<p>Does anyone have any information on the voice program at USC?
I've heard about their popular music program but I'm going for classical voice with some musical theater, and USC has a musical theater minor so I'm interested. I've looked at the website but I haven't gotten any first-hand opinions.
If it helps to add, I'm interested in high academic schools like Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon so USC could be up there on my list because of its high scores.
*oh and I'm talking about undergrad, I'm a rising senior in high school so I'll be applying and auditioning this Fall</p>
<p>Is there a teacher there you want to study with?</p>
<p>I don’t know any of the faculty or anything, which is another reason I’m so in the dark about the school. I just started researching it a week or so ago because it keeps coming up on all these college match websites for me! Do you know any of the teachers?</p>
<p>Finding a teacher(s) you would like to work with is job one. There is no regulating body on voice teachers. Some are fantastic some are voice wreckers. Why do good schools have bad voice teachers? I really don’t know but it occurs frequently even at very highly regarded schools.</p>
<p>Are you male or female? I had lessons with Shigemi Matsumoto, Elizabeth Hynes, and Cynthia Munzer. They are all fantastic. Some of their teachers teach at multiple schools. They all had computers at the audition, which was interesting – it made the audition feel more impersonal, and USC was the only school I experienced that at. I think it’s definitely worth consideration. I knew that USC was academically a reach for me, and the program is highly selective with 6-10 admits each year. If I had been admitted, I would have seriously considered it for the fantastic teachers alone.</p>
<p>You can look up the faculty. Google them, see what they are up to and find out what their students are doing. Then, if possible get a lesson with the ones you are considering.<br>
Like Im thinking did.^^</p>
<p>I am a female, and which would you suggest I try to get a lesson with? I’m from the east coast so I probably wouldn’t be able to tour/get a sample lesson until I am actually auditioning there.</p>
<p>We really liked Shigemi. A very warm and knowledgeable lady. We didn’t meet any others.</p>
<p>i can PM you a suggestion</p>
<p>This is a long response, bordering on a trip report, that touches on several things already mentioned. My hope is that it helps you really visualize what it is like to research a school like USC Thornton, emphasizing the importance of a visit and a few suggestions on how to make the most of it.</p>
<p>My daughter or I have set up fly-in lessons on several occasions with jazz voice faculty at various schools, including USC. Faculty really do get it. They have always been very eager to help, and understand that the purpose is to introduce my D to the school. Sometimes we have to pay an hourly rate for a lesson. Sometimes it has been free, especially if the lesson was really just inserting her into an ongoing class. But if it truly is a private lesson, expect to pay and offer upfront whatever their regular rate is. It makes it worth everybody’s time. May keep you from being bumped off the schedule.</p>
<p>I can tell you the vocal jazz instructors at USC have always been very nice. Setting up a visit and lesson was easy. The visit included joining a jazz choir class and a vocalist w/combo class. We also had a meeting with both faculty members over coffee. And the campus tours and group meetings with admissions staff. And that was in her sophomore year.</p>
<p>My D has always known a student at the schools she has visited, so she usually stays with the friend in a dorm or off-campus apartment as the case may be. Most schools do not help with housing arrangements for visits, but some do.</p>
<p>And the USC Thornton director of admissions is a really friendly, helpful, just plain nice person - PJ Woolston. You should just email him, introduce yourself and express your interest in setting up a visit. He really cares about each musician getting to know USC and making the best decision for themselves. Good students always have options and USC sees itself competing for students with top schools from around the country, like Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern. So really, admissions is in a “sales mode” at this stage of the game. </p>
<p>Look at the schedule of events for Thornton and pick a time when they have a few concerts or shows that interest you. You could make the most of a few days on campus if a few events are going on. Meet some students in a class before the show and who knows, you might get invited to the after-party. Then you can really get the scoop on what is going on.</p>
<p>I accompanied her on most of these trips. But between the students she already knew and the students she met, I rarely saw her once we got on campus. She managed her own schedule. I managed mine. I did different things. Like attending some recitals and shows that weren’t high on her list, but again, gave me real feel for the vibe of the school. As well as setting up meetings with financial aid and career development offices. Necessary things that she had no interest in, but sometimes gave me some real insight into the school. </p>
<p>And sometimes I would just cold call an office, bump into some staff or faculty in the hallway, knock on somebody’s door. And see if they were pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful. Boy do I have some stories to tell. It speaks volumes about a place how well those impromptu interactions went at some schools. USC was universally friendly by the way.</p>
<p>Another point is that I always felt that my D would benefit from visiting any well-run program, even if she wasn’t planning to apply there. Sometimes a visit changed her mind about the school. But it always helped her clarify her thinking in general to see what she liked and didn’t like about a particular program after a visit. Meet some faculty. Attend some classes. Hang with some students. Check out the music scene in the town. You can only get that from a visit. Not really from the brochures. </p>
<p>In a place like LA, you could visit USC, UCLA, CalArts. The CSUs - Long Beach , Northridge, Fullerton. Have you considered Chapman, Azusa Pacific, among others? All those schools have music programs with a lot going for them. (As an aside, a friend of my daughter going to Fullerton in musical theater has been working at Disneyland from the beginning of moving to LA. First in retail. Then in rides. Then in characters. Great experience and a way to meet a lot of people in the business.) Expanding your trip for a few days to visit a few schools and see the similarities and differences will really help clarify things for you.</p>
<p>We visited USC, UCLA, Long Beach and a private school, LA Music Academy on one trip just before Thanksgiving one year. LAMA is where both the former head of USC vocal jazz and current head of the USC vocal jazz program teach. Of course I had to do a lot of driving all over LA. Most rental car companies do not accept teenage drivers, and the ones that do have a hefty surcharge.</p>
<p>Music schools have concerts throughout the semester but I think the week or two before Thanksgiving is a good time for big concerts during the fall semester. We saw student concerts for jazz choirs and jazz bands at Long Beach as well as attending jazz choir and classical choir classes. We saw a concert with combos and vocalists at UCLA. My daughter had a private lesson at LAMA and sat in on several classes. I already mentioned USC. </p>
<p>When you try to pack in a few calls like that over a few days, you have to get a bit lucky on fitting in with the faculty and class schedules to make the most of the visits. (By the way, it seems like a lot of schools these days just don’t have a lot of classes on Fridays.) But salesmen juggle this stuff all the time when they plan business trips and hope they don’t have problems with the flights or in traffic. We have had faculty cancel at the last minute because they got important gigs. It happens. Think of what life was like before cell phones and texting! It takes some skill and experience and luck but you might as well jump in.</p>
<p>Of course it helps if you know the faculty already from some festival or competition. My daughter did at a lot of schools. But in several cases, I simply read the instructor list and googled the person. </p>
<p>Without any previous knowledge of any faculty at some schools, I simply read the bios and just went with my gut on which ones looked interesting. If you have access to the class schedule for a school with faculty listed, you may find out that the some interesting or important courses for you are taught by a particular core faculty member or two. That gives you a way to shorten the list. Some schools have a lot, and I mean a lot of adjunct faculty. You can argue either way on meeting a core faculty member or some really interesting adjunct. Some schools have really famous faculty who travel constantly. It really impacts the students in their classes, studios and ensembles. Try to find out what the word on the street is.</p>
<p>Attach some mp3s or links to Youtube if you got some quality material. If you don’t, you better start getting some recordings pronto. I did all of that material with an old macbook with an old digital camera doing 720p mp4, editing the video in Imovie and posting to Youtube, or ripping an mp3 off of the movie file in Garageband. Having a library of materials off the shelf to pick and choose from for those first emails (and maybe some followup dialogue) helps get (and keep) people interested. It doesn’t need to be the official audition repertoire yet. And once you have a relationship with some faculty, they may accept substitutes for the prescreening repertoire. So developing a relationship with faculty now can help you in a number of ways.</p>
<p>Some schools support the faculty having private lessons on campus. Some don’t. So another strategy is to see if the faculty member has private lessons in some other private school or home studio. They may have their own websites and personal contact info.</p>
<p>Another point is that these schools take their show on the road. There are performing arts college fairs around the country. Classical Singer competitions have an exhibition hall. State music teacher conventions have exhibition halls. The Jazz Education Network has exhibition halls (not the right faculty but the admissions people sometimes may be exactly the same). The schools set up tables and admissions staff (and often faculty) are available. You might be able to start a relationship in person before you make that first email.</p>
<p>[Performing</a> and Visual Arts College Fair Schedule](<a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/college-fairs/PVA-College-Fairs/Pages/default.aspx]Performing”>http://www.nacacnet.org/college-fairs/PVA-College-Fairs/Pages/default.aspx)</p>
<p>[Classical</a> Singer Community](<a href=“http://www.classicalsinger.com/convention/]Classical”>http://www.classicalsinger.com/convention/)</p>
<p>[The</a> Jazz Education Network](<a href=“http://jazzednet.org/]The”>http://jazzednet.org/)</p>
<p>My personal gripe is that I don’t think most music schools do enough to promote their students. Athletic programs list the rosters of every sport - ht, wt, position, year by year summary of accomplishments, high school experience, even what their mom and dad and sis and bro are doing. With music schools you maybe get one line now and then if some alum does something like wins the Metropolitan Opera Competition. I exaggerate, but these schools could do so much more. So researching current students and alums is difficult. And I really do think meeting the current students is extremely important to knowing the vibe of the place. So visits, and hanging out a little, are key. Flying in for the audition an attending the scheduled group meetings and tours are not sufficient.</p>
<p>Graduate music students and some undergrads may have their own websites already. And with some hard work googling you may discover them. I wouldn’t hesitate to reach out to them, especially if you have a visit basically set up and are just saying you want to meet for coffee or something.</p>
<p>Our experience has been with jazz and vocal jazz programs. I can’t say for sure what your experience might be with classical or musical theater. But I am confident that if you don’t have success reaching out to any of those faculty at USC, the admissions director PJ Woolston will be eager to help you.</p>
<p>Some schools offer summer workshops that will give you a pre-college experience with faculty. But that is a whole 'nother thread. </p>
<p>One point to remember: Call it a private lesson. Call it an evaluation. But really, you need to call it an audition. EVERY INTERACTION IS AN AUDITION. Show up on time. Don’t get sick. Dress appropriately. Don’t get sick. Be prepared. Don’t get sick. Make the most of it, every time you have some precious time with a decision maker. And don’t get sick. Apologizing for being sick does you absolutely no good.</p>
<p>Sorry I can’t be specific about classical voice or musical theater faculty. I know the jazz faculty. If you want, contact PJ and good luck.</p>
<p>musicamusica, any suggestion is much appreciated! And jazzvocals, thanks so much for the information, the links and experience are very helpful!</p>
<p>check your inbox!</p>
<p>Another suggestion. You might want to check out the USC SoCal VoCals. Really good a cappella group. Open to non music majors but members may include voice, musical theater, jazz voice, pop music, instrumental music, etc. </p>
<p>You can read their bios, and contact them individually in fact.
[The</a> SoCal VoCals - Contact](<a href=“http://www.scvocals.com/contact.aspx]The”>http://www.scvocals.com/contact.aspx)</p>
<p>…just a bit more information about Thornton</p>
<p>The Thornton School of Music is over 125 years old. Although USC is a large research university the freshmen class at Thornton is only between 100-115. A special feature of USC is the interaction of the music students with the other art schools such as the USC School of Dramatic Arts, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Roski School of Fine Arts and the soon to be USC Kaufman School of Dance.</p>
<p>USC is the new home of the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.</p>
<p>These are some alumni of Thornton:</p>
<p>Morten Lauridsen- Awarded National Medal of the Arts
Michael Tilson Thomas-Awarded National Medal of the Arts
Nmon Ford-Grammy Award winning singer
Ambrose Akinmusire-Award winning trumpeter and faculty member
Alan Chang-Composer, musical director for Michael Buble
Marilyn Horne-Noted mezzo-soprano
Christopher Parkening-Classical guitarist
Lee Ritenour-Jazz Guitarist
Rodney Gilfry-Music Director of the LA Master Chorale
David Newman-Award winning film composer
Leticia Strong-LA Symphony Violinist
Elizabeth Rowe-Principal flutist with the Boston Symphony
Herb Alpert-Musician-Co-Founder of A & M Records
Kelley O’Connor-Opera singer
Jessica Rivera-Opera singer
Scott Tennant-Classical Guitarist</p>
<p>Contact information:
Phone–800 872 2213
213 740 8986
[University</a> of Southern California](<a href=“http://www.uscmusic@usc.edu%5DUniversity”>http://www.uscmusic@usc.edu)</p>
Love your post - thanks! My Daughter is a HS junior and we’re starting the music school search process from Shanghai (US citizens but long term overseas - kids all born out and grew up outside the US, this is our last one…). Curious where your daughter ended up going as your post is from 2013 and its now winter 2017.
@pbeddie - This is a very old thread and a lot of the info isn’t accurate any more and some of the people are no longer on the board.
Please check your Inbox as I’ve sent you a PM!