We’re making a list and checking it twice…
not for Santa…
How is it possible that she just started college and now it’s time to get ready for summer institute auditions! Thankfully I think my D only has to record for one. The rest she’s applying to are coming to her school for regional auditions! yay! .
Who else is making plans for summer? My D’s teacher has helped her make a list of camps and she will record while she’s home on winter break.(it never ends, huh???)
S is preparing shortly for summer for either theme park or cruise ship auditions.
Yes summer applications are starting: festivals, workshops, fellowships,residencies and jobs 
And yes it goes on for years. Maybe, at different levels and in different roles, forever if they are lucky!
My D’s way ahead. She was already rejected for a summer festival two months ago! Lol.
She’s auditioning for something monthly. So no it never stops.
Oy! How did I think there would be a break from this between the applying-to-school and working years?!? So much to learn. It definitely seems true that it never stops. Thankful to have a kid who actually seems to enjoy this craziness! Lol. Time to make more recordings!
Got to have the exit plan before you enter. Well, maybe. So S was invited to apply for, just like some other applicants, a facilities assistant (FA) job. He likes this idea because you get free room and board like a Residence Hall Assitant (RA), but the nominal work hours are fewer. Now, S tends to stay at college all year round, so he could do it summer, winter, spring, and fall. I was surprised this job would compete with playing on a cruise ship, because playing on a cruise ship just sounds so “music oriented”. But the overall financial gain could be greater, and he could remain in the same scene (near Dallas) steadily while doing the FA job as well. He is still planning auditions in case the FA job does not occur for him. Who knows what summer will be like.
It never ends, but it changes. My daughter has been out of school for two years. This is the first year she probably won’t audition for any festivals because she was offered a festival teaching gig (at a festival she attended years ago in high school) that overlaps with the festivals she might want to attend–but there are a couple of bucket-list festivals that don’t have openings in her instrument this year, so she’s not completely finished with those auditions. She went to a festival in Switzerland last year that would re-admit her without audition for a second summer, but after some thought it was clear that the teaching offer was better for her professionally. Every summer she’s had to turn down a lot of playing opportunities because she was traveling to festivals; this summer she’ll get to actually make $$ from teaching and performing, which is a pleasant prospect.
My junior daughter got recordings done this week, thanks to her voice prof, and they are awesome - one each in English Italian German and French. She’s sounding great, especially considering her recent bout of viral laryngitis, and she’s very, very happy with her new voice prof too. I’m not exactly sure what summer programs she’s applying to yet … but there’s a spreadsheet of options with dates and other details that she shared with me. (I went ahead and added a sheet for grad school - prescreens due one short year from now. Time flies!)
glassharmonica, that is what I meant by continuing with “different roles”!
Every year, it seems, there is a moment of realization that around this time of year there are deadlines to be met or missed. For young people immersed in relatively happy work in the present, it is easy to be on the “missed” end of things!
Parental reminders seem fine in undergrad but at the grad level, it gets tricky. At this point I try not to get involved but support when it comes up buoyant it seems you and your daughter have a nice balance going…
@compmom Thanks - my daughters are all in their 20s with my singer being the youngest at 20, it’s an ever changing balancing act. I only brought up grad school for perspective, for her and for ME, to be honest. Grad school is really the next big step for her, whether or not it’s right after undergrad. It’s NOT the next role/audition/competition - fun as those are, and great learning opportunities as well. As an undergrad vocalist her main job right now includes learning languages of the rep, continuing to develop her vocal technique, learning appropriate rep for her skill level and putting it all together for Junior juries in April. She did a short and reasonably priced summer program last year (the only one she applied for) and this year she’s casting a wider net. I’m over the moon that she’s happy with her recordings and I only wish I could appreciate the different languages more.
Mine is applying for Tanglewood BUTI. She has been in the Young Artist Wind Ensemble for the last 2 years. This year she is aiming for the Orchestra… she also has been in the Horn workshop as well… obviously she is a French Horn player and a senior so she just finished her prescreens.
Recordings done (at the last possible minute!) and I was wrong - 3 needed recordings, 1 is live audition only, 2 are recordings only and 1 is pre-screen and live audition. sigh. Now to just pay all the application fees… But no tuition! [see me doing the fellowship dance] So now for fervent prayer that she gets in to at least one of them!!
Good luck!
Fellowships are great for covering tuition, but many summer festivals (especially ones in the US) do not cover transportation costs. It took us a while to realize that one of my kid’s conservatories had grants specifically to help pay for transportation to summer festivals. This may be ancient history now, my kids are older, but it might be worth checking into.
Yes, and even the festival that pay transport are starting to shrink. My daughter went to a Swiss festival several years back and her airfare was covered. She went to the festival again last summer and had to pay her own air this time. Years ago that festival gave a paid stipend to its students; no more. Still worth it, but so expensive. She used one of those aggregators and got a cheap ticket, and luckily it worked out. (I’m a bit nervous about those companies, and this was one that I’d read many complaints about.)
One prescreen passed! Live audition on 2/14! yay!!!
Congrats, @Violinmomaz !
My son had his only audition for summer 2019 two weeks ago and was accepted. He will be going to Marlboro for next two summers.
After supporting my son Up to high school years to attend expensive summer music festivals and still help him with transportations and extras through undergrad/grad years, teaching opportunities and getting paid sound wonderful. Congratulations.
@Octaves that is fantastic!!! Congratulations on your son’s Marlboro acceptance. That is HUGE!