D and S are both having their wisdom teeth out over Christmas break. We had no way to fit it in for son last year between auditions and soccer season. And then we just le the summer get away from us. D has all auditions in November/early December, with a break and then the rest of her auditions in early Feb. So it’s a good time for her, too. Should be a good time around here.
@BassTheatreMom I just asked my daughter how long it took until she felt ready to sing (well) after getting her wisdom teeth taken out. She said about a 1.5 to 2 weeks. Just fyi.
My D had her wisdom teeth out late spring, after auditions and before Senior Recital and a summer festival. Just a heads up for singers, D’s Oral Surgeon was adamant she not sing for 2 weeks. I think she did some gentle warmups around day 12… I know sometimes you don’t have much choice with the timing, but there are some pretty serious pressure and vibration issues happening when you sing that can cause complications. In fact D’s teacher didn’t let her own Dentist know she was a singer (when she had her WT out), followed the “usual “ instruction of taking a few days off, and sadly developed dry socket. It’s important to ask your surgeon!
Thanks for the info @BearHouse and @dramasopranomom It seems like if she can get in right after Christmas, She’ll have fove weeks until she goes to her early Feb auditions. So 2-3 weeks ot recuperate, 2-3 weeks to practicea again. and since she is auditioning in late Nov-early Dec, she’ll be pretty well-rehearsed already. If she wants to wait she can, but it does need to happen pretty soon.
Don’t forget to PM me with the audition dates/schools for this year’s master list! Even if the school doesn’t require a pre-screen, let me know.
One piece of wisdom that I forgot to share this year was for voice students to avoid the senior year musical! It’s a bit easier for those auditioning for MT simply because they can attend Unifieds and knock off a bunch of auditions in a long weekend, but for the others, the traveling involved in audition season is exhausting and it’s so important to remain healthy and rested. My D’s HS wasn’t thrilled with not having her participate that last year, but she’d had featured roles and leads the previous 3 years and was able to work her community performance schedule around her auditions whereas the musical fell right in the middle of the time she needed for conservatory auditions.
Thanks @“Mezzo’sMama”. Our HS does the musical in the fall. D really wishes she hadn’t done it. It goes on next weekend and we both can’t wait for it to be behind her… It was a huge mistake that she realizes now. Oh well, one more week. They have the play in the spring and she already knows she is NOT doing that or anything else extra curricular for HS. She also opted out of the select women’s ensemble this year which is after school. I was very happy about that as is she. These next couple of weeks are brutal and she still has one more prescreen to get done for NEC and it’s the lead up week for the musical so long and late rehearsals and no time to get with her voice teacher. Then Thanksgiving week then they are due. UGH. Oh well, she is on her own for this I think which may be a good thing in many ways. College is right around the corner so it is giving her a good taste of deadlines and learning how to get things done on her own.
UGH. Well, we got an email yesterday from Frost saying that they will send out audition confirmations after Thanksgiving to all of the EA applicants and possibly not until the end of December for regular decision applicants which D is. I think this is normal but for those of us having to book travel with several different auditions in different states over a 10 day period, it sure makes things complicated not to mention expensive for airfares and lodging. If D passes prescreens at all of her schools we are looking at a 10+ day 4-way airline ticket across the east coast to 3 different cities. Yikes. I’m sure it will all work out…deep cleansing yoga breaths…(and a fully stocked wine fridge).
I looked back at last year’s prescreen thread but didn’t see much or anything really on notifications from SUNY Purchase or New School jazz. If anyone has any experience there and recalls when they were notified that would be really helpful.
That should leave enough time to book affordable tickets I would think. Schools in NYC coordinate auditions if that helps. Did your daughter already hear from Frost?
@SpartanDrew , we received a similar email from Frost, saying they will begin sending audition invitations next week, but may not finish until the end of November. S18 is EA applicant.
She got the standard email that everyone got. That EA will be notified by the end of November and everyone else in December, last week of December at the latest. I’m worried that airfares will just go up and of course, lodging is tricky but I’m less worried about that. SHe didn’t apply EA even though all of her apps and prescreens were in well before 11/1. We felt that EA was only for academically exceptional students so she applied RD. I guess it won’t really matter anyway since based on last year NEC didn’t send out prescreen results until early January and that will be city #2 on our flight plan if she is invited.
I just looked it up…New School sent invitation to audition on Jan 5 and Purchase, Jan 18. (Prescreen deadline was Jan 15 for the 2016 season. Usually it is Jan 1 and notifications go out the first week of January.) I know there are no guarantees, but I think you should make plans for an invitation from both schools.
I’m not sure if it is the same now, but NS scheduled auditions both during NYC audition week, (probably Feb 26-March 3 this year), and additional earlier weekend dates that coordinated with Purchase and the Boston schools.
Thanks @indeestudios. If D is invited to all then it will be Frost on 2/16, fly to Boston for NEC on 2/20, fly to NY for PUrchase on 2/23 and NS on 2/25. Aaaaack!!! Right now if I booked the tickets today they are around $715 for the 4 way tickets. I don’t even want to think about how much they will be mid January.
Do you recall how early your kid got their prescreens in for Purchase and New School? D has had hers in for awhile. Everything but NEC was in by NOv 1. I wish now we had done EA for Frost but I felt it wasn’t meant for her given a subpar SAT score.
Don’t forget that some schools offer regional auditions that might be closer to home. My son did two regionals (including Frost) and was pleased with the results. But he also didn’t feel he needed to see the schools in person at that point–he had narrowed down to very targeted programs by then and knew he’d be comfortable with all the campuses and faculties.
@SpartanDrew have you considered taking the train from Boston to NYC? I️ imagine it’s similar in price to the flight, but you may actually save some time and hassle, especially with bad weather being an issue in February… This is some of the issue we dealt with last year; it’s often cheaper by a LOT to stay out and connect your Auditions than to go home between.
@YertleTurtle since Frost is one of D’s top choice schools we really want to go and spend as much time as possible there. Also have considered train from Boston to NY but probably will go with whatever is quickest.
@SpartanDrew NYC airports are all outside the city, and with TSA and early arrival times at airports, I️ would really look into the train, which takes you directly into Manhattan. For voice, regional auditions are not the best solution, in my opinion; they will video the audition and relay it to the panel, but color and size, etc. are so important in voice and don’t translate well on video.
Yeah, my kid was unusual–he was all about the program (faculty/course offerings/fellow students) and not about the campus at all (and barely about the location, though his targets were in great cities). If just the right program happened to be on the moon, I don’t think he’d have thought twice about it! 
@dramasopranomom you know that’s actually a great point about travel and the train going right into Manhattan. I hadn’t thought about that. That being said however, the next audition after NEC would be Purchase which is outside of the city. Would you still take a train? I do think you can get to Purchase from Manhattan via train as well. We will just be lugging 10 days worth of luggage.
S had his prescreens all in by Nov 15.
I second taking the train. It is about 6 hours and $50/ticket from Boston to the White Plains station, which is 10 minutes from Purchase. Metro North from White Plains to NYC Grand Central is one hour. Alternatively, you could fly from Boston to the White Plains airport, which literally abuts the Purchase campus, then take the train into NYC for the New School audition.
Oh never thought about flying to White PLains. OK I’ll look into that as well as the train. Great advice. Once we know where we are going (if to all of the places) I’ll be sure to seek advice again. If anyone has suggestions on where to stay in WP close to the school as well that would be great.
I guess the other option is to take the train from Boston to Manhattan and spend some time there visiting New School midweek, then take the train to PUrchase Thursday that week for a Friday audition and get 2 days to visit there then train back to NY over the weekend for NS audition on SUnday.