Will anyone be at Blair (Vandy) this weekend for the ED audition day? My son is a voice applicant and it will be his first audition.
Wow! Hats off to you and your kid. I think you deserve some sort of parent prize. (Not that this is a competition)
Have fun with the whirlwind of travel planning!
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I think I need to add college advisor to my resume at this point 
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And travel agent.
100% that too!
Honestly that is something I would have paid for, in hindsight. My son was working with someone more generally, but they had little to offer once he decided to apply as a performance major. There is so much we are all learning along the way.
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Hi everyone, my violinist daughter has sent in 5 applications. Glad to have some company here.
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Hi all! Sitting on a plane over the Atlantic on way back from London. Kiddo sent all seven of his US school applications in last Tuesday knowing we were flying to uk on Wednesday so forced himself to be done a week before deadlines so he could focus on his playing at uk schools. Landed in London Thanksgiving morning (with no issues with cello on board in its own seat thankfully). He auditioned at Royal College of Music on Friday and after first panel round was immediately advanced to a second panel for even more playing and interview. He felt good about it and saw a couple kids that played before him released after first panel so no matter what the result he feels it was a win since he advanced. Monday was Royal Academy of Music and he also advanced to second round which is more a music theory interview after you pass the playing round. Tuesday was Guildhall and he was told there are no second rounds just one long first round and he played for over 12 minutes of music and then the interview. All three schools he was given an accompanist about 10 minutes before going in front of panel to quick check tempos and then perform (and at RCM it was a different pianist for each round). He was told all three schools would email results before Christmas but this morning midair he got an email from Guildhall accepting him. (Hooray!) He should hear from the other two before he hears from all the US prescreens. Also - I am a member of the “I made a calendar with audition days as they posted back in September club”; NEC and Oberlin he had to rank his preferred audition dates on the application so it mattered to have it all mapped out. Kicking off all these auditions with the London schools was daunting but so glad he did it; starting with a “win” definitely boosted his confidence before facing the gauntlet of US schools in February and March. And now we all wait on prescreen results together!
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I’m not on here much anymore, but my Blair senior is applying to grad schools right now, so I thought I’d jump in/follow along….though of course I’m not nearly so involved with the grad school thing as I was 4 years ago when he was applying for undergrad. He’s a clarinet performance major, and last I checked he’s got 5 schools on his list (all the apps should be in except for a last minute addition that he got an extension for). I think he has a nice, targeted list—he’s mostly interested in places where he could really focus on bass clarinet and/or chamber music. So that guided the list, along with locations of profs he’s worked with before or is particularly interested in working with for whatever reason. I’m nervous about money (because we really can’t help much at all) and kind of wish he’d tossed in a couple of places with full funding, but he felt like all of those were either huge long shots or didn’t really align with his interests. So we’ll see! He just flew to NYC for a sample lesson and to buy a bass clarinet a few weeks ago (he’s been using Blair’s…he just had a student Yamaha from high school), so it’s seeming very real.
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Good luck…I feel the same….starting this up again next year for grad school and it feels like mine just started undergrad! Time is a thief!
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So, our list is small, but I did put the potential live audition dates the moment I found them out-some of them before applications opened. So no Canva, but everything is in google calendar. I don’t know why I didn’t think to book hotels, so good looking out! I can’t remember if there are any other vocalists in here…but, did anyone’s child enter NATS (national association of teachers of singing) student auditions? It’s the first thing we’ll here from this month, to see if she’s a semifinalist for our region. She entered in the musical theatre category. We’ll hear back on Monday.
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Any feedback (or advice) on Blair? We haven’t visited yet but did apply… hopefully we’ll check it out when we’re in town for auditions. (String player here, but just looking on overall experience, atmosphere, etc.)
He’s had a great experience! The music school is tiny and undergrad only, so he knows everyone, and it seems to be a really supportive, collaborative environment. Double majoring is SUPER common, but he’s just a performance major, so he spends almost all his time at Blair. Blair is much more generous about giving credit for AP/DE than the rest of Vandy, so he came in with all his core stuff covered, and the only classes he’s taken outside of Blair are for his art history minor (he definitely sees this as a positive, but YMMV). Negatives that I can see are less-than-fancy facilities; the music building feels pretty dated, particularly given how much money Vandy has. And he doesn’t really complain about it, but Blair is pretty far away from the main part of campus, with no real dining hall, so he eats a lot of meals at the tiny little cafe (there is a dining hall for athletes right next door that music kids aren’t allowed to use).
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Will you be in town this weekend for ED audition day?
Nope. RD auditions in Feb.
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Note to the calendar watchers: MSM finally updated their site today with instrument specific audition dates.
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thank you! I’ve been stalking that page for months!
Ha! Same! It was the only one still missing for our house. I had an open tab on my laptop and I would pop bye it and refresh way too often; more out of disbelief that it had taken them so long at this point. When it refreshed with dates this afternoon I did a double take as I was so used to seeing “TBD”.
haha me too I just stopped checking after constantly getting TBD over and over. I had a hotel already booked but now needed to adjust it.
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When I open the family calendar and see “listen to prescreens” blocked out every night from Dec 2 - Dec 12 from 10pm-midnight it hits different this year knowing our kid’s recordings are in someone’s to do calendar list too. (Different instrument than dad.)
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