pianomom

Great question and name momnipotent! I wonder if someone could add some of those last posts to the audition tips thread? The advice given here is excellent and will be helpful to those starting and in the midst of the process. I have been gleaning information for a couple years and still feel I have very little to add compared to the veterans.

S1 is a piano performance/English double degree at Oberlin. He transferred after two years at Lawrence. (We are very familiar with the transfer route as he tried two times.) He also sings and played sax in high school.
S2, a junior in HS, wants to continue to play and study trumpet in college, studies classical piano, and the choir director he's worked for told me he's a wicked gospel pianist.(Something I've never heard him do because I serve at a different church.) He'd like to find an LAC with strong neuroscience that has strong enough music to offer groups to play in, but not so good that they don't need a solid trumpet player. (He's made our state honors band a few times) He also wants to play Div. III tennis.

My husband played trumpet in one of the infamous university marching bands and in the jazz ensemble where we met. He owns an un-music related business. I play and teach sax and piano, have a BM in applied jazz studies and am a church music director. I went back to school to pick up additional courses in church music, education, and piano pedagogy after I realized that there is not a big demand for jazz teachers in our small town. I owe our childrens' love of music to the fact that they grew up in a private studio, spent a week each summer singing in a children's choir at St. Olaf, and started piano lessons before they signed up for soccer and tennis. They also had a really cool babysitter who played jazz piano and composed for them when they were in elementary school.