<p>My daughter had a wonderful 4 years at Rice as a vocal performance major. She does feel that the focus is shifting a little bit towards more of a graduate student focus. She chose Rice for its strong commitment to undergraduates. She had many performance opportunities and as a junior had a major role in the opera. Her teacher, Kathy Kaun, is amazing and a nurturing person. She is one of the major reasons my daughter chose Rice.
Her Interlochen roommate (and maid of honor to be) got her music degree from Indiana. Yes, there are many graduate students, but there is a lot to be learned from these graduate students, too. I don't see how anyone serious about vocal performance can leave Indiana off their list.<br>
I think you need people around you that aren't musicians when you are in college. You just miss too much if you are at a conservatory without a university affiliation. My daughter thought this would be the case, and after the Rice experience, she is sure she made the right choice.</p>
<p>The Oberlin campus is a little under an hour from downtown Cleveland. There is bus service but not at very convenient times. Taxis to Cleveland are pretty expensive. An enterprising Oberlin resident has set up a van service for the airport and downtown that is advertised on the want ads section of the Oberlin web site. My daughter has usually been able to get a ride from a friend with a car when she needs to go there or to do some shopping at the mall in Elyria, about 20 minutes away.</p>
<p>Conservatory students can live in any of the available housing. They are not housed separately from College students. There are a few dorms that are primarily for upperclassmen and a couple that are mostly freshman. There is lots of information on the web site.</p>
<p>The only grad program at Curtis is in Opera. Everything else is undergrad only. Even a Curtis diploma is no guarantee of a professional career, but it is a better head start than most. They are generous with time off from school and payment of travel and living expenses for students who are auditioning for jobs and for grad schools and participating in competitions. There are a lot of connections, particularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra, to be made there.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild, thank you for your comments. Your daughter must have a lovely voice and is obviously very talented. Where did she go for Grad. school or did she go straight into performing? Rice is an excellent school, your D and her voice teacher obviously had a wonderful relationship. Thankfully, all people are different and make different choices according to what works for them, and we are lucky that we live in a country where our children have so many varied choices and are not forced into a path dictated by someone else. Your D was happy at a large, midwestern college as was her friend, but my daughter would not be; and, yes, she is extremely serious about vocal performance, and no, Indiana is not on her list of schools to be considered precisely because it fits into the catagory of a larger, midwestern university! There is a new faculty member at Indiana that my D would love to study with, but overall, four years of living in a place where she would not be happy is not worth it, not when there are other places that would be a much better "fit" for her. I am proud of her for knowing herself well enough as a person and as a singer, so that she has the confidence to make a decision that suits her needs and does not waste the valuable time of others.
My D is a top student at an excellent prep school where she is involved in many other activities, but she always finds herself having to shuffle things to try to find more time for her true passion- singing and performing. She has always proven herself to be responsible, highly intelligent and extremely motivated and focused and I trust her enough to permit her to choose a college that will have the proper facilities and teaching faculty to help her grow and develop to her fullest potential- if that is a conservatory without a university affililiation then so be it. If indeed, she "misses" anything, she will make up for it in other areas and there is an entire lifetime ahead of her to meet people everywhere. Your daughter made the right choice for her and seems to have had a wonderful experience and I am glad that she found a school that would permit her to flourish.
Perhaps the two young ladies will meet someday, on a stage, and bring beautiful music to many. I wish your D well in her upcoming marriage.</p>
<p>Thanks, BassDad! I will be setting up an appointment to visit Oberlin in October when we also see CIM! I do hope that my D can stay on campus for a night, since Oberlin really seems to offer unique opportunties not available elsewhere.Your information is great and your enthusiasm for the school matches that of the graduates that we know, so there must be some "magic" there someplace! I'll let you know how she liked it after we get back, but you may get a PM if I have another question before then!
We'll find the time for Curtis, which should be fun since my D has never seen the area where I grew up and we can make that side trip to Buck's County for that! Curtis will definitely stay on her grad school list, no matter what.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM at any time or use the email option if my PM mailbox happens to be full.</p>
<p>I know one young man who started at Manhattan School of Music, but transferred to Curtis mid-stream undergrad. He has a lovely baritone voice, is very focused in his work, and he is quite charismatic (in a non-flashy way, but my attention was drawn to him in a Cosi ensemble rehearsal). My best guess is that he is in his early 20's....I have heard that Curtis tends to accept older singers even into their undergrad program. He is in and out of NYC singing in different venues. I know a young (17-18 year old) soprano who was called back at Curtis, thought it was her best audition, but ultimately was not accepted...she is at Juilliard, so they must take some young singers. Someone told me that Curtis students can pick their own voice teacher and Curtis pays the tab (I am certain there are limits on who and $, case by case), though I have not verified this.</p>
<p>Rice is NOT a large midwestern college- it is a rather small (or, at best, midsized) Texas college!</p>
<p>My daughter just graduated in May and has been called to the priesthood in the Episcopal church, so she is planning on going to seminary starting in fall 2008. She is engaged to a medical student. She got a great job in Houston while he finishes up medical school and they will locate somewhere where he matches for a residency and she is approved for Episcopal seminary- probably DC or Chicago. She will use her music in her ministry.<br>
She is a very talented singer, and also attended a top prep school before the very things you mentioned got to her, and she finished up her last two years of high school at Interlochen, where she could focus on her music and also have strong academics.
She also decided against a large midwestern university, but junior year of high school is too soon to rule out ANY options. I have gone through the college admissions process with two very different kids (one musician, one athlete- both very strong students), as well as having been on these forums for a long time. There are many "changes of mind" as new schools are discovered, other options explored. I made sure both my kids visited a range of schools in a range of locations. I am not trying to tell you what to do, but no matter how sure a student is about music performance, there are a huge number that leave the program for one reason or another, and it is nice to be in a college setting that offers other options.</p>
<p>Curtis accepts applicants aged 18-24 for their undergrad voice program and from 20-26 for their grad opera program. They also teach exceptional younger students, but those students are required to attend a local high school and are not considered part of one of the degree programs until they have their high school diploma.</p>
<p>The other advantage to considering some larger programs is: the larger the program the more they admit. Obviously, you still need to be extremely qualified, but NONE of these programs can be considered safeties.</p>
<p>For the purposes of this thread and those newer posters, I want to point out that my vocalist-daughter is NOT my "WildChild". That one would be a rising soph/athlete at Penn.</p>
<p>I also would like to comment on NEC. My daughter is going to be a senior this year, and actually is there now already helping with freshman orientation. I did not find the dorm to be so terrible- she actually lived there for her sophomore year as well as her freshman year. She is having a great experience with wonderful teaching.</p>