What factors do you consider when picking vocal performance programs to audition for?
Do any of the following matter?
Would love to hear any and all thoughts regarding your search criteria.
Thank you!
~VT
For my son, vocal coaching is a given. But otherwise the factors driving his decision thus far are serious academics, staging at least 2 full operas a year / multiple performance opportunities, and flexibility in curriculum allowing double majors. The other factors you list are great but are not his focus.
Excellent questions, @VoiceTeacher ! We went through the Undergraduate search and audition process for my D last year and here is the low down on what she decided were the most important criteria:
My D is a Freshman VP BM candidate at Oberlin this year, and so far she is very happy with her choice!
If I only knew the mind of my 17 year old daughter. I am beginning to wonder if the audition will be similar to my wife falling in love with our kitchen. Will there be some ineffable quality that will make the price/admission/commitment worth it? If so, the decision to visit the “open house” seems to be based on location, location, location and a website that shows a college where she can “see herself” living/thriving/singing.
She is too right brain for a delineation of criteria (no matter how hard I pry).
An interesting question that I really wish I had a clear answer to! I like @BearHouse response! To start, for my D, she is a jazz vocalist and songwriter so we needed to find a program that offers both which narrows the field down quite a bit. Then I think location is the next biggest thing. D has pretty much eliminated the west coast and wants to be on the east coast, northeast, southeast but not midwest since that’s where we are now. We do have a great jazz program that’s more local to us that is added to her list because her current vocal coach is on adjunct faculty there but they don’t have any commercial music, all jazz, so that’s a bit of a minus. Then I think the faculty is extremely important to her. She spent the summer at Berklee and did NOT click with the head of the vocal jazz program there. At Frost, she clicked with the head of that program like they’d known each other forever. She didn’t meet the jazz voice prof at Loyola when we visited but really liked the head of the jazz program (instrumental) and the vibrant music scene of New Orleans.
I keep worrying about the fact that D only has 6 applications out there and has only visited 2 of the 6 she has applied to. Part of me wants to go see a couple of the schools now to get a feel for whether or not we should add more to the list. The other part of me wants to wait to see if she gets invitations for live auditions, but based on the thread from last year’s prescreens I’m thinking it could be as late as January before we hear anything about invitations which would be too late to add another school. It’s all very daunting and like Bearhouse, I am hoping she finds a great fit where she can thrive. I’m sure she will but it is a much different process than what we went through for my mechanical engineer son!
My son is a junior and has visited two colleges so far, both in-state public universities. He’s looking at vocal performance and music education (music ed would not be a fallback option for him—he’s serious about teaching, just undecided)
As far as I can tell, he’s influenced by—in no particular order:
What programs other people he knows have told him are “good”
His impressions when he hears ensembles
Face-to-face interactions with faculty
How many of his musical interests he can keep on the table at once—he doesn’t want to give up voice or instrumental music
What classes are available—how long are lessons, can he study more than one instrument
Some of the other things mentioned—faculty prestige, performance experience of faculty, reputation—I feel are largely about making connections in the music world and networking possibilities—but they really aren’t on my son’s radar at the moment and he wouldn’t be swayed by name or fame if those face to face interactions weren’t positive.
We picked “reputable” music schools where, to some extent, all your items were covered. So she never focused on your items individually.
The only exception would be acting and dance classes. For some VP students that can be an issue…but all my D’s schools had some sort of access to those resources.
What determined my D’s final decision was really a personal mix of what felt right to her. Music reputation/resources mattered as did academics, size of school and community, social outlets AND teacher/program enthusiasm which corresponded in part to MONEY. My D had several good offers but, in the end, they all had good reputations and resources but teacher enthusiasm (a personal touch) won her over, I think. She told me last week that she was texting with her old teacher about her “career”. They are still in contact.
I’ve told this story before but my D asked her teacher why she chose her and her teacher said something like “I don’t know. I just liked you. I could see a little of me in you.” To some extent, it’s personal.
Living abroad, we rolled the dice in pairing reputable schools for each traveling weekend for audition and sample lessons in the hope of finding a teacher match. My D knew various teachers from previous summer programs and trips. She ended up with what she thought was the best student-teacher match mixed with the best financial aid.
So far she is ecstatic with her choice as a freshman VP major at Oberlin.
My kid is solidly opera, not choral, popular, jazz, or oratorio.
She chose schools based on her voice teacher’s recommendation. The voice teacher vetoed Eastman, for example, because it apparently does not have as strong an opera focus. We also weeded schools out if they were too far from any extended family or friends.
Now that she has applied, decisions will be made based on:
Price- this is the undergrad degree, so getting through it with as little debt as possible is very important.
Faculty- she’s looking for opera performance, so she needs teachers who are comfortable teaching opera soloist voices. Performance experience is good, but not strictly necessary.
A supportive Community- she’s tired of being the only kid in school with such a weird interest. Even the other choir and drama kids don’t really get it. She wants peers and friends.
Undergraduate performance opportunities- if undergrads get non-Chorus parts, that is a plus.
Dance/ acting training. It’s important for drama, and she started in ballet and gymnastics, and continues to do circus arts training.
Ease of traveling home. Even if it’s in another state, she’ll feel better if it isn’t too hard to come home.
@stillHera “circus arts training “? lol! You’re definitely going to have to go visit Oberlin!
@dramasopranomom we will if she passes prescreening… I did, in 1993…
@dramasopranomom I did visit, I mean. I quit piano lessons when I was 12.
0.o
Haha @stillHera ! It’s just that Oberlin, in addition to some pretty spectacular singing, has an active circus arts group! Both in Ex CO and Winter Term (usually), I believe!
Wow, really? That’s very cool. I think dd was resigned to finding a circus gym off campus, wherever she winds up.
In all honesty, it’s not important for an undergrad to focus on “opera” since they will/should be singing art song for at least the first three years of good undergrad programs anyway. And their recitals are song-based, with an aria allowed in senior year. The same goes for the operas- chorus roles are a way of getting familiar with rep, the conductor and the stage. They shouldn’t be singing full roles with orchestra yet- the voice is a living instrument and if damaged, can be difficult or impossible to “repair”.
Remember, if your daughter goes to a good school, everyone there is going to be at least as good as she is, so she’ll find it involving and challenging. The operas and the big roles will come later on!
@“Mezzo’sMama” re: opera, I understand. The kiddo is not ready. Her teacher says 5-7 years of steady practice to be close to physically ready…but some schools are wonderful for choral and oratorio, but do less with theater and stage production. She knows she wants to aim for opera performance eventually, so she’s taking that into consideration. That’s all I’m saying. 
I understand @stillHera! My D chose an undergrad school because it did NOT have a choral component. Now, she makes quite a bit of extra $$ subbing in ensembles! They learn to develop the skills they have learned and make great use of them!
Hi there! Would you be willing to share the names of the schools your daughter is considering? She sounds very much like my daughter and we are really struggling to figure out which schools to put on her list for an undergrad opera performance major. She will be applying next year but we could really use some guidance asap. Thanks in advance for your help!
Oops! My question is for stillHera but of course would welcome responses from any of you!
@hesmall Gosh! I did post the list on another thread, but it kind of boils down to: a state school in our state, a state school in a neighboring state that had some ties to a big city opera company but that doesn’t pre-screen, and then 5 pipe dream schools that she’d feel good about even passing prescreening. Of those, we’ve had one pass and one rejection so far.
We went with the tried and true method of consulting with her private voice teacher and then choosing a shorter list based on places that seemed like they might be fun.