<p>I thought over the advice I got in my last thread and realized I should probably look into a school that has a major in voice performance instead of a non-performance music degree. </p>
<p>How are Duquesne University and Youngstown State University for vocal performance? Are there any other suggestions within the eastern Ohio/western Pennsylvania/northern West Virginia region? </p>
<p>My other question is this: Since I live in the area and don't want to close off my options, I may attend the college mentioned in my previous thread and major in something unrelated to music, is private study during one's college a realistic route for leaving the route to graduate school in music or professional performance, provided the quality of your teaching is good enough? I want to leave my options as open as possible so I want to investigate about whether or not private study is a valid option for study in lieu of majoring in performance so I can still pursue graduate study or professional performance while having an unrelated undergraduate degree. I live in an area with many professional musicians.</p>
<p>I know someone who did this, got an undergrad in science, studied (vigorously) privately in some sort of situation where they did have performance options, were always in a good summer program. Auditioned for grad school and got into a top school for VP.</p>
<p>srw is correct that with excellent private study you can get into a good grad school… However, you may need another year in grad school if you have not taken the music and language courses as an undergrad. Voice is different from instrumentalists in that regard since they usually take longer to mature anyhow.</p>
<p>agreeing with Singersmom07- I know of quite a few kids who didn’t have the academic course requirements for grad schools when they auditioned and had to spend time and money taking the needed languages, music history, theory and diction classes. All of that can take more than a year, depending upon the sequence on which they are offered.Keep in mind that can also happen to students who DO have VP degrees, because all programs are not created equal. It’s also possible to go the Artist Diploma or Performance Certificate route during that extra year so that you have another piece of paper while you’re playing catch-up. These days, graduate school for VP majors is the norm rather than the exception.
The schools you mention have decent VP departments,especially Duquesne, and you should be able to find a teacher who would be a good fit for you. Carnegie-Mellon is also there, but is more expensive and VP is not their strongest suit. Have you looked at Bowling Green State or any of the smaller, private colleges?</p>
<p>I have to agree with the last to posters about the going to music grad school without a music undergrad degree. Sure, it is absolutely possible, people essentially switch majors between undergrad and grad school all the time, but most any music grad school program is going to have specific music prerequisits, so essentially you would end up having to take possibly a lot of extra classes, many of them undergrad music classes, before you would even really start on your masters. </p>
<p>Almost all undergrad programs require at least 12 credit hours in music theory, plus accompaning aural skills training and possibly a couple of semesters of piano classes and 1 to 3 music history classes. These classes are basically the “core” of any music program. I would expect that these classes would also be part of the minimum prerequisits for music grad school. It would take at least 3 semesters to complete just the music thoery and aural skills classes.</p>
<p>My son is toying with the idea of changing to music comp for his masters (long time off), he checked into the min requirements at some of the conservatories for comp masters programs and found that many of them had a minimum requirment of 16 credit hours of comp classes before they would admit students into the program. I don’t know if my son will be able to “squeeze in” an extra 13 credit hours and still graduate with his BM in 4 years.</p>
<p>But don’t get discouraged. Do what you really want to do, just realize that you may need to get creative if you want to optimize your time/money/education/career-options. Sometimes you have to look at all your obvious options, weigh them out, then if none of them seem like that perfect fit, start thinking outside of the paralellagram.</p>
<p>You can consider double majors, or majoring in something other than music and minoring in music, or taking summer classes at a different school, looking for a college that offers a performance certificate for non-music majors, etc. There is a million different routes to the same end.</p>
<p>My son is considering finishing his BM program and then transfering to another college and enrolling again as a BM composition student at whatever college will let him graduate with the second degree in as little time as possible (to qualify him for the prereqs for a masters in composition).</p>
<p>I was thinking I could major in the non-music subjects at the school I was looking at that I am very interested in while continuing private study of voice and seeking performance opportunities, as well as taking summer music courses at other colleges, and if by the end of my undergraduate years I don’t want to pursue the field I majored in, I will still have the field of music open up to me and may well be able to enter into a graduate program. I’m still in high school and I have a long time to think about this.</p>
<p>You are very wise to look into this now chanteur. It is a wonderful plan and I say go for it if there is something besides music that pulls you. My daughter took this route and it has worked out extremely well. The only difference is she had her voice teacher and vocal coach in place and knew she was advancing vocally despite not being in a conservatory. I would start taking lessons now with viable teachers and make sure you find a great fit. The only thing I believe she would have done differently was to take all the necessary languages during her undergraduate years. However on the flip side, when she takes them now, while singing in those languages and taking diction classes in them, she has a drive to be close to fluent in them that she may not have had while juggling 8 other non-music courses. She got in some theory and history in her undergraduate years but even many of the conservatory students had to take remedial courses because they couldn’t pass the rigorous graduate pre-reqs anyway. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I will reiterate what has already been said on language study. It is virtually impossible to get any sort of fluency in French, German and Italian in just two years of grad school, so you might want to have that covered in your undergrad years and possibly plan on study in Europe during the summer months. It’s very tough learning the large amounts of rep required for grad studies if you are struggling with language.</p>
<p>I’ve heard discussions on this topic or similar topics before and I would like a clarification- is it the case that undergrad VP majors actually become fluent in French, German and Italian- I know they take diction classes and possibly full out language classes as well- but enough to be fluent?</p>
<p>It depends on the school and the student. Most university based programs utilize full out language classes for the big three. My D did this, but took diction classes for Russian. In fact plenty of undergrad VP students who study in university based programs have a de facto language minor. She is fluent enough in German and Italian to have studied and worked in Germany and Italy during the summer in those languages. D noted that in grad school, students who only studied in diction classes tended to have a tough time memorizing rep, especially in a role where there is a great deal of recitative. YMMV</p>
<p>Most VP undergrads need one semester of French, German and Italian language (not give by the music department but the language department). Fluency will not be gained with one semester, however each student has a different aptitude for languages - some can live in a country for years and not be fluent and others can self teach themselves and be fluent fairly swiftly.</p>
<p>Too true. One semester will not do it…I think it’s extremely important to know your aptitude and figure out what is required to make you a better singer (not just “what is required to obtain the degree”) And certainly “fluency” is a relative term. Fluent enough to converse and work with professionals in another language, fluent enough to understand the text or fluent enough to pronounce the language relatively well? In the current competitive environment, all three are very important.</p>
<p>DD decided that even with 2 semesters of Italian she just did not have enough competency for what she wanted to do. She spent 7 weeks at the Summer Language Institute at Middlebury College. It is a full immersion program, no English at all ever for that time. Classes are in culture and history. She came out fluent. Best investment we made in getting her up to par in languages. They also run a German for Singers and French along with many others. Her teacher preferred her students go there at least one summer instead of a summer festival. She did get some scholarships, too, to defray costs.</p>
<p>The Bachelor of Music curriculum in vocal performance, as accredited by NASM, recommends, if not requires a full year each in French, German, Italian (perhaps with leeway to swap Spanish or Russian out for one of those languages), as offered in foreign language departments. Additionally, there will be requirement for singer’s diction, which will include learning the International Phonetic Alphabet and specific diction courses in English, Italian, French, and German. If someone applies for a graduate program in vocal performance without an undergraduate performance degree, they will be expected to make up those requirement before the graduate degree can be earned, or they might even be considered deficient, ineligible for financial support until certain requirements will be met. Additionally, they will need to have done a full recital in some kind of venue, including those vocal literature representations that would be expected in BM recital. Experience in a studio class and recitals is an additional invaluable part of undergraduate voice study.</p>
<p>Second Singersmom07—the Middlebury program is FANTASTIC and if you are not already on the path to fluency, a much better option than study in Europe.</p>
<p>Great program at Middlebury!Not inexpensive, but a better use of $$ than a pay-to-sing program for a younger singer.
Language requirements vary from school to school within VP majors. Some only require a semester of Italian and German (French is optional at some), while others require a year of each of the three languages plus a diction class which also included English diction. Sadly, the great majority of American singers are not fluent in other languages- in the US we begin language study far too late to for most people to acquire native fluency and diction; some students have a great facility for languages and of course, will make excellent progress.
Lorelei’s post about the NASM requirements is a useful one, but I know for a fact that there are well-respected VP graduate programs that will accept a student who has not done any sort of voice recital before matriculation. But, that recital requirement is then tacked onto the graduate degree requirements, bringing that to 3. Some schools require junior AND senior recitals, while others only specify a senior recital. That’s why those studio classes are great and why the really successful kids seek out and make their own opportunities to perform.</p>