My child’s turn to audition this year, so I figured it was my turn to bump this thread.
Such good advice here.
And from my perspective, advice as relevant today as it was in 2013, and often relevant in any field - music, baseball (fungus shoes!), or software engineering, where, like my husband, you are probably still wearing the jeans and t-shirt of your college days, and carrying the same ratty backpack. But to advance you’d be well advised to at least wear the items in good repair!
Speaking of clothing, there really is a kind of unwritten “uniform” in some respects. If you don’t know it, your kid almost certainly does. If your soprano needs to pack 13 scarves for her campus trips, just smile and take her to Ross. Birgit Nilsson preached the virtues of comfortable shoes. What I had to learn was that comfortable for me - flats that won’t break my ankles - was not what was what enhanced my daughter’s comfort for auditions. She felt stronger and more confident in heels. We’ll see if she feels that way after singing hours of Wagner (unlikely for her, but still). But for a 5-10 minute audition, confidence and feeling like a singer were achievable in heels, and were more important than sensibility and long-term comfort.
My d had the same voice teacher for 6 years. She was quite young and wasn’t well known in the field, but is an exceptional performer with amazing technique and is now a university voice teacher at a very good voice performance program. Apparently it worked because d current voice teacher has remarked about her amazing technique.
But to the stuff we’d do differently, cause believe me it was a journey and learning experience for us both.
1.). Would have taken academic component more seriously. Academics CAN play a role in admissions. At least one program told us that the prescreen was not passed because of SAT scores. Because of dated information and advice from others my d had previously sung with, we incorrectly thought it would be all about the talent. But when the overall talent level is so high, those type of things can discriminators.
2.). Would have taken part in summer programs as a networking tool. In an earlier post, someone reiterated the value of networking. As I mentioned her voice teacher is amazing but we are located on the west coast and all of schools she was interested in were in the north east. She didn’t know anyone at any of the schools she auditioned for. It may not have made any difference in admissions, but it may have in the scholarship process.
3.). Would have taken more music theory classes/sight singing classes. D has near perfect pitch and can pick up most songs extremely quickly without ever reading a note. In at least three auditions, she was asked how she was able to correctly complete the sight singing portion without being able to read the notes. Additionally it would have made the extremely awkward “sing me a triad” encounter with Oberlin more palatable. She had no idea how to sing three note simultaneously (we subsequently learned he probably meant sing the three notes sequentially).
4.). As a voice performance major…TAKE PIANO!!! It’s going to be a requirement anyways so might as well start before college.
5.). Don’t worry it will all work out in the end. Even with all the could have, should have or would have…it will all be ok. You can find success and opportunity in lots of different places. Cast a pretty wide net and make the best decision possible. Remember in addition to helping them become an artist, we’re teaching them to be an adult. Sometimes that means not being 100% prepared, 100% right in the choice they make, or 100% happy with the results…just wait till they start getting married and having kids, we need a whole new forum for that!!
“Would have taken academic component more seriously. Academics CAN play a role in admissions. At least one program told us that the prescreen was not passed because of SAT scores. Because of dated information and advice from others my d had previously sung with, we incorrectly thought it would be all about the talent. But when the overall talent level is so high, those type of things can discriminators.”
There is an important lesson to be learned from this, and that is it is really important to check out the schools you are applying to, because they can vary a lot. A music school in a university will look closely at grades and SAT scores (even if they aren’t as strict with music students), a conservatory generally will not (conservatories might reject students who are musically capable, but show god aweful academics, poor SAT, bad grades, etc, or they might use good academic stats as a tiebreaker, though from what I know that isn’t likely). If a student has decent grades, then it likely won’t be a factor with conservatories (very few conservatories IME even ask for test scores, Curtis was one of the few I recall that wanted the SAT), but grades and such could be a factor if you wanted to apply to Umich, Rice, etc.
It never hurts to contact prospective schools to ask, they will tell you what they expect, and the more knowledge you have about a specific program the better.
I also totally agree with kids trying to get exposure to music theory and ear training as early as possible. Even though every program has their own theory track and the way they teach solfege, and a kid may want to start from the first class and take it through, having that background is helpful. My son is TA’ing a solfege class and a lot of the kids are struggling because they have never been exposed to this, and has also done theory tutoring, and he said that if they at least had a basic understanding it would make it a lot easier, and they also wouldn’t be as frightened of it as some of the kids seem to be. I also think that if a kid has perfect pitch, that it is a really good thing that they get exposed to theory and ear training early, because having perfect pitch can lead to the kid using crutches that will hurt them later (among other things, much of music is about relative pitch, and being able to hear that is huge…for the record, my S has perfect pitch, and he said he was grateful that the solfege teachers at the pre college program he was in made sure he couldn’t use his ability to resolve the problem, they gave him difficult problems that he had to answer fast, s he couldn’t fall back on it).
Another lesson I want to add is that no choice is perfect, and there is likely going to be buyers regret from the student at least in some things. Whether it is the location, whether it is elements of the school (the bureaucracy), whether it is the lack of time or standards of the school, or perhaps the teacher turned out not to walk on water, it is unlikely someone will find everything to be perfect, or may from time to time regret not doing X instead of Y. Most of these will pass, and as a parent it is good to have a sympathetic ear, but try not to blow it out of proportion, either, because regrets are just so de rigeur, especially for late teen and twenty somethings:). It is hard when there are shadings of buyers regret, but I think it comes with the territory.
Buyer’s remorse is real. It occupies “May” in Senior year…and then late Freshmen and all of Sophomore year for the “lucky” students and parents. I think it is natural and just something to be aware of.
Just a heads up - not every student encounters 'buyer’s remorse" - some like my S2 proclaimed from Day 1 and continued through the following 6.5 years and into grad school - that he could not imagine having gone anywhere else for undergrad - or that anywhere else would have been a better fit. On the other hand, S1 could imagine lots of different paths for undergrad but he was way less clear on what he needed and what was essential to him at the time.
Academics can prove financially beneficial when it comes to negotiating your kid’s deal. We appealed our deal with a conservatory based on some academic achievements and got more money. I’m not sure whether it’s true that conservatories put a lot of weight on academics, but teachers certainly put a lot of weight on whether a kid is smart and learns fast. We had several teachers tell us that they like to choose kids that learn fast. Although my kid learns fast, I think that some teachers put too much emphasis on quick study students. Some of the most talented kids just learn a different pace than other kids. Though picking things up quickly is an essential asset as a professional, I wonder if sometimes teachers go for the students that are the “easiest” to teach.