Can someone suggest some reasonably priced accommodations close to Cleveland Institute of Music while there for auditions?
Glidden House!
The Glidden House is our preferred place to stay when visiting our daughter at CIM. However, there have been complaints about it being fairly noisy during audition week. On the plus side, weather is taken out of the stress equation as it is right across the street from CIM. For auditions we stayed at another hotel CIM had a shuttle arrangement with and found it full of potential students, including lots of nervous practicing coming down from the floor above. If being around a lot of other people in the same boat is comforting, go for the Glidden, but if your kid wants the opposite, downtown Cleveland has dozens of hotels that won’t have other CIM auditionees making noise.
Helpful hint: if you do stay at the Glidden House and your kid wants to be alone to practice the night before, be sure to make reservations now at L’Albotross for dinner for two. You deserve it.
The Glidden House is right across the street and the Marriott Courtyard is about 5 blocks away. When making reservations for any hotel, always call the place directly and ask for a rate affiliated with the school; they often have connections that will save you some $$.
Glidden House. And make your reservations asap.
Check out this link,
That link shows you ALL of the places in the Cleveland area, which can be helpful if you are looking at Oberlin or Baldwin Wallace also. The two places listed, The Glidden House and the Marriott Courtyard are the only two within walking distance of CIM, and since parking at the school is virtually impossible, that is a great plus!
The Courtyard has a free shuttle that will take you anywhere within about 3 miles so it shuttles to CIM all the time.
^^ Also, it’s not easy to get a cab in Cleveland, and car services are pretty pricy. So if you don’t have a rental car it’s great to be in walking distance. [edit: I missed Singersmom07’s post-- that’s a good tip.]
Parking is not virtually impossible around CIM, but it can be very challenging, even for those of us used to parking in urban environments. I think CIM still does its auditions on Sundays, which makes things a bit easier. Once inside you should have no worries as the audition process is extremely well run. It the lowest stress audition my daughter had. We traveled by car because she had other auditions in the area that weekend and I would recommend using a GPS to get around as Cleveland, at least by CIM, can be confusing.
Every time I’ve been to CIM it was a car trip and I’ve always been able to park. Sometimes you have to walk an extra block or two, but it’s not so bad. Good luck to all!
On weekends the parking lot behind the building is open.
We found parking on campus and also parked in the garage of the museum that’s just down the street from CIM when we visited. If you’re like us and want to make audition weekends into mini-breaks to relieve stress, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is well worth a visit.
While making it into a mini-break check out Pacific East in the Coventry neighborhood, Presti’s bakery in Little Italy, Melt! in Cleveland Heights or Zoup for soup. The Cleveland Museum of Art is within walking distance and Severance Hall is right there too. glassharmonica’s post reminded me that after we checked out of your hotel and drove over to CIM we parked right in the lot behind CIM. If you are used to big productions, remember that at CIM everything is at much smaller scale than you might expect. Our daughter’s freshman class there was around sixty kids. We were all geared up for everything being hard and it turned out to be easy on audition day compared to a state school or a larger conservatory. Relax, well, as much as can be expected on audition day.
Update as of 1/13/15: The lot that used to be “in back” of CIM- it’s really in front, on Hazel- has been made into apartments by the kind folks at Case, so there is no longer that option. There is a lot down the street on the same side as the school that may be open on audition days, so try that. The construction that had been tying things up for the past 6 years between the park and the school has finally been completed, so that’s no longer a worry- but, for anyone doing an audition soon, be aware that Little Italy may be difficult to navigate. The extreme cold of the past week caused a large water main to rupture and flood the area so things are blocked off and restricted as they try to repair the ancient lines in the area. The latest word is “a couple of weeks” which could mean 2, or 6!
CIM’s audition day is pretty low key though as the place is small and all in one building. Parents can walk over to the Botanical Gardens (admission charge) or the Art Museum (free) if your student’s schedule allows. There may well be a concert in Severance Hall on a Sunday afternoon but do try to walk over and look at the building- there’s a reason why it’s called the most beautiful concert hall in America!
Be sure to take advantage of the coat/case check on the first floor and the parent’s “green room” on the second floor. Little Italy is always hard to navigate so we now eat in the Coventry area, which is not too far away in Cleveland Heights. There is plenty of public parking and lots of nice places to eat.
A unique CIM feature was the free lunch for auditioners and their families…catered by the faculty wives. Very retro, but a pleasant experience. Faculty were there and happy to chat with the students.
Alternate ways to get to the Coventry area- and it’s good to look up there because there is a lot of very reasonably priced student housing there and since CIM provides bus passes, it’s easy to take the bus, walk or bike- from CIM, turn left on Euclid and then take a right turn and drive up through historic Lakeview Cemetery and then a left onto Mayfield Rd and a right turn onto Coventry Rd. Tommy’s on Coventry has a 40 page menu full of everything- burgers to vegan and the best milk shakes anywhere!
CAUTION to all driving in Cleveland Heights (Mayfield Rd, Coventry,etc), the speed limit is 25 MPH and the Heights Police are well aware of audition weekends and watch for out of area license plates (@glassharmonica can back me up on this!) They can and will ticket you for going 30 or for letting your parking meter expire. University Circle cops aren’t any better; my D has had tickets slapped on her car while she was running, in costume, from rehearsal and not even 6 feet away from the meter! The school is great, they provide coat check, lunch (catered by the Women’s Committee which is a very active group of women involved with philanthropic needs of the school) and informative meetings; just be mindful of the parking and driving situation because you don’t need to pay a $50-$300 ticket.
The other different thing about audition day at CIM is that sitting right in middle of the lobby is someone from admissions with an iPad that can look up and answer any questions about your application status or anything else. This was the case all day, and it really brought down the parent stress level. We also appreciated the lack of a “scare the parents” sort of lecture on the realities of music as a profession or the financial state of the school. I guess they figured if you had made it that far, that you might have a handle on finances etc. There probably is a thread somewhere on worst parent seminar given on music school audition day. None of that here.