A few questions about college auditions/schools! (Flute)

notfromme
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:30:30 +0000

I feel the anxiety of college auditions return just reading this thread!! We went through the two years ago with our youngest d. I will just give you a couple of our experiences and thoughts…
About CIM/Case. Yes…wonderful!!! D auditioned and was accepted to CIM…but then was wait listed at Case. (All honors, straight A’s, NHS, top 5% of her class…GPA 4.0 with a percentage CPA of 99%) Yep…waitlisted. SAT’s were good, not fabulous…that is what waitlisted her.
As far as “safety”…is there really such a thing if you have to audition? D applied and auditioned to 7 schools and her acceptances were all over the place! There are schools that have HUGE flute studios…not what my d was looking for. She did not want a conservatory. She wanted a large school. Her choices came from teachers she worked with…and her top two schools were because of the flute professors, then the fact that the studios were limited in size (about 12-14 in the entire studio…undergrad and grad), playing opportunity and size of school. Top choices were U of Texas in Austin and U of Iowa. Both have incredible instuctors…both have limited studios, both had orchestras and bands only for music majors. Also chamber groups, masterclasses weekly. She knew she would be placed in a concert band or orchestra…or both. She is now at Iowa and loves it.
Make sure your prescreening is of the best sound quality! I agree that they are more interested in sound than visual…
We found the audition schedule to be more difficult with our flautist than our older d who is music theater. With older d we traveled to NYC for a weekend and she was able to audition several schools! Younger d had to travel to a lot of the schools on specific days. Make sure you check the schedules closely. Some instrumental audition days do not auditon all instruments on that day! We found several regional auditions did not have flute offered. It could have been the schools we were looking at, but make sure you check.
I see Shenandoah is on your list! Older d just graduated from there, loved it. We felt the flute program was modern, contemporary and good. Younger d wanted to go the classical route.
Best advise I would give is to take lessons with the professors. It not only gives you a feel, but the professor too. Not sure if this is merely a coincidence, but the schools d was accepted to were the ones she had worked with the professors…
I wish you the very best. Just remember…enjoy. You are doing what you love to do and you will end up where you should be.