@SpartanDrew I’m sure your D will kill the audition on Friday!
I’ll try to post a quick update on DD here. We have been crazy busy with applications and auditions at the same time. DD decided to apply to several schools EA, so she had several auditions in the fall. This approach is not for the faint of heart nor highly recommended. Just about everything that could go wrong or deter her did! From illness, to technical difficulties, vocal coach having to to take medical leave, travel mishaps and even a school lock down the day we were flying out for an audition. But she pushed though more determined than ever. I’m in awe of all she has accomplished so far!
I’m not sure I can recall her original list of schools anymore. It certainly has been a journey and some schools have fallen off the list. The biggest bonus to applying EA is that she had some answers much sooner. The downside is second guessing whether or not she could have had a stronger audition later in the game. It is what it is, and she chose to play her cards, her way and this is HER journey.
For those following along in years to come, DD did not pass prescreens for USC. She also chose to apply to Belmont for songwriting not VP. She was not accepted for songwriting but was accepted to the Curb College.
Otherwise she has been accepted to Loyola New Orleans, EA; Berklee EA; and CU Denver.
She will be auditioning at Frost this week for MADE/CAM. Please send her some good vibes!
If anyone would like more specifics about our visits at individual schools I would be happy to share.
Looking forward to connecting with you @SpartanDrew in Miami!
@diglass I’m so grateful for your friendship and to share this journey with you and your D! She is amazing and I know we will be friends long past this crazy process! See you tomorrow!
My D had an enlightening day today. She loved the vocal jazz classes and isn’t so sure about the CAM classes. All part of the process. We have another full day tomorrow but today was Amazing. The musicians here are incredible and D felt that in a big way. Plus it doesn’t suck sitting outside having a sangria in a swinging picnic table by a fountain in a lake. Yes…that’s real. Sangria for Dad and me, not D lol. Plus cats and dogs on campus…a plus for kids missing their pets at home. Along that line…sweet dog boy had his surgery today and is doing well. It was more complicated than they expected of course so of course the bill will be higher. I don’t need to be clairvoyant to know that was what the vet would tell us… :((
Can’t wait for another great day tomorrow. We will keep you posted!
@SpartanDrew so sorry about your dog! Hope the healing is quick.
Amen to building in extra days for an audition trip. As well as our trip to Boulder went is how poorly our trip to Ann Arbor has gone so far. Snow on the way here, not too bad, but enough that at times had trouble seeing to drive. Low tire pressure light came on, had to stop to check and fill tires. Our first rental seemed okay, however, when D tried to take a shower pipes were frozen. We had to shift to a new place. Thankfully the first rental gave us a full refund, and the current rental is way better, and cheaper than the first. After we got resettled we ordered lunch and I was on my way to pick it up when…flat tire. I pulled into the parking lot of a church, and started trying to figure out what to do. Luckily a landscaping truck came to finish plowing the parking lot, after they were done they came over and asked if I needed help. Lovely young man changed the tire for me. On the bright side, our lunch was really good, vegan Indian. After lunch I went to get tire replaced. Luckily while sitting in the waiting room the news was on, otherwise I would not have known about the storm that will start early Friday morning. We are now going to leave town as soon as D’s audition is done today so that we can beat the storm home. Oh, and the wine conversation, I am not much of a drinker anymore, but our new rental left a bottle of wine…now it’s half a bottle.
I hope everyone’s kiddo auditioning over the next few days knocks it out of the park!!
@oboemom65 the snow just keeps coming in Michigan which is why we nearly missed our flight out on Tuesday morning. The normal hour and 20 minute drive to the airport took us 2 hours! Ann Arbor is a great town (even though I’m not supposed to acknowledge them being a Spartan LOL) with so many great restaurant choices. I would have recommended several more to you had you not been leaving today. But if you get a chance to go to Zingermans it’s not to be missed. It’s an Ann Arbor must!
After my poor dog’s trauma on Monday I shutter to say “break a leg” but I hope your D knocks it out of the park on her audition today. My D is sitting in on a bunch more classes today and is really starting to love it here. What’s not to love…we will hate to leave this beautiful weather but will also be glad to get home to see our poor buddy. I’ll keep everyone updated on the events of today.
good luck to all auditioners, parents, and ailing doggies! Sorry the weather is causing issues. In retrospect, we really lucked out on weather last year with the mild winter. We even walked around Rochester and Ithaca in mid-Feb. with no coats last year!
@SpartanDrew you are making me hungry with your talk of Zingerman’s! My DH is a Michigan Law School alum – we lived there when we were first married. Other than the weather, Ann Arbor is my favorite place I have ever lived. We spent a couple days there a few years ago on the way to Interlochen and I still love it, even if S decided not to apply there.
Headed to FSU later today for S18’s VP audition! This is the first one I actually get to go on (my wife went on the previous auditions), and we do not have to fly, so I am looking forward to it. Will post an update later.
WHAT A DAY yesterday… I’m not even sure where to begin but I’ll give it my best shot. Heads up to those kids auditioning at Frost in jazz next weekend… REST UP. It’s a long and grueling day but was awesome. They don’t give you any kind of schedule in advance which was distressing for a lot of parents and kids but it is what it is. They told us registration was at 8am so D was up with the chickens (or peacocks in our case here LOL) at 6 to get ready. We left the house at 7:45 and got there right at 8 while hubby parked the car all the way on the other side of campus. Do prepare for that. Checked in, got D’s folder and then literally sat around for an hour because the first meeting wasn’t until 9am. Then sat in the information meeting which was very good.
D had her first audition for CAM at 11:15 and he was already behind by 15 minutes so we waited. She found a practice room for her and 2 other kids she knew that were auditioning as well with the help of a friend she knows who is a current Frost student. Otherwise, those rooms were tough to get. She warmed up and headed to her audition. She was in there for 25 minutes and said it went very very well. That was the CAM audition. Then a brief time before her jazz voice audition. She grabbed some food at fresh fusion and headed to her jazz audition which also went very very well. Unlike other auditions, there was no feedback at all but D felt that she performed her Bossa song flawlessly and the others went very well as well. So the good news is she was finished with her auditions early unlike other kids who sat around until 4pm to audition and have their nerves and anxiety build up all day. The downside to that is she sat in on a few classes and forums (which were fantastic) and physically crashed during the afternoon. And we had to wait until 5 pm for the afternoon “jazz jam”. That was a LOT. The room was way too small for all of the jazz kids and families. And for the instrumentalists especially, some of the profs were there videotaping solos on standards which I’m sure was stressful for them. D had a banging headache and was absolutely exhausted. She didn’t want to sing but she wanted to finish strong and she rose to the occasion which made me super proud of her. She got up and scatted a 12 bar blues and killed it I thought. The worst part of it was they sent an email out Thursday afternoon from Frost to the auditioners with jazz standards to know for the jazz jam…the NEXT day! Holy cow. D didn’t know the 2 songs they sent out for vocalists but the faculty were very cool and said “just sing something you know”. The issue for the vocalists was singing a standard in the original key it was written. Great for male vocalists, not so great for females. The original key for these 1920’s standards was mostly written for male crooners! AAACK!!! D was thinking hard on what she could do then said “I can do a 12 bar blues scat and ask them to do it in my key! They all know a 12 bar blues!” Whew! Great thinking on her feet and despite a killer headache (she is prone to migraines and fortunately this never became one) she got up and slayed it. I was really proud of her. We came back to the rental house, got takeout dinner with @diglass and her awesome D and crashed. Great to decompress with CC friends. We are all in this together right?!!
So that’s it. We are headed to the beach to decompress and do nothing today. We haven’t gone out to eat one time since we’ve been here, way too exhausted. We are going out tonight for a nice Italian dinner. We were also so so so happy to be in a roomy rental house with all of the comforts of home that was close to campus. D had her own bedroom and bathroom and it’s been perfect.
We LOVE Frost school of music, the people, the amazing talent of the students, the faculty, the campus, the works. It’s been a fantastic visit. Home tomorrow to rest up for a week then back out on the road for the final push. I’m going to need a week on a beach somewhere with a drink with an umbrella in it to recover from all of this…hang in there parents! You got this!
That brought back memories. I remember sometimes needing to have the car nearby for a while, so I would shuffle around the 15-minute spots and observe the parking-ticket-issuing person’s patterns from the balconies up on the Frost building.
Super helpful posts @SpartanDrew ! We are one year behind you. My Daughter is a junior now (drummer) and we’re headed out soon to do our first campus visits to help solidify our list. We’re headed to Thornton next week and then Frost a month later, followed by UNT and Berklee.
I haven’t come across too many other parents who have a kid that is equally interested in both contemporary/pop and jazz programs, so wanted to see if you had any thoughts on your experiences in looking at both programs side by side. My daughter is in the same position. She’s been playing both jazz and pop/rock/funk/fusion as long as she’s been playing.
As an instrumentalist, she’s a bit torn. She has some older friends at Frost and we know a couple of graduates from Thornton. And their experience seems to suggest that while there’s (obviously) more range/diversity in the contemporary/pop program, the tougher challenge for an instrumentalist (vs vocalist or songwriter) seems to be in the jazz program. So in her head, one of the advantages of both Frost/Thornton is that you can be a jazz instrumentalist in close proximity to contemporary/pop songwriters, vocalists and musicians that you can “cross the aisle” and collaborate or gig with. That seems like common sense, but I wasn’t sure if you’d observed or heard similar feedback on how the two programs differ, overlap and collaborate. I’m assuming it’s not like a “sharks and jets” vibe from West Side Story but wondering how much crossover really occurs?
Obviously we’ll be visiting and listening in on rehearsals and classes in both sides of the house and meeting with faculty/students from both programs too. But since it’s so fresh in your mind, I’m just curious if you have a POV on this topic. Obviously as a father I can’t help but think about the fact that there aren’t a whole lot of girls/women instrumentalists in the jazz programs at these and other schools, while there is certainly better gender balance within the contemporary/pop programs. She might not care, but it is one of the things that I do think about.
She was near the end. She had shorter dark hair with a black and grey striped dress. She sang “Cousin Mary” and did a blues scat. We left right after. She had such a bad headache and was exhausted. I can’t recall, was your kid one of the instrumentalists?
@DrummerDad18 lots of great questions. I’ll post more later. We just got back from a much needed day of R and R at the beach and are going out for a celebration dinner tonight. Our first night out since we’ve been here. We’ve been on a mission…whew!
@SpartanDrew I loved your daughters voice and style. Her scatting was excellent as was her overall performance. I’d be really surprised if she wasn’t admitted. I am actually one of the few kids on this forum actually haha, but yes I am an instrumentalist. I was called up for first song (Oleo) and later for September in the Rain after your daughter sang. I felt like jam was a little bit of a mess since they gave the tunes 24 hours in advance. All of the instrumentalists were complaining and some had no choice but to pull out iReal pro for the changes, which is somewhat humiliating at an audition. But overall I had a great day. It was a very humbling experience to be around so many great players and vocalists.
@Drummerdad18- My son is a drummer as well and is going to start the LIVE audition process next week. It is a CRAZY time and we did not do the college visits so we are going to see what happens and where he will land. He is straight ahead Jazz but plays a lot of other styles and has met many students that wanted a more contemporary/POP program that are in college now. I would also look at the University of Colorado Denver. My son’s friend goes there and is actually doing music business degree after he realized he did not want to do Jazz. I hear that there is a good community there and lots of playing and collaborating opportunities. Berklee would also be a good choice but it is also very expensive. I would look into the Berklee summer intensive to see if she likes the program and teachers. Meeting as many students and teachers to see how she is received is important.
@DrummerDad18 I just read some of your post to my D. We are at the Miami airport EARLY so as not to avoid the mad dash to the gate like we did on Tuesday. Even have time for breakfast! So funny some of your comments about your D being one of a handful of female instrumentalists. My D asked the jazz instrumentalists exactly that question. Are there any female instrumentalists? Their answer…”one”. She mentioned that they said she was pretty cool though so there’s that lol. When I told her your D is a drummer she said “cool!” We visited all of the schools you’d mentioned except UNT but obviously it’s a great jazz program. D just had no desire to be in Texas tbh.
I think going out on these tours early like you’re doing (and like we did) is a great thing. It removed Thornton from the list and the Berklee 5 week program removed Berklee from her lists as well, despite being offered scholarship. She didn’t want to be one of a thousand plus vocalists. She wants smaller and more exclusive. Frost is exactly that. I believe the other schools where she has applied are as well.
We are headed home to another huge snowstorm which is making Miami feel pretty great at the moment. We are home for a week then we depart for Boston and the NEC audition. It’s unfortunate that there will be no opportunity to sit in on any classes there. I hope D is able to get a feel for the school and the faculty. We’ve never visited and honestly, having had all of the time to visit with faculty, sit in on classes, meet students etc at Frost, I’m really grateful that we went early and did all of that. If audition day was the only real experience she had to base a decision on I know that wouldn’t have been enough.
Also @piranhavator I know exactly who you are and you were fantastic!!! You sat right in front of me when you weren’t playing. Purple shirt right? Grey suit I think. My D read your comments and laughed and said she knew how you felt about the humiliation of having to pull out ireal pro. A lot of people were annoyed by that as well, 24 hours before an audition. Oh well, one thing I do know is this school is serious and wants to see how well you think on your feet. And you were great so you nailed it! How did you like Frost and where else are you applying? Will we see you in Boston or NY? If so come say hello.
Doggie is home and doing well and we can’t wait to see him!