<p>Has anyone been to Rice for their S or D's vocal audition yet? We go this weekend...</p>
<p>Heard from another auditioning student that they only accepted 30 from the pre-screening results and are only taking 6 VP freshmen.....that seems really tight!</p>
<p>They will be down one studio next year since Susanne Mentzer is leaving at the end of this year and they had only been interviewing for Kathy Kaun’s replacement for fall of 2013. Therefore there will most likely only be 2 studios fall of 2012. Accepting 6 is more than I had heard. With 3 full studios they only accepted 8 the year DD auditioned. They do not expect everyone accepted to attend.</p>
<p>Going down today for a performance this weekend. GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>ABlestMom, that’s a good reminder. If you are going to be there this weekend for auditions, try to catch the opera scenes performances Friday or Saturday night.</p>
<p>Rice is always tight. They only have about 100 undergrad performance majors across all instruments and voice.</p>
<p>wasn’t aware that S. Mentzer was leaving also…</p>
<p>S. Mentzer is indeed leaving. Kathleen Kaun seems to be staying for another year and will be teaching Suzanne’s students that she leaves behind. Suzanne is coming back once a month or so to give mastrclasses and lessons though. The replacement list is narrowing down and will probably be announced next school year. Although, I think I know who will likely get the job…</p>
<p>Teachers move around all the time. Whoever Rice gets as a replacement will fill the hole with someone of the same or better cailber. Just look at the Kantor situation.</p>
<p>Weren’t there only two voice undergraduate majors accepted this year?</p>
<p>accepted or GOING to be accepted??</p>
<p>I meant current freshmen.</p>
<p>I thought my D told me that there were only 42 freshmen at Shepherd this year, so 6-8 in voice sounds about right. Some studios only take 1.</p>
<p>They accepted 5 last year.</p>
<p>Where’s Kathy Kaun going?</p>
<p>Retiring to be grandma</p>
<p>^Oh! That’s nice! :)</p>
<p>I heard Penelope Bitzas was almost certainly the replacement. Is that wrong? Bitzas would be a HUGE score for the voice faculty.</p>
<p>Good lord, I hope Bitzas is not going to leave BU, that is one of our schools high on the list.</p>
<p>D had her audition last Friday…and they were very tight-lipped about S. Mentzer’s replacement…but I agree that whomever they choose will be an excellent addition.</p>
<p>D said audition went well (she was only undergraduate auditioning that day!), but unlike the other 2 she has been to, there was no real conversation, questions or comments.</p>
<p>The graduate students auditioning all around us experienced the same thing…a bit unnerving, but c’est la vie.</p>
<p>What a lovely school and another great experience for D…next week - IU!</p>
<p>^My son and I made the same observation at Rice years ago, when he auditioned. (He was also the only undergrad at HIS audition!)</p>
<p>There was a lot of interaction and verbal and non-verbal feedback at all the other schools where my son auditioned … but, like you observed, there was no conversation, no questions or comments at Rice. They seemed comparitively very tight-lipped! </p>
<p>Well, actually, there was one comment, by Stephen King, whom my son hoped to study with. (Silly us! We knew he was awesome, but we didn’t understand at the time how widely respected and renownked he was – nor that he took mainly grad students.) I don’t know if they still do this, but there was that “class” in the afternoon of the audition day where a small handful of speakers spoke about the Shepherd School experience. Stephen King was one of the people who spoke. As we were leaving the meeting, he called out to my son, “Good job today, [first name]!” That made us feel good. But it was the ONLY interchange throughout the entire day. In general, the mood there was in stark contrast to our experience at other schools.</p>
<p>My son was one of (I forget, was it 6?) undergrads accepted that year, but he did not get into Dr. King’s studio. (Duh.)</p>
<p>Anyway, it was interesting to hear your perspective, because we haven’t read or heard that before about Rice, but it CERTAINLY struck us that way as well!
:)</p>
<p>@SimpleLife
Rice gets to be ridiculously selective due to its size. An acceptance to Rice for voice and a compliment from Stephen King (to an undergrad no less!) is a big deal as you know! Your son must be very talented :)</p>
<p>I heard the same about Bitzas for what it’s worth…that would be a massive loss for BU.</p>