My daughter is a HS junior, planning on VP major. She is training as a classical singer and does enjoy legit MT (but is NOT a belter!). Her private vocal coach has helped us target programs that would be appropriate for her ability, intelligence, and dedication (Oberlin, UMich, Eastman, Rice, and others). She is trying to narrow down her list of “safety schools” to those that would provide excellent support to the developing classical singer. Can anyone comment on training for young vocalists at Catholic University, Hartt, Syracuse, Temple, Boston University, DePaul or suggest others ? Thank you!
My is a vp freshman at hartt who else loves mt and loves to belt as well but will be in an opera in austria this summer. She loves hartt and is rooming with 2 mt students and an acting student next year. She is socially integrated with both departments and along with her classmates have plans to expand the number of student directed/produced voice offerings. Her voice teacher and the vocal chair are supportive of her continuing her mt pursuits as well. It’s an audition so I don’t know if I’d classify it as a safety…but it may be an easier admit than some of those you listed. My d would be more than happy to talk with your d about her experience at hartt if u want to pm me…ill put u in contact with her.
As a side note some of those listed may not be mt friendly and may be more opera focused. Not 100% sure, but that was the vibe we got from some of those schools when we visited. Every audition included a why aren’t u pursuing mt? Maybe existing parents/students can provide reality over perception.
Definitely don’t discount DePaul. The voice professors have basically all had long Met careers, the school puts on 3 operas a year and double casts all productions, it’s a small and select program, plus the school is building a new building in the next couple of years so the facilities will be awesome. When I visited, I felt a very friendly environment and got a sense of it being very much like a family where the professors look out for you. I also saw their most recent opera (The Magic Flute), which was fantastic. They have a lot of undergrad opportunities that you won’t get at some of the other schools (IU, Umich, Eastman, etc.). Papageno (the male lead) was played by a junior! The opera was very very well done–great singing and acting. Plus, they performed in a 1,000 seat theatre that was all but sold out. Another safety school to apply at is DePauw—great facilities with a rising music program. Plus, DePauw does a musical each year for VP majors which your daughter might be interested in. They give out a TON of merit scholarship $$.
I can’t comment specifically on their VP program, but you might take a gander at Ithaca College.
First, I am new to these boards and am sorry that there may be a double post of this question (slightly different wording). Maybe the moderator can remove one or someone can tell me how to get rid of it! She is considering Ithaca - was in the summer program there and had a very positive experience, but we do need more than one on the “B” list. DePaul was mentioned but we will look at DePauw. Will in in Chicago for the second round of Classical Singer competition in May, so Chicago area schools can be visited then.
I’ll be in Chicago for Classical Singer, too! Sounds like it is going to be an awesome weekend.
Calling a school “B” list really does the school a disservice. It all comes down to the teacher she will study with and the performance opportunities she will get.
CollegeDadofTwo: I had no intent to imply anything about the quality of the programs. In fact, the quality may be better than in some highly competitive programs, especially for undergraduates. But the schools she has the highest affinity for are in fact very selective, and she would also like to apply to good programs that she can have more than a 1% chance of acceptance. We are new to the music thing, and I don’t even understand how you can determine which teacher they will study with (Are they offered admission to a particular studio? Do they declare a preference on the application?
Trust me, I understand the new to music thing too. What I have learned is that when you audition, you are not necessarily auditioning for the school ,but a particular studio. The question is, and still is for us, finding out who the teachers are to look for. Part of that processes is visiting the school web sites, identify a few teachers you might want to study with, visit the school, and do sample lessons with those teachers.
For one school that accepted my D, she said she would only go there if she got into a specific studio. When another school came on the radar we had not been thinking about, we asked her voice teacher about it and without hesitation he said “very good program and she should study in the studio of XXXXXX.” We arrived at the school the day before the audition, she met the teacher for about an hour for a lesson, and auditioned the next day (and she was accepted).
At still another school she was accepted to, our church choir director recommended we talk with HER old voice teacher at the school. Again, we got there a day early, met/had a lesson, and auditioned the next day.
I have learned that there is no rhyme or reason to the process, so that is why I say treat them all like “A” schools because you never know what might happen.
oh and at one school, the asked you to indicate your studio preference on the audition form.
Oh boy. This is going to be very time consuming and expensive! We were told she should apply to about ten-twelve schools. I figured we would go and see the more distant ones only if she received an on campus audition after the prescreen, but now I’m thinking she needs to meet the faculty before applying. Thank you for the insight. I’m still almost totally in the dark, but at least I now have a flashlight!
I applied to 6 schools of which two were what I considered reaches. I advanced to the live round for 5…I currently have 2 acceptances, 2 waitlist, and 1 decline. My decline isn’t actually from my reach school—it’s from my first audition and it seemed to be pretty political. it was also the school I auditioned at without having met anyone ahead of time. Tip: schedule an early audition at a very big safety school as a trial run. I strongly advise visiting schools ahead of time and scheduling lessons. 10-12 is a bit excessive, unless you audition for MT. No more than 7 for VP.
My S picked teachers based on reputation and referrals from his voice teacher and other professionals that he respects. Since we lived so far away, he only had sample lessons with 3. He applied to 7 but after being accepted to his top program in December, he withdrew his other applications. I think 5-7 should be sufficient for VP. My D was MT and she applied to 12 schools - admitted to 3.