thumper1

>>Would be just the kind of luck we need to have a once every 10 year significant snow fall that early.>>

Those who have read my "sagas" here know about this. DS was supposed to have his audition at Peabody on President's day. HOWEVER, it snowed over 30 inches in the DC area that weekend...something that rarely happens there at all. Auditions were postponed until Wednesday of that week...the faculty was stranded all over the country, no one could easily drive in or out of Baltimore, and the parking situation with all that snow was impossible. I'll tell you, I could hardly wait to get back to CT!!

Re: the AP Theory course...not a waste of time to take the course. It is a very sound basis for theory, and that is a good thing.

BassDad

Daughter did indeed do Early Review at Oberlin, although I do not remember whether they assigned the audition time or we requested it.

As far as AP Music Theory goes for music majors, the course is indeed worthwhile, but taking the AP Test in high school is pretty much a waste of time. It will not count for credit and you still have to take the school's tests for placement.

lorelei2702

Re timing and CIM: you will not know until you get there what time the audition is. There two different theory tests, one written skills, the other aural skills, and the time slots for each occur several times (this is my recollection from two years ago). Most auditionees prefer to do the auditon before the theory tests. So while it may seem like a half day project, it may not be. I seem to recall them discouraging auditionees from planning to catch any afternoon flights out of Cleveland. Things do change, and there is a new administration there, so be sure to ask them how things are now. Good luck.

BassDad

Now that I think about it, I believe we were told the audition time after we arrived at Oberlin as well. It would be best to contact them as well if you are planning a late afternoon/early evening flight.

edad

Every major audition took a full day usually starting about 9 am. This often meant a day for advance travel and sometimes the following day for return travel. She did 4 major travel auditions for 8 lost school days. She also did 2 regional auditions, but each cost a school day. She did 2 auditions at local safety schools and had a callback for a total of 3 more days. That totals 13 school days between early January and early March. In addition she had taken 3-4 days for school tours and lessons in the Fall. Make sure to contact teachers and the high school administration in advance. My D had almost no difficulty with assignments and makeup tests. Actually she had the most problem with her Saturday, pre-college conservatory program. The orchestra conductor allowed only 1 cut. She missed 2 sessions, had to pay for a substitute and was almost barred from "graduation." It didn't make any sense to me since almost all of the students had auditions.

BassDad

Yeah, some directors think that they own you. My daughter almost got thrown out of her Jazz Ensemble in high school because she missed a mandatory rehearsal of that group to perform with her Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She had told the director of the Jazz Ensemble weeks ahead of time that she was unavailable that night, and there was no problem until about a week before the event when the director suddenly realized she would be without a bass player for her rehearsal. Fortunately, one of the other music teachers at the high school volunteered his own time to replace her at the rehearsal and smoothed things over.

mom4

My son got a D on his orchestra "final" exam at school because I took him to visit a conservatory (purchased plane tickets and set up a lesson with the teacher 6 weeks in advance--wasn't going to change that!) and he missed a concert on a TUESDAY night that he only was made aware of two weeks before.

violadad

Following the tone of the last three replies, my son had one bad experience as a college sophomore where his physical presence was required for two different performances at the same time at different venues for two different instructors. One was a mandatory choir performance for a required core course, the second a small ensemble instrumental performance. The time change was a revision, on the part of the choral instructor and made three days prior. His absence would have a greater effect on the instrumental piece because of the small number of players.

He talked to the choral instructor, who would not excuse him. In fact, the instructor was abusive, condescending, and totally unprofessional when my son approached him to explain the conflict Based on the advice of his advisor and his status as an instrumental major, he chose the ensemble.

It took the intervention of the Instrumental chair to make the choral instructor accept his absence and only after my son disputed his zero grade for the performance.

Another schedule conflict occurred when the orchestral director scheduled a last minute promotional run out recording and rehearsal the same weekend as the American String Teachers annual conference.

Both scenarios could easily have been avoided with communication and planning.

lorelei2702

S had an orchestra conductor at a prominent arts high school who wanted him to pay $700 to a professional sub for a pit orchestra, under threat of flunking him, when he had an audition scheduled. THere was another high school player on the sub list, but the conductor would not accept that player. It took intervention to the highest level of the school. Our stand was they could flunk him or they could excuse him or they could drop him from the course, but they could not make him pay (extortion) to pass the course (grade fraud). We would have liked to have been the fly on the wall when they ran that one by the school attorney. [To be fair, there was a conflict concerning the date by which he was supposed to tell them he needed to be gone, but he had not known he could do the audition until after that date, so it was impossible to meet the deadline.....to have told them he needed to be excused, someone else required to play in the pit, and then stayed home would have been disingenuous at best.] ]

wilderness

There were often rehearsal/performance conflicts for my S who was in multiple school ensembles in a school with a very strong, nationally recognized music program as well and the NEC Prep Jazz Program, the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Senior Orchestra, districts, all-states, and other National competitions, master classes, etc.

These conflicts required negotiation and much advance notice, but for the most part, faculty and conductors/music directors in all programs were very supportive and flexible. They each seemed to value the opportunities he was being given by the others and wanted to make sure he could take advantage of those opportunities.

S did miss quite a bit of school and rehearsal time for college auditions especially given that he auditioned for both performance and jazz studies at each of the conservatories to which he applied(bar one). For some schools, this required separate applications and/or separate application fees. S was seen as a separate student/applicant for each program and the decisions were completely independent of one another. He was accepted into both programs at 3 conservatories, one program at one, and rejected by both at a fifth. With 5 institutions in total, he took 9 auditions. Like BassDad's D, my S had several other conservatories/music schools on his list which were dropped following a December acceptance to one of his top conservatory choices, leaving only his very top choices for the remaining auditions.

Each institution had their own process and expectations for applicants on audition day. We were carefull to fully investigate the requirements of each and plan accordingly, making sure that we accounted for potential bad weather, since each indicated that there would be no cancellations even in the event of a snow storm. If that necessitated additional missed school/rehearsals, we did so and again, found folks to be quite supportive. S was, however, always expected to produce academic work on time and be reponsible for missed work. Like others, we anticipated this and reduced his academic course load (he only took 1 non-music AP/honors class senior year) to reduce the risk.

Singersmom07

We found all of DD's academic teachers to be very understanding and cooperative with all she missed for auditions. They were almost universally thrilled and excited for her. She did have to make up work. Her chorus director on the other hand resented the missed rehearsals and the fact that she did not audition for district chorus and all states due to conflicts with auditions. Even though she did do the state honors choir those others were the notches for her among her peers and DD missing meant she had fewer in the highest levels. Took it out on DD all year.

edad

It seems that my D's experience was not all that unusual. The academic teachers were understanding. I would expect the music teachers and orchestra leaders to be even more supportive, but it appears that is often not the case.

momnipotent

Orchestrastumble- what insturment are you playing?