<p>QUESTION: I applied early decision for NHSMI at Northwestern as a voice major, and also applied for financial aid. My audition was my Solo and Ensemble performance, my judge being Kurt Hansen who is a voice teacher during the year as well as being a faculty member at the camp. He said that he would really love to have me there, and that my performance was my successful audition. I made all the correct notices of this to the correct people, and I mailed it in on time for early decision, and I haven't received anything yet, and people who have applied, on different instruments mind you have received notice of their acceptances, etc. Do you guys have an idea of what's up?<br>
Thanks, Patrick</p>
<p>This "new" program is an offshoot of the program at Hartwick College. the Hartwick College administration decided last year to use their summer music program more as a tool to recruit for their college. The summer program administrators at the old Hartwick program are moving to SUNY at Oneonta to form the new NYSMF. Many teachers from the old Hartwick program are moving to NYSMF. Ms. Kim, the administrator at NYSMF, works at Curtis during the year and is able to bring in top artists to do masterclasses. My D (oboe) attended Hartwick's summer music program for 2 years under Ms. Kim, one summer working as a CIT. It was a great experience for her. My D applied this year to be a counselor at NYSMF, but will be going to Aspen instead.</p>
<p>NHSMI is not very well organized. Call them up right away to find out what happened to your application.</p>
<p>Patrick, I got a call from NHSMI on Monday (I got accepted), and I sent everything in on April 26 (a day before the deadline). rcmama is right, they are not very organized--usually, programs like this will email you when they receive your application and then when you're accepted, but whatever. You should probably call them in case they didn't even get your app.</p>
<p>Is it my imagination or are many of the summer programs having trouble filling up and have opening way past application deadlines? </p>
<p>I haven't looked at this in previous years maybe its always like this. I wonder if they have 40 openings and 30 applicants if they even bother to review the audition tapes.</p>
<p>We may have gotten to the point where there are so many programs with so many spots, that capacity has outraced the number of students looking.</p>
<p>I don't believe this is the case for the very competitive programs or the very well known ones. You will always have many more applicants than spaces at places like Tanglewood, Aspen, Interlochen, Brevard, Meadowmount, and Encore. However, lesser known programs may be experiencing this. The audition tapes may be used more for the appropriateness of the program rather than pure skill. For example, the program directors may just want to make sure that the applying of an intermediate level program isn't really a beginner. </p>
<p>I also think that there is a plethora of programs out there because people want so many different things. For example, there are instrument specific camps, orchestra based camps, chamber music camps, and comprehensive camps. Then you run in to the length of time the programs run combined with the level of competitiveness available. All of those combined variables will add to the mix. Essentially, if a program doesn't get a enough students over a period of years, it will fold.</p>
<p>I asked Tanglewood about their acceptance rate this year for oboe and they told me that they had 40-50 applicants for 4 spots, so there are many more oboists wanting spots than there are openings. I suspect it is different on other instruments because we know 2 people from our small hometown who got in on bassoon and I understand there are just 4 spots for that. It would be interesting to know how many applicants they get for the different instruments.</p>
<p>40-50 oboe applicants!!! I shudder to think of the number of flutes! We will be sending out many applications next year!</p>
<p>ARIA and Interlochen were looking for more applications </p>
<p>I guess like everything it is instrument and program specific.</p>
<p>We never have been advised to send out more than one application but hearing that some have not gotten in to the program they wanted we may have to discuss that with our child's teacher next spring.</p>
<p>But we had not heard any personal stories about being rejected for a summer camp until we started reading here. I guess I was naive enough to think as long as you got your application in on time you would have a spot. Maybe people who get rejections don't adverise it so I had never heard of it happening before.</p>
<p>Frankly I am surprised there are 40-50 good HS oboe players in the entire country, even less that applied to one camp. I wonder if camps give out those statistics? Number of applicants per instrument and how many accepted. That would be very interesting information.</p>
<p>Very few summer programs for high schoolers other than Tanglewood have the budget to hold 16 days worth of regional auditions at 8 different cities and produce the kind of advertising materials (<a href="http://www.bu.edu/cfa/music/tanglewood/documents/BUTI_brochure_06_000.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.bu.edu/cfa/music/tanglewood/documents/BUTI_brochure_06_000.pdf</a>) that they do. I am not at all surprised that they get a lot of applicants. My daughter was not accepted the first time she applied there. After hearing the BUTI orchestra play that year, we all realized that she was not yet ready. That provided a lot of motivation for the following year, when she was accepted there.</p>
<p>FluteMomLiz-</p>
<p>I do think it is program and instrument specific.
Our son has attended a lovely small program at Drew University here in NJ several times while in HS. We never got the impression he wouldn't have a spot if his app and $$$ were in on time.</p>
<p>This year, as a college sophomore, he auditioned for a spot at Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina for this summer. His audition was at Juilliard in NYC; there are many regional audition sites available.<br>
Son learned after he auditioned (from the EMF website?) that they accept only 2 tubas into the program. I don't know if this is true but it put a damper on his prospects! He was so happy to receive his acceptance letter. The faculty at EMF is amazing and he is looking forward to a great experience.</p>
<p>Sending in multiple apps might be a good idea if you want to ensure that your child has a place SOMEWHERE. Our son is especially thrilled since his 'backup' plan was ringing the cash register at the local grocery.</p>
<p>We know some kids who will apply to a wide range of programs because for them, they feel that they need to have the summer experience away. Our D does not feel the same way. She had attended Sewanee a couple years ago. They seemed to have accepted most anyone who applied and could get there. The oboe teacher was very good for her, but the overall level of the camp was not what we expected. I think that experience made her decide to be extremely selective about where to apply.</p>
<p>It would be great to know the application/acceptance rates of the music festivals, but I'm betting they'll never tell unless you ask about your own/own child's instrument after they've applied.</p>
<p>musicmom - It sounds exciting for your son. Let us know how he likes it.</p>
<p>The New York State Music Camp (NYSMC) is long since gone. I have a little site about it at <a href="http://www.nysmc.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.nysmc.com</a>, as I used to attend that place back in the 80s.</p>
<p>NYSMC created many new camps, the newest one being the New York Summer Music Festival (NYSMF - <a href="http://www.nysmf.org)%5B/url%5D">http://www.nysmf.org)</a>, opening for the first time this summer.</p>
<p>Other spinoffs include the Eastern US Music camp at Colgate University; the Encore Music Camp of Pennsylvania; and the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival & Institute, which last year replaced everyone with people from the college's music department in order to cut the budget. The faculty didn't take too kindly to that, and virtually all of them returned the favor by rejecting Hartwick in favor of NYSMF.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a good Opera Program that will give you 60+ hours of
Italian Language classes plus perform in Le Nozze di Figaro in Italy, it's still not
too late to sign up.</p>
<p>Our program runs July 10 to August 6th. Please go to </p>
<p><a href="http://www.italianoperaticexperience.com%5B/url%5D">www.italianoperaticexperience.com</a> or email <a href="mailto:italianoperaexp@optonline.net">italianoperaexp@optonline.net</a></p>
<p>Does anyone know about the NHSMI program at Northwestern, particularly the strings? How rigorous is the curriculum and how are the teachers?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ciweb.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ciweb.org/</a></p>
<p>I went through 11 pages of this post hoping that someone would mention Chautauqua Institution in Western NY. Then I did a search for it, and was shocked that it wasn't mentioned anywhere on this entire board! </p>
<p>Chautauqua Institution is an AMAZING place. Please go to the website and check it out. The website does not do it justice. I could write paragraphs about how wonderful it is. I spent two summers studying opera there when I was in college. Rene Fleming was one of my classmates in the program. </p>
<p>Has anyone ever been there? I would love if others could share their memories of Chautauqua.</p>
<p>I was JUST looking into this yesterday! What a coincidence. I would love to hear more about it from you. I know Marlena Malas runs it - I thought the opera program was new. It looks and sounds amazing and my D plans to audition in NYC for it for next summer. The only problem is housing looks really expensive if you don't make it into the dorms (not guaranteed).</p>
<p>TomBFACoach-</p>
<p>My daughter returned from Chautauqua on the 15th having spent seven weeks playing in the festival orchestra. She is a cello performance major at DePaul and welcomed the chance to expand her repertoire. She made some great friends from all over and it was a hoot when she would call home from one of the practice huts and you could hear the sounds of a pianist and a flutist wafting over the line. Chautauqua offers great scholarships and an unusual chance for the students who are particularly interesting in orchestra.</p>
<p>My daughter attended the NC School of the Arts in piano after her sophomore year in high school. It was a fantastic experience for her; she actually had private lessons there along with conducting, theory classes, etc. At the end, the parents were invited to recitals to hear their kids play. </p>
<p>She roomed with two dancers, and since dance is her other artsy passion, she was able to practice and keep up with some of what they were doing in their classes. Then, she ended up at the NC Governor's School in dance following her junior year.</p>
<p>I highly recommend most summer programs in the arts for those students who are really passionate about their musical talents. It is a break in the academics for them, and nothing improves their performance skills and self-confidence better than an intensive study program over a period of a few weeks (without academics in the way).</p>
<p>My daughter also really enjoyed getting to know some of the most talented kids she had ever met in her life. They inspired her greatly to work at her arts passions.</p>
<p>i'm not sure if this was posted already but Westminster Choir College has summer programs... it's in Princeton, NJ... there's also the Brevard Center, Interlochen, and Tanglewood.</p>