<p>That's the trouble with an online discussion--there's all that stuff that's missing, available when people talk face to face....It would be great if we could all sit down and talk--I have the feeling you live in NC? I haven't been back in years (lived there for 8 years) but would love to visit. I tried to talk son into applying to UNC (BMus) but he is allergic to heat and humidity in any form (except the shower). And from his high school, it's easier to get into Harvard than UNC-CH!</p>
<p>But that's a non sequitur to this topic, which is "Who is impatient?" I AM impatient (and so perhaps am a little testy, L Fortissimo, so again my apologies), as there's been no word about any school for my son. He doesn't seem to worry at all and is having a blast at school doing the senior show, starting the annual musical, planning his summer. But I'm on the lookout for the mailman....</p>
<p>I guess we're all going a little nuts here--but the discussion at least is a fine distraction, and I thank all of you for participating. For the record--my son didn't apply top any of the "top schools" listed by Vieuxtemps, but the school we are most hopeful about does seem to provide the teachers he wants in a non-cookie-cutter environment. (How's that for being vague?) From having gone through the college acceptance process with my two older children, I've observed two things:
1) Kids tend to get into the schools that are right for them
2) Both acceptances AND rejections cause emotional turmoil! No choices and several choices are difficult to handle!
Of course, my older kids weren't applying to conservatories...Buckle your seatbelts!</p>
<p>Very well stated, mom4. It is funny how, having once had a defined first choice, my son begins to vacillate as he is accepted to other schools! Life....</p>
<p>Yes, I wish I didn't feel such a strong affinity towards a particular school. It makes rejection or non-affordability very hard to contemplate. I'm trusting that my son (and I) will adjust to whatever happens.
When my daughter was applying to schools, I really resented people's assumption that she had a "first choice," it just seemed to set her up for disappointment.</p>
<p>I called one school my D has high hopes for yesterday and asked politely if the letters had gone out yet..they did state at the audition that we would receive word around the 12th. NO THEY HAVE NOT! was the response...So I imagine there's impatience and stress on the other side of the fence as well.
cheers and good luck all
JD.</p>
<p>"My personal opinion is that the best schools are in Europe where the kids spend 80% of their time practising and taking lessons. I feel that here there is too much time spent on music academics and sometimes ensemble requirements. This is a controversial position, but if my son were doing what I think best, he would either go to Europe next year or stay home and continue to study privately with his current teacher."</p>
<p>I don't think studying abroad, especially music, is controversial at all, to me at least. I totally agree that at some schools there is way too much emphasis on academics for the performance major. While I think it's important to have some background in theory and history, some schools go overboard. By the same token, sometimes foreign students are at a disadvantage in academics when they study music in the states, because of what you have pointed out, which seems to me to be true, as a general rule. Some students want a lot of challenge in the theory and history areas; I think those students could be accommodated with advanced classes, and let the performance majors do primarily what they want to do: play (or sing.)</p>
<p>I can absolutely relate to the impatience. All of my musical theater friends are finding out about NYU Tisch, but as of now, I don't know of anyone who has found out from NYU Steinhardt. It's very frustrating as it all depends on the school within the school.
GRRR
But it will all be over soon enough. Lucky for me, my spring break is these next two weeks. But, the problem is that normally it times out perfectly so that everyone finds out over break, but April 1st is the Tuesday after this.
But, I think we'll manage.
Worst part for me - April 1st is April Fools Day. hee hee</p>
<p>I frequently run into people trained in the US who I wish had paid more attention in their theory, ear training and history classes. I was recently at a rehearsal that was a total shambles because three of the singers, all current or fairly recent voice majors, could not sightread simple Baroque recits and arias worth a darn. They had no concept of even the simplest Baroque ornamentation and did not know what to expect from the keyboard player because their score contained a figured bass line rather than a realized accompaniment part. (The accompanist was old school and was nailing his part 99% of the time.) I suspect this trio of singers could have handled Verdi or Rossini, but they were clueless with Scarlatti.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I can relate to over-analysis. I used to sing with an early music ensemble that included a few graduate level musicology majors from an Ivy-league school that will remain unnamed. They could waste endless amounts of rehearsal time arguing over arcana that nobody else cared about, fighting passionately over which musica ficta should be observed and which should not, insisting that we should be performing from illegible manuscripts using obscure clefs or written in some sort of tablature that has not been in general use for centuries and tittering amongst themselves over the "obvious" stupidity of the editor of whatever modern editions we did use. It would get to the point where the director would yell at them, "shut up and sing!"</p>
<p>When we started seriously looking at various conservatories/university music departments, we found vastly different expectations at different schools. For example, some places had much more rigorous theory requirements/expectations than others. It was not my S's desire to spend a minimum of an hour per day on theory homework as he found some friends at one particular NYC school doing (these were not students with deficient backgrounds). Checking around with current students and recent grads of various places gave him a better picture of what the academic study time vs. practice time realities might be. </p>
<p>This might not be a concern to many, but mine wanted lots of free time available for practice and the ability to do decently with the academics without having to give the academics priority over practice on a regular basis. For him, this balance seemed easier at some schools than others.</p>
<p>It is not the amount of time spent preparing opera orchestra materials, but rather the style of playing in the pit, holding back to accommodate singers, cramped pits, and the static repetitious patterns of standard opera orchestra string parts. I have heard top flight violin teachers express concern about that being a strong part of the demands, particularly for scholarship players.</p>
<p>I don't doubt you at all, but in all my professional years, I have never heard those complaints (pedagogical) made about college opera/show pit playing, but I probably don't know teachers at schools where opera/shows are a big part of the curriculum. The only "pits" complaints I have heard are from professional collegues who find the position cramped and at least one whose $20,000 bow was broken at the tip when he hit a stand in the dark, crowded pit! I don't believe school rehearsals are all done "in the pit", so the hours involved aren't all in that environment.</p>
<p>An orchestral player always needs the ability to blend. That's one of the audition tests. First solo playing - does it sound soloistic? Then orchestral exceprts, does the playing indicate an awareness of the sound needed to be part of a section? Many of those training in conservatories will end up (if lucky!!) in major orchestra sections. IMHO, it can't hurt to recognize that there are differences between solo and orchestra playing early on.</p>
<p>That's, of course, not true for singers for whom holding back to sing with a chorus can be damaging. As you know much better than me!!</p>
<p>This thread has gotten so interesting! The question of opera orchestral playing and its pitfalls (pun intended!) is completely new to me. Of course, my son would be very happy if he ended up in the violin section at the Met, so maybe this is a good thing to learn?</p>
<p>My feelings exactly, Stringfollies!!! By the way, the the March International Musician advertises openings for the Met 2nd violin section - should we send our guys out??? (Don't I wish...)</p>
<p>I can only speak from experience with DS - in his second year as a violin perf. major at UNT, which is a conservatory-type program within a large university environment. His freshman year was quite balanced between music classes, performance requirements and the one or two academic courses required for graduation from UNT. This year he has taken on WAY too much (this is his second year). He finished theory in an accelerated program, 1-1/2 years, so he doesn't even have a difficult theory course this semester (form analysis). However, he has 1) UNT symphony (required - he's on scholarship) 2) chamber orchestra (they do numerous concerts AND play for the two operas each fall and spring) 3) chamber music (a required course 6 of 8 semesters) 4) voluntarily participating in senior recitals with other instrumentalists (already two this year) -- all of this on top of his violin studies which include lessons each week, studio class, orchestra excerpts AND departmental class every week. Needless to say, he is stretched way too thin and has learned his lesson the hard way. (One guess as to what is "suffering" this semester...?)</p>
<p>The advantage of going to certain schools over others is not even the quality of teaching but the people you will be around and be friends with. At the top of the music industry there's 1 degree of separation. It's a small industry with not too many good jobs, so you might as well be near the people who will have them. There's an oversupply of good players. At a certain point a lot of matters is connections. At this age, watching your friend debut at Carnegie or getting a call from a close friend from backstage before they step up for their final audition at San Francisco or the Met is what creates these kinds of professional connections.</p>
<p>I imagine that orchestra auditions and competitions don't take into consideration who your friends are/were at a conservatory or college. For chamber music, if you are forming or being invited into a group, it would of course matter who you knew.
It is true though that it is a small world for young musicians.</p>
<p>What some of you have brought up about the requirements of scholarship students has given me more to think about. I never thought of "more" playing time as a problem for my son, but I never considered that some required playing responsibilities might not be things he would be happy to do.</p>