Very good question. As a rising junior, your son gets another year with YoungArts, so that does seem like it’s maybe silly to spend a lot on high quality videos. Senior year was our son’s first time entering (winner/finalist!) and we used the same videos for his prescreens- what it did was force us to have them ready well in advance since the YA deadline is mid October, so he was done with them early and could focus on the rest of the application process.
That said, I do feel that the quality of the videos was one reason he had success with YA. Is your son entering any other competitions? If so, that may be a good reason to do high quality recordings.
Best of luck-- it’s such a fantastic organization. I cannot say enough about how wonderful and supportive they are.
It’s a good question, I just found out he can record at his music school and he will be using one of the pieces for a concerto competition. I guess the answer is that he should do good recordings or not bother. He plays a very competitive instrument so he wouldn’t be expecting to win this year, more to enter and go through the process.
That’s so great to hear. My kid is applying to the UNT jazz program. I hear they accept just 4 or 5 new students each year. Congratulations to your son on getting there.
Thank you. He loves UNT and feels very fortunate he was accepted. It is a lot of work, but he is learning a lot, made a lot of friends and is very happy at UNT. Good luck to your student.
Hello joining you after finding you a few weeks ago:) DD24 is a cellist and clarinet player, NYO and junior conservatoire (we are not in the USA), and is keen to apply to US colleges prob for joint degree programmes. She was at BUTI last summer and will be there this summer too. I have already learnt so much from you all reading the music major threads that thought i should intro myself ready for applications next year.
I’ve been around for a couple of years here, posting about my DS22 (who’s a first year clarinet performance major at Blair), but I’m gearing up for another round of college applications/auditions, so I figure I should introduce DS24 who, somewhat to my surprise, is currently pretty keen on doing a dual degree in French horn and…something (English? sociology? definitely not STEM is what he’s sure about). He’s not nearly as single minded about music as his older brother was, so I wasn’t really expecting to be looking at music schools again, but…here we are. At the moment it seems most likely that he’ll apply to several schools that offer BMs and have strong academics but probably also some LACs with good music opportunities but not actual performance degrees and then see what his options are come spring. He’s also considering trying for Early Decision at Blair. I don’t know what his chances are there, but I sure would love to have two kids at the same (relatively close, since we’re near Atlanta) college!
I’m an oldie and one who was a first year poster on this thread. Every so often, I come and read about all of the new musicians and parents.
There IS light at the end of the tunnel. My trumpet player got his masters in 2009. Toured with a brass quintet for a year. Relocated, and has established himself well as a freelance musician.
We will be seeing him play in the pit orchestra at the equity theater in the town where he lives this weekend!
Looking forward to going through this with you and all of your experience! S24 has Blair/Vanderbilt double major probably as first choice with debate with an LAC such as Williams. Will decide in the fall after summer programs. Can’t believe it is almost their turn!
I can’t believe that this site has been here the whole time! When I was first applying to college in 2019-2020, I thought the online places music majors could ask each other questions was on Quora and social media threads-- but that’s the wild wild west of the internet.
A bit about myself:
I’m a rising senior pursuing a BM at UCLA and will be looking around for some MM advice. But it’s so great to see so many excited parents and students alike who are excited about the wonderful journey that is music major life. <3
but anyone out there still wondering if they wanna be a music major and are just starting to think about college decisions or commitment to the study; just know this:
Do music as your choice of study when you think you want to know more. Because-- there’s always more to learn out there. However: Committing to music as a field in a college/uni gives specific benefits. It’s one of the possible paths toward meeting great teachers, being immersed in an environment with other passionate people like you, and having a foundation to start your musical career(which depends on what you want to do with it).
And: there are those who also worry that they might regret it and want to try something else: that’s okay And if anything-- you’ve got time!
And if anything-- you’ve got time!