<p>Does anyone have any comments or teacher recommendations/avoids for the voice depts at Un of Denver Lamont or CU Boulder? DD is a high school senior soprano looking at VP BM and wants to go into Opera, (not Music Education.) </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter auditioned and was accepted to Lamont, but went elsewhere. She had a lesson wtih Cathy Kasch who she liked very much and she participated in a master class at Interlochen with Kenneth Cox who heads the department. Based on that experience and the recommendation of Ms. Kasch as a teacher, she auditioned. The facilities are beautiful as is the campus and she would have been very happy there. One of her roommates from Interlochen is there–we haven’t had a report yet.</p>
<p>Her voice teacher while in high school did her doctoral work at CU, but I don’t know much about the current faculty. The music schools at DU and CU are competing for many of the same students–something I did overhear while at the auditions last February.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I go to DU and am not a vocalist. I second that Cathy Kasch is an amazingly kind woman/ teacher. She also received the highest faculty honor for the entire university last year at our graduation ceremony. (This was not just a lamont honor, she was honored above all the University faculty). Just by looking at Ken Cox’s bio you can tell he’s definitely a top-notch voice professor. I also second the beauty of the campus and ESPECIALLY music facilities, tbh. DU also gives out great scholarships to qualified students, so that’s a plus. The University as a whole seems to be moving up as people are moving to Denver and the music school at DU is really gaining national attention. Anyways, I know nothing about CU for voice, tho Kate Emerich teaches at DU and CU and I’m sure she would be happy to give you an honest take on both. I’m sorry this post was sort of generic but all the voice faculty at DU seem really good/ nice and if you’d like it wouldn’t be hard for me to find out a lot more information, and fairly quickly too. </p>
<p>Astewa57</p>
<p>GSO</p>
<p>I believe that CU Boulder has a good solid vocal program. I looked into it a couple of years ago when my DD was preparing for auditions. Ultimately we did not have time to visit and she ended up not applying.</p>
<p>Since then, CU Boulder has gained a new vocal teacher by the name of Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson, this is her second year. Prior to joining the faculty at Boulder, Jennifer sang in A level houses in Europe. My daughter and I had the good fortune to meet her this past year and she is very friendly and articulate. If my daughter was not already happy at her current school .and if CU Boulder was a conservatory in a major city (which ended up being a criteria my DD insisted on) I think she would have been a serious consideration for DD. </p>
<p>I found a link where 2 of Jennifers students placed in their local NATS competition last year .both were in division 7 which I believe is upper-class collegiate level .1 took 1st place and the other was Honorable mention .I have heard there are other good teachers at Boulder but I dont know enough about them to recommend or not recommend …I do know that if you are not happy with your teacher at Boulder then it is easy to switch studios .which is not the case at many schools .including the one my DD is at.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you would like further information.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t know much about vocal performance specifically, but I am a Boulder native and know both schools quite well. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the general feel of the campuses, etc. I agree that the Lamont facilities are absolutely state of the art (as is the entire DU campus). CU is also a great option.</p>