already added it to the list. Kids from our high school have gone there!</p>
<p>Jazzmomm,
Also check out Michigan State College of Music's highly aclaimed Jazz Studies Department under the direction of Rodney Whitaker. He and other faculty (recruited by him) are/were members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Winton Marsalis and other world renowned ensembles.</p>
<p>Hi everyone!--</p>
<p>I'm currently an art history major entering my senior year at a small LAC in Massachusetts. I've been playing piano ever since I was five, and went to an arts high school where I majored in piano. </p>
<p>Currently, I'm preparing to apply/audition for graduate school for piano performance, and am in the process of compiling "the list" as well as finalizing my repertoire. Although I'm not majoring in music, I've been greatly encouraged by my piano teacher, who basically told me that I should go to music school. </p>
<p>Any advice on good piano performance programs (for MM)? What would be considered "safety" schools? My current first choice is Mannes College, just because I'm so impressed by the size/quality of the piano faculty and I'd give almost anything to study with Richard Goode!</p>
<p>Sorry for such a long-winded introduction! I'd appreciate any advice on piano audition repertoire, schools, degree programs, etc. etc. You all are such a knowledgable bunch, I'm so thankful to have found this discussion forum at the right time.</p>
<p>Just wondering whether you saw the thread about taking practice lessons before applying: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=334339%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=334339</a> I think that the same information should also be valid for applying to grad school, especially if you have not met and played for these teachers or auditioned before. This summer and next fall will be good times to contact teachers you would like to meet and play for while you are also visiting the schools. If you are thinking about Mannes and therefore NYC, you should also take a look at Manhattan School and NYU (Steinhardt offers an MA in piano performance) Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Thanks Team_Mom! </p>
<p>Finally another mom who is as busy as I am!
My son is taking the SAT's as I type this. I hope he surprises me and does well, but he didn't do much prep for this and seems to be taking comfort in the fact that most of the conservatories he wants to get into don't care about scores. His HS grades are very good, but he's never been one to do well on standardized tests and he's decided not to stress over it and to focus his time and energy on his vocal training. </p>
<p>Congratulations on your daughter getting into her dream school! </p>
<p>I read your earlier post and it was so inspiring! I especially loved the end when you spoke about payback. And your screen name is so appropriate! My husband and I call it Tag Team parenting. We look at their schedules and try to figure out how we can drop one kid off in Phili or Central NJ for rehearsal and another to NYC for her show and cover dinner break and then we have to get my son to and from his pre college program at MSM. As tough as that is, just as you mentioned there are times when all 3 are performing in different states at the same time and they would all like us there. Life can be stressful and it is such a juggle, but the paybacks you wrote about it make it all worth it! Thanks again!</p>
<p>Bachelors in composition from U of Tenn, Masters in Theory Tech from U of Tenn, currently Theory PhD student at SUNY University at Buffalo. Played Tuba for most of music career, bassoon for a couple of years, and am now focused on Irish Fiddle. Taking a year off starting this September to move to Ireland to study/do field research for my dissertation (Semiotics of trad. Irish music).</p>
<p>It's no secret, I'm the summer internet publicist for the Univ. at Buffalo Music Department. I will say though that I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't believe in the department, and everything I say is true. My main goal is to just get people to consider the program, so obviously if I can recommend my school in a thread I'll do it. However I'm not spamming, I'll leave thoughtful answers on various topics and only post where appropriate.</p>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I have been lurking for a while on the site and thought I would finally chime in. My DS is about to start his senior year at the local public HS. He plans on majoring in jazz performance, specifically guitar. He has been playing guitar for 3.5 years and has been studying jazz for about a year and a half. </p>
<p>The high school has a sad, underfunded music program and my son couldn't join the jazz band until this coming year because they "already had a guitarist". My wife and I came up with some money for private guitar lessons and he has a second tutor for ear training, theory, and some piano. This coming Sept. we hope to add a second jazz guitar teacher as different guitarists has different styles. </p>
<p>He's planning to apply to USC, San Diego State, Webster U., Oberlin, and possibly Berklee. He's about a 3.0 student and just got a 1680 on the SATs. We'll see what happens.</p>