I'm 29, a soprano with a BA in music and a passion for early music and Baroque opera. Long story short, a series of unfortunate events happened that derailed my pursuit of a graduate degree in early music, and I ended up giving in to the pressure from my family to go back to school for "something practical" instead and became a physiotherapist. Hated it, quit and started an online business, and I'm at the point where I'm financially stable and can afford to think about things beyond basic survival.
As soon as my business became profitable enough that I could quit my day job, I started taking lessons from an early-music specialist who teaches at my first-choice school and studying theory/ear training/diction and French every day, joined the collegium at my undergrad last semester, and applied and was accepted to a Baroque music festival/workshop for this summer. I KNOW the odds are against me - being almost 30, being a soprano, having a massive resume gap - but I still really want to study historical performance/early music at the graduate level.
I know this is primarily a forum for traditional undergrads and their parents but it can't hurt to ask - is there anyone else here who successfully got into grad school after taking 5+ years out of music, or returned to music from another career? Or do you know anyone who has done this? What can I do to make myself more competitive? I would really appreciate any advice, thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc.
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