<p>In my experience, Baldwin-Wallace and OCU are great for musical theatre, but only so-so for classical voice. Both focus primarily on musical theatre. I go to a conservatory in New York, and I haven't known any classical singers of note to come out of their programs. However, I have known many VERY successful classical singers to come out of the Michigan undergrad program. If your D has been accepted there with scholarship, I would say, take it! That's a much, much, much better place to be for classical voice/opera. I would give different advice if she was planning on doing musical theatre. If she is unsure whether she wants to do MT or classical/opera, I would still say Michigan is the better option, because the programs are more equally weighted there, rather than skewed towards musical theatre.</p>
<p>My daughter has a very good singing voice but she has got accepted at a number of Ivies to study Engineering/ Economics. She is interested in doing Vocal Performance as a secondary major - so any ideas on which would be good from among them? Would be very helpful thanks</p>
<p>Could you pl. advise- my daughter has interest in classical voice as well as Musical Theatre - primary degree Ecoonomics but wants to do this as a Secondary. Could you pl. rank from among the Ivies?</p>
<p>Yale has a very strong BA program in music which could possibly be done as a double major with another BA program like economics. I highly doubt it could be done in combination with a BS program in engineering because there is too little overlap in the core requirements for the two. There are many fine performing arts organizations there. Do not confuse it with Yale School of Music, however, which is a graduate program.</p>
<p>Another possibility at Harvard, Penn, Columbia or Princeton would be to take private voice lessons with any of a number of fine voice teachers in or near the cities of Boston, Philadelphia or New York.</p>
<p>I'm hearing Chapman is much better than UCLA or USC for classical voice. Most of the schools on the lists in here cater to graduate students. The USC music director says he won't allow classical voice undergrads to sing solos in operas. Chapman supposedly gives top roles to undergrads. It has produced a number of big opera people too, according to some of the music students I've spoken with.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate for the Chapman Conservatory of Music is reportedly about a tenth of the acceptance rate for the rest of the school.</p>
<p>funfun----top roles are given to undergrads at Chapman for the simple reason that it doesn't have graduate students. I've mentioned Chapman more than once on this board as a potential good opportunity for voice students, but I really do not think of Chapman as being "much better" than UCLA or USC. It is a smaller alternative to the larger universities and offers the the benefits that frequently only a music school in a LAC can give.</p>
<p>I know someone personally who had a soprano lead in an opera as undergrad at USC a few years ago. She is now singing with some well known opera companies.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about Carnegie Mellon and its vocal performance program? It seems like such a nice school, but I've been hearing more and more about the loss of some of its good faculty and whatnot. Any input would be appreciated.</p>
<p>The poster momoftenor has a son with a vocal acceptance at CMU on this year's Master Acceptance List. You may want to look for posts by that username. Checking the '08 and '07 Master Final decision lists may show current students at CMU, and you could establish contact via cc's pm or email feature if no responses are forthcoming to your post.</p>
<p>We were looking at the same thing last year, although D decided to go to NYU for vocal performance (MT) instead. She probably would have liked to have double majored or minored in VP and maybe English. None of the Ivies offer VP as a major or minor. </p>
<p>The best you are going to do is major/minor in music (non-performance) and hope that they have a performance component (private voice lessons) that students will qualify for without additional expense. Columbia/Barnard came the closest to offering this and D was accepted into Barnard.</p>
<p>However, even if she were a music major, they would not commit to whether she would be able to get voice lessons. Coloumbia/Barnard offer voice lessons to maybe 50 or so students who audition (combined), but we got the impression that seniority would be impt and we were afraid that D would not get them as a lower classman.</p>
<p>Since we were paying full fare for Barnard, there was just no way that we were going to pay $100+ for voice lessons per week. In addition, we heard mixed things about their performance opportunities for musical theatre, etc. Also, they would not let D get in touch with anyone who taught voice to Barnard students. We would have liked to have set up a trial lesson just to see who was teaching (grad students or professionals?)</p>
<p>They also have joint programs with \Julliard/ Manhattan school of music, but the head of music said that few people ever complete the program. I think she said 2 in the last 5+ years in her experience.</p>
<p>So D decided she was not ready to give up singing and is very happy at NYU. Plus she rec'd a nice merit aid package. She just got a summer internship doing mktg at a division of Sony Music for the summer, so she is happy as a clam.</p>
<p>Stay away from Hartt. Seriously. Transferred out of there with three of my friends. For Vocal Performance - STAY AWAY. PM me for more info if needed.</p>
<p>I asked him about classical solos for undergrads and he spoke as if the undergrads were there for backup singers. He had one of those attitudes of undergrads being automatically inferior to grad students. I asked if he might make exceptions for good singers and he was still negative. It was just a discussion, but it really turned me off to USC's music program. I suppose one of the profs under him might have given a solo to an undergrad at some point, but he spoke as if he were strongly opposed to doing so.</p>
<p>Toured CMU. I liked their music program the least and didn't apply. They mentioned a lot of theory classes. Theory is OK but performance is what counts. Also, you couldn't pay me to live in Pittsburgh. It's got a great reputation though.</p>
<p>CMU has a decent VP program but they are much better known for their MT department. The school also has strong academic slant, so it's no place for slackers!</p>