violadad

singersmom, that's a tough question. Does her heart lie in performance or teaching? What does she see herself doing long term? Does she have the talent, drive, perserverance and temperment to try and make it in an extremely competitive performance field?

We've kind of been there, done that.

My son started as a double major (viola performance/music ed). Performance is his first love, and it appears that he may have what what it takes to succeed and make a living from it. Wife and I steered him to the music ed as a fall back position, and he truly enjoys teaching. Yet as he neared the end of his undergrad schooling, he realized that performance is his first love, and while he will always teach throughout his career, he dropped the ed portion of the program (student teaching and a few credits short of completion) and graduated with "just" a performance degree and a very heavy music ed minor. We did not argue or try and dissuade him. He can always complete his music ed degree (or get a masters) at a latter point in time. His current plan is grad school for performance with a chamber music concentration.

A few points: does this school offer a vocal performance major and how do the studio/ensemble/recital requirements differ for the two degrees? Can she possibly do a double major in performance/ed? A number of schools do have this option. Do you have other professional assessments besides this one professor who feels d has what it takes as a performance major?

I think a call to him and a frank discussion (including specifics) might be the best plan.