I'm developing a list of colleges and universities with music majors that offer a focus on rock and pop music vocals. Virtually all voice programs are classical/opera only or might also offer jazz vocals, but this list is specific to schools that have a full rock/pop track (not just a couple classes)...schools like Berklee, Tiffin and USC. Can you suggest others?
↧
Rock Vocals
↧
National Youth Orchestra of the United States (NYO-USA) 2016
Figured I would start out a thread... any fellow musicians applied this year?
↧
↧
University or Conservatory for Jazz ? Rank Best with reasons
Personally, I am looking forward to studying jazz (performance, business and therapy) at a university, but many of my friends may to prefer studying at a conservatory. To me, the best jazz schools in the country are Thornton (USC), Frost ([]_[] Miami), University of North Texas, Berklee School of Music, Julliard, The New School (NYC), Manhattan School of Music The New England Conservatory and, maybe Steinhart (NYU). Since I want to study at a university, I would rank the schools that I am interested in the following order: Miami; USC; NYU and North Texas. What do you guys think? What do you see as the pros and cons of university vs. conservatory? My biggest reason for preferring the uni. setting to a conservatory is that I think that I will get a much more rounded education at a univ., be better able to broaden myself and learn more about the business end of the music industry (as well as have something to fall back on). The biggest con to a uni setting is that it is much tougher to get into a quality school, in that it takes more than just raw musical talent.
↧
Graduate Music Programs
My S is graduating from South Carolina in May and has applied to Yale, CIM, Maryland, UGA, Rice and UT-Austin. So far he's received audition invites to all but UT (believe it was an application issue but they are last on his list anyway) and Yale (waiting to hear back).
I should mention he plays Bass Trombone and is focused on orchestral music. Don't have time to search through all the threads on here, but any comments/advice/input on the aforementioned programs are much appreciated.
↧
Berklee College of Music Performance vs Education
What is a wiser choice majoring in performance or music education?
↧
↧
Freshmen (woodwind) studio assignments at Berklee
My son is seriously considering Berklee for jazz saxophone and getting somewhat conflicting (or "misleading", I can't really tell) information about who his private saxophone teacher may or may not be for freshman year. I'm hoping someone with actual experience may be able to provide some insight into how it **really** works at Berklee for freshmen.
When my son was accepted, he got a "welcome and ask me any questions you have" email from someone in the woodwinds department who indicated that studio placement would happen based on auditions at the beginning of the year. He emailed (or called, I can't remember) that person, asking who potential teachers might be (the Berklee website lists 7 or 8 sax faculty) and got a rather puzzling "I have no clue and I'm not the right person to ask" answer. He then emailed the teacher who he would want and asked whether he was available to freshmen and, if so, whether it would be possible to schedule a lesson/meeting before the May 1st decision date. We live in Michigan, so clearly a significant trip. The teacher emailed back suggesting a lesson on a certain date, certain time, $150 an hour. My son inferred (perhaps wrongly) that this indicated that he would be available as a teacher assuming he accepted my son.
I was just about to buy the expensive last-minute plane ticket but decided to call the dept chair to confirm my son's assumption, in case he should maybe stay a few more days and meet other teachers. Got a completely different story from the dept chair, who directed me to a separate dept website that lists 14 saxophone faculty and told me flat out that there's no chance that the teacher my son wants would be available to a freshman, because the studio selection system has a seniority component that would rule out incoming students from getting a spot in the highly coveted studio.
I guess the obvious route is to "trust the system", and let the chips fall where they may -- and I'm really fine with that. I have this sense of Berklee in that it's mostly a mill, but if you have what it takes to be the big fish in the big pond, then the system will work for you. My son seems to want that challenge. My immediate question, though, is whether there's any value or advantage to be had in him going out there next week for a lesson. My "visits & auditions" budget is tapped out at this point but if there's any chance that it may ultimately influence the studio assignment, I'm willing to do it.
↧
BM Degree, Double Degree or Double Major?
Thanks to some of the forum members, I read the following Peabody article entitled "The Double Degree Dilemma," with a great deal of interest:
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html
After reading this article about 3-4 times, I had a long discussion with my son who's a talented violinist and a Junior in high school and, like so many other kids in a similar situation, who doesn't know exactly what he wants to pursue and which colleges to apply to. I think the "Jennifer" profile in the above article fits him the best. His current options are, in the ranking order of his preference without still having made up his mind firmly yet, is:
1) Pursue BS degree in Pre-Med (his current academic interest) while still continuing with his music interest on the side (school orchestra and other ensembles), or
2) Pursue BM degree in a larger university LAS setting, such as IU (Jacobs), Northwestern (Bienen), Rice (Shepherd), Johns Hopkins (Peabody), etc., or
3) Pursue a double major, or
4) Pursue a double degree, BM with BS in Pre-Med
My son's been a serious violinist/pianist since he was 5 years old, and although his past aspiration had him eyeing for the Harvard/NEC dual degree program, he's now quite opposed to such dual or double degree programs as he's been lately self-discovering how sick and tired he's been having to lead a double life all these years as a musician and also as a serious academic scholar. Thus, the preference ranking order.
My specific questions I have are:
Regarding 2), pursuing BM degree: can my son, should a change of heart come upon him, say a year into his college, change from BM degree program to BS degree? Any complications with such a move (delaying the graduation, etc.)?
Regarding 3), pursuing a Double Major: is it possible to double major in Pre-Med and music performance? If so, what degree do they confer on graduation, BS or BM? Or, as the Peabody article seems to imply, that you can only double major in music performance with something also relates to music, say, music theory, that leads to a degree in BM? Also, can my son start off with a double major and drop one at a later point?
Regarding 4), pursuing a Double Degree: can my son start off with a double degree candidate and drop one off, should he choose to do so at a later point but before the graduation, as the Peabody article seems to suggest in "The Jennifer" profile?
I ask these questions because it's critical that my son has the flexibility to be able to change and adopt as typical high school kids often do not have their minds firmly made up as they enter college. In the case of 4), for instance, the double degree program becomes a highly viable option for my son if he can drop one at a later point -- should he chooses to and if it's allowed -- even though he currently hates the idea of further leading a double life. Likewise, with 3).
Lastly, does applying for colleges as a BM degree, double degree or double major candidate have ANY impact on my son's admittance chances to the above mentioned universities, i.e., Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Rice, IU, etc. My son has a very competitive academic (3.97 UW, 4.58 W in most rigorous IB and AP courses) and EC achievements to have a good chance at admittance to any of these on their own merit, but I'm curious as to how do the admissions play out when it comes to BM candidates at some of the academically high ranked universities.
↧
Struggling with the decision
I see the final decisions thread growing and growing. We, however, are at a standstill over here. Frankly, all college talk has ceased to exist and my D squirms when anybody (which is everybody) brings it up.
Also, extreme senioritis has set in. I mean, she would rather stare at a wall than do her homework. This is completely out of character for her.
We have scheduled a "meeting" for tomorrow and I am forcing her to face her options and narrow in on a decision. I am mentally preparing for this today. Dpes anyone have any advice or words of comfort for me today? I could sure use it.
↧
Yale School of Music 2016
Starting a thread for this year as the only other one I could find had posts from 2009. Open to anything related to the Grafuate School of Music at Yale,
My S (music performance, U of South Carolina) plays bass trombone and will be auditioning in late February for 2016-17 MM program....welcome any thoughts, comments, tips etc
↧
↧
Affording Berklee
I have a student who was accepted to Berklee with no merit award and REALLY wants to be in Boston and be part of the Berklee community. Can anyone tell me if they had any success appealing an award there, or coming up with creative ways to afford their school. For instance, living off campus and taking several Berklee online classes at a third the price, work study, etc.
You can post or pm me.
Thanks.
↧
CCM vs. Indiana/Jacobs
Can anyone speak about CCM's or Indiana's piano program and teachers? I have narrowed my choices down to these two now. As far as cost, CCM is more affordable than Indiana by about 10K. Just not sure if it's worth spending that extra money for studying at Indiana. By the way, I do know that Indiana is a better school.
↧
Are we having fun yet? :)
This forum has been pretty quiet. Does that mean everyone is too busy practicing, too stressed out over auditions, too busy trying to complete financial aid forms, or just too busy shoveling snow?
My son was *miserable* back in November/December when applications were due. I didn't interfere, the result of which was that we were both up until the wee hours of the morning the night before due dates. :/ Even the New School application, which wasn't due until January 15, got done on the 15th...
Of course, he's laughing now because I'm growling about doing my taxes early so that we can get the FAFSA done accurately.
And he's having a blast with the auditions so far. In retrospect, I guess misery over the essays and fun at auditions is much more preferable to the other way around.
↧
Question about music schools and merit aid
As I help my child gather information about various schools, I am trying to understand how merit aid is handled for music students. The language various programs use has me confused. E.g., Juilliard says that its policy for awarding scholarships is "need-based, merit-informed," IU/Jacobs says scholarships are awarded "primarily based on merit," Peabody says "merit-driven, need-informed."
We will not qualify for need-based aid, of that I am certain. My older, non-musician, child applied to various colleges and universities and was offered merit scholarships that were independent of financial need; we never have completed a FAFSA.
I understand that each school has its own way of handling scholarships. My question is, has anyone found that it was useful or necessary to complete the FAFSA for merit scholarships, knowing in advance that there would be no need-based aid?
↧
↧
reality tv competition for composers: April Fools!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2X0d9IDwZE&feature=youtu.be
↧
Published Works
I am not sure if I am using the right words, but I am sure many preparing-to-be music majors have made up their own songs/tunes/compositions while in high school. For example, S has been coming up with some nice bass solos, some multi-track b ass pieces as well, using Garage Band. I have encouraged him to record whenever he is coming up with a song because he did once forget how one of his previous songs went. Given that it is easy enough to record/mix/master music, and given that I think his stuff is getting interesting enough to listen to, I wonder about (1) how do you copyright, publish, or whatever you should do to put your mark on the music to show it is yours and (2) what ways of making the music available make sense - iTunes, other. The purpose is two-fold. One purpose is to practice those things that will need to be known in the future anyway, regardless of college attendance - how do you crank out your music. The second purpose is can this help with college admittance. For example, the UNT bass audition for undergrad page says "OPTIONAL: In addition to the video, you may also submit a supplemental publicly released audio CD or DVD recording in which you play." Any thoughts?
↧
Majoring in music and...
I've been studying the piano for 12 years, and I consider myself a strong musician. I compete frequently, play violin in an orchestra, sing in choir, and actively involve myself in all the music/musical theater programs at my school. I could never give up music in college. But I also don't plan on focusing all my efforts into it either. I do well in school and earn A's in all my classes and AP's (english, calc, spanish) but I don't feel a strong connection towards any specific area of study.
What do you guys recommend I pursue in college? And what universities have exceptional music programs for a pianist? I know I sound pretty wishy-washy with my interests, but I'm stumped! Thank you so much in advance :)
↧
Summer music programs between high school and college?
Any thoughts about summer music programs (i.e. camps, festivals, workshops, etc.) the summer after senior year? Did your kids do them, or are they planning to do one? Son has been to Interlochen the last few summers but, to be honest, I'm thinking he's outgrown it at this point. Not that he wouldn't have fun or learn something from the faculty, but not sure it would be worth the $$.
Or are there programs that are more geared toward incoming freshman, or collegiate musicians in general -- or would he be out of place? He won't be 18 until the fall.
↧
↧
Parental Panic
Am the only one who has thoughts/fears about their kid might not be good enough. This all started today when I met our son and he spoke about how next year when he is at the Global Jazz Institute it is going to be competitive about who gets to travel where. The program is small but not everyone gets to travel to all the best places. Then he told me he did not get in to the two summer festivals he applied to. And suddenly I worry that maybe he is not talented enough. Which is crazy since he is graduating from a top conservatory. His senior recital was great and somebody described it as, "An event" and he seems to be respected by his peers. The thing is I don't have a musical gene in my body and I have no way of telling if maybe our son is just coasting by on his charm and personality. And maybe I am just worrying because that is what I do.....I know this kid is smart and creative and has great social skills. How his career shapes up will probably be about more than just his ability to be a skilled musician. But I am curious if other musical parents have this same fear.
↧
can music students get disability insurance like medical students who get $4000/month
can music students get disability insurance like medical students who get $4000/month for 7 to 10 years?
For an average music major student, he/she would have spent tens of thousands
of dollars by college or graduate school.
Examples:
(1) private lessons between from 1st grade to high school graduation
(2) instruments, plus maintenance/repairs/wear&tear
(3) transportation driving to/from lessons, auditions, competitions, etc
(4) 4 years of music school is easily over $100,000
(5) graduate school, another $60,000?
(even if part or all of the tution is paid for by grants/scholarships, someone
still paid for it)
(6) transportation to/from college for holidays, auditions, etc
(7) thousands of hours spend by the student and parents
I'm no CPA, but that's easily a quarter of million dollars spent. For a dedicated
music student, I suspect he/she doesn't possess any other training/skills for a
decent paying job, in the event of a career-ending disability. (technically, before
the career even begins) Even a minor disability such as the loss of use of a
hand means the end for a musical career.
That's why I started searching for disability insurance for music students.
What I found was shocking to me... There's almost nothing. Even at the top
10 music schools in this country. Sure, there are private plans that's sold
by insurance companies, but at astronomical costs.
By comparison, a medical school student can get cheap($200/year) or even
free disability insurance that pays $4000/month for 7 to 10 years.(or even longer)
Most are sponsored by medical schools and/or associations. Doctors depend on
their hands as much as music students, no?
One prime example is a large university with a famous music school AND a
famous medical school in the Midwest. (not going to name it, because that's
not what this thread is about) Music school students have nothing... while the
medical school students get $2000/month coverage that pays up to 7 years.
The plan is only a couple hundred bucks a year.
If anyone here(students, teachers, parents) have info on this subject, please
post it here...
Thanks in advance.
Interesting read: (substitute the word "medical student" with "music student" and it's still true)
http://www.doctordisability.com/blog/2012/11/why-medical-students-need-disability-insurance/
↧
VP: Trying to make a decision.
My D has narrowed her wonderful acceptances down to 3 schools.
CMU, Oberlin and Rice.
I'm trying to help her make the best informed choice possible. I know there are others here doing the same in the next 2 weeks. I also know that we have some superb VP parents who have been in this same position over the years who have a real long term view and valuable experiences to share.
The merit & FA at the 3 schools is beyond our wildest dreams, so that's not an issue here. It's all about the teachers and the programs now, and possibly the locations.
My feeling today is it's really between Oberlin & Rice as CMU is a BFA program, not a BM.
D knows Oberlin well. Has done a summer intensive there. Has friends there. Loves the teacher. Not sure how rural Ohio will feel after a few months or years. Not sure if it's too comfortable.
D loved Rice audition weekend. The area. The other musicians she met. The teacher has emailed and called her since they first met. She is being told by her current voice teacher ( who is on the faculty at 3 top conservatories) that The Shepherd School VP program is small ( rumour is they took 2-3 sopranos this year) and highly selective ( does that mean better? I do not know?)
Oberlin does not have a VP grad program. Shepherd does. Texas is...well... Texas. I have concerns :-)
What's a girl to do?
I'm grateful for your responses, as always.
↧