Thoughts on the classical singers path from school to life

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Hello all!</p>

<p>My son is a HS senior anticipating college in Fall 2015. He's a lyric baritone who attends a very musically oriented high school and also has under his belt 2 years of private instruction with a professional opera singer, 2 summer programs including the NYU Summer Classical Voice Intensive (which he's actually at right now) and has been accepted to the Pre-college Division for Voice at SUNY Stony Brook for the 2014-15 school year (the only one he applied to because it's local and will allow him to stay involved in senior year activities). He is a 94.8 GPA Honors Scholar. His SATs were decent at 1800 but he plans to take them again (hoping for 2000 or better).</p>

<p>While we are chomping at the bit (or rather I am) waiting for the Fall 2015 applications to open, we have not yet resolved the University vs Conservatory issue. In a perfect world, he'd love a life as a performer but he's a practical boy who knows one needs to pay the bills and eat, so eventually wants both vocal performance and music ed degrees. How he will get there is still in debate. He has 2 options: Conservatory first with a BM in performance, then a MM/Music Ed at the masters level (when he will likely be eligible for more financial aid) or a dual degree program first, then pursuing a MM/Performance at the grad school level where he can choose a more focused conservatory like experience(and again, will qualify for more financial aid!).</p>

<p>Right this minute he is IN LOVE with NYU and his teachers have told him he would probably have no difficulty getting in. It's the most expensive school on his list and the money is a HUGE issue for us. I think he should audition for some other less expensive alternatives which happen to be conservatories, such as Curtis, CCM and SUNY Purchase. (We are on the fence about SUNY Potsdam)...</p>

<p>I know every young singer and family is different, but I'm just wondering what direction others have taken and how it may have worked (or not) for you, both from a performance/educational standpoint and from a financial standpoint.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input.</p>

<p>sjd's mom</p>

2

<p>Has he considered Westminster Choir College? He can get a BM in Voice Performance/Music Ed. While it is expensive, they have fairly generous academic scholarships (based on GPA and SAT). My S is in the VP program but several of his friends are getting the dual degree VP/MEd. He says that it’s a lot of work - but it’s entirely doable. The voice faculty at WCC is superb. The biggest drawback, however, is the size of the campus and student body and the single minded focus on voice (which may not be a drawback to everyone). </p>

3

<p>Has he looked at Eastman? There is a lot of flexibilty there in degree combinations and DD knows a number of graduates who were able to teach in private schools in other parts of the country even where state certifications were not an issue. DD had also looked at Temple. They allow music ed and performance together and may have a performance to ed masters program. They also had pretty good merit awards.</p>

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<p>I don’t have too much advice because I’m even earlier in the process than you are - but I’m quite interested in these same topics. Also I’d love to hear more about your S’s experience with NYU Summer Classical Voice intensive - as my D plans to audition for that program for next summer. We visited NYU/Steinhardt’s program and had a lesson this past spring, and we were all really impressed with the curriculum and what they had to say overall. The head of admissions/program coordinator for voice was the person that did the info session and he was wonderful. He described a really nurturing yet demanding environment. Yet NYU/Steinhardt is not often mentioned on this forum as a “good” or “top” place to go for classical vocal performance. The teacher my D had a lesson with was Rosa Vento, who teaches at the classical voice intensive. They told us that if you attend the summer program, they waive the pres-creening requirement and you are invited to the live audition phase of the process. Is that something you heard as well? If this is too off topic feel free to private message me. We are one year behind you…</p>

<p>Also – maybe take a look at Ithaca. <a href=“School of Music, Theatre, and Dance | Ithaca College”>School of Music, Theatre, and Dance | Ithaca College;
They have an excellent music ed program and you can double degree in performance and music ed in 4 and 1/2 years. We are familiar with many of the voice faculty there because my D has attended their summer music academy the last two years.</p>

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<p><<they told="" us="" that="" if="" you="" attend="" the="" summer="" program,="" they="" waive="" pres-creening="" requirement="" and="" are="" invited="" to="" live="" audition="" phase="" of="" process.="">> RKopera</they></p>

<p>Yes, that’s what we were told. If you audition for (via video) & are admitted into the Summer Classical Voice Intensive, you do not have to pre-screen for college enrollment but can go straight to a live audition. My S is absolutely thrilled with his classes & teachers. Says he’s learned more in the 2 weeks he’s been there than in the last 6 months of HS music classes & lessons combined. </p>

<p>My oldest son (now 34) went to NYU on a full non-music scholarship. He thinks it’s the perfect place for his little brother who has a big, fun, animated personality in addition to music & academics. We will apply and see what kind of financial aid package they offer. Just hope it’s not like going to a bridal shop and trying on a dress you can’t afford-- nothing else measures up after that!</p>

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<p>Just wanted to point out that you can’t expect much financial aid at the graduate degree level–the majority of most packages are going to be loans, except for a lucky few who get into free tuition programs or receive some merit scholarship. It’s quite a different scenario than the undergraduate financial aid packages.</p>

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<p>First here is a link to a helpful essay on the Peabody admissions site on ways to study music:
<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Second, there are many top colleges that are test optional if those scores don’t go up:
<a href=“http://fairtest.org/university/optional”>http://fairtest.org/university/optional&lt;/a&gt; However, merit aid may require scores even at these schools.</p>

<p>I also like the Colleges that Change Lives group: both a website and a book by Loren Pope (He also wrote “Looking Beyond the Ivy League,” also helpful).</p>

<p>I bought a book entitled “Creative Colleges” that was really helpful too. It covers music, dance, art, theater, writing as I remember.</p>

<p>A BM does not limit a student to a career in performance. This subject comes up a lot on here, so read the thread (up top on the music major forum) the myth about ending up in the poorhouse. A BM gives access to jobs inside and outside of music that are not performance-related, and to grad and professional schools. I personally still try not to think of college years as strictly vocational but a time to study what the student enjoys and seeing where that leads.</p>

<p>Master’s work is often not well-funded. (My daughter want to Europe to save money, believe it or not, and for artistic reasons as well.) PhD’s are well funded though.</p>

<p>Most importantly, your son can keep all options open until late April of senior year. He can go ahead and apply to both conservatories and colleges, and decide then. My daughter applied to two colleges and four conservatories and did well with admissions but ended up choosing a university (great financial aid, also wanted to study history and art). It took her the whole month of April to decide though.</p>

<p>Oberlin, Bard and Lawrence would be good places to look, I would think. Great colleges with conservatories on campus. There are other great possibilities that others will suggest. (Someone recently told me about College of Wooster for music, for example, and look up Bennington in VT for another type of option). Oberlin has a master’s in music ed despite the fact that it is only an undergrad school otherwise. Our local music teacher went to Columbia for his and loved it.</p>

<p>Bottom line 2 cents from me is that your son should do BM/conservatory/music school and focus on voice if that is what he wants to do, and if he has other academic interests, he should consider college/university/BA, which would mean less focus on performance most likely. At the undergrad level, he will be fine doing what his heart leads him to do and too much worry about practicalities at this stage may even hamper his growth as an artist. He can take care of music ed later or maybe he will find other things to do, including master’s in voice. He can also intern: my daughter did that and ended up with a job in music that is administrative while she continued with her studies.)</p>

<p>If he is passionate about teaching that is a different story. It is up to him and he has plenty of time to decide!</p>

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<p>My one thought is something others have expressed, is your son thinking of music ed because he likes the idea of teaching, or is he thinking of it as a ‘fallback’ in case the performance end doesn’t work out? If he is thinking of getting a music ed degree as a fallback because he can get a real job with that, I would be really careful about that. One of the issues with music teachers out there is quite a few of them are people who wanted to do performance and it didn’t work out, and quite honestly IME, many of them end up as disgruntled people and it shows in their teaching. By all means, if your S decides he wants to do it and is passionate about it, that may be a path, but doing it as ‘a job he could get’ would not be good for him or the kids he would be teaching. Keep in mind that an Ed degree is generally for people who want to teach K-12 music in the public schools, where an Ed degree is necessary, it isn’t required at many private schools (though some do or might have it as a plus), and to teach as a private teacher or at a college the Ed degree is not necessary…the other thing to keep in mind is that music teachers in many districts have been cut back or eliminated, if they even have music in a lot of places the teachers are these days part time, so it may not be as easy a backup as it might seem. As compmom said, you can get a wide variety of jobs with a BM degree, and it would probably be better to pursue something they might like doing, rather than using an Ed degree to ‘get a job’ they may not like. </p>

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<p>Actually, he loves the idea of teaching music. He has been tremendously inspired by the music teachers he has had in high school and his private teacher-- ALL of whom have performance degrees and music education degrees.</p>