Does anyone have experience with this program? DS, current HS junior, is looking into this program for piano. Attended Brevard previous two summers. Interested in hearing any feed back on CMU program.
Just for reference: a six week program for rising high school jrs. and srs.
Summer Pre-College - School of Music - Carnegie Mellon University (cmu.edu)
This is not high school and it is not camp. It is as close to college as a high school student can get. You get to live on campus, take classes with conservatory professors, play, rehearse, perform, and enjoy the freedom of college life in a safe environment.
Thanks for the response. Does your family have experience with the program? We’re looking for feedback from students who attended, especially regarding both the music-specific aspects compared to summer festivals and the more general atmosphere. Especially helpful to hear from anyone who studied piano, as that experience is different from that of orchestral instrument players (much more unstructured time at festivals and possibly at CMU). Was it a fun and collegial experience? DS loved festival experience, but interested in exploring different options for this summer as well.
No personal experience, sorry. But I think it would be a useful experience attending a summer program that resembles the conservatory experience, to clarify college application decisions and goals.
Thank you!
My S22 (voice major) attended between 11th and 12th grades, but it was online. He felt that it was intense but very valuable. CMU was a school he was very sold on and it wound up being a very close 2nd choice for him when it came to decision time.
The online/pandemic version was reduced to 3 weeks if I am remembering correctly, but the exposure to their faculty was something he found really helped him understand how they teach and communicate with students.
I’m sure the in person, longer version is a great program- he certainly would have benefitted from being on the campus and experiencing the program as it was intended, but they did a good job converting it to virtual.
I hope this helps- although I realize it’s a different situation!
Thank you – that’s very helpful!